Welding Tips and Tricks

I know that inconel isn't a very cheap metal to just go out and grab to do a video, but if you came across any scrap it would be very helpful to see how you work with it.

My case is that I work in a shop that runs furnaces and coats jet engine parts and a lot of the stuff I weld on is contaminated from being infused with other metals or powders. I have to repari powder pans that are made out of inco600, but are infused with aluminum and have powder in them as well. I'd like to see your take on welding metals with this kind of contamination.

Most of the metal I work with is inco 600 and RA330. all of it gets heated in cooled up to 2000º F

d.smith,
I know that the Inconel can suffer from liquid metal embrittlement and would guess that the RA330 would also. Here's a link to the welding recomendations for the RA330. http://www.rolledalloys.com/dotAsset/89 ... a65e14.pdf Near the end it gives repair weld recomendations.

It might be helpful if we knew what procedure you're using to make the repairs, as in GTAW, SMAW or GMAW.

Len

@Otto Nobedder,
Maybe we can find somewhere this will get more exposure. Thanks.

Braehill wrote: @Otto Nobedder,
Maybe we can find somewhere this will get more exposure. Thanks.

I'll be happy to, once I know the process involved.

Steve S

Thanks

Len


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mostly make repairs using GTAW, I have a miller syncrowave 250 and a miller passport plus, so I have access to all processes.

d.smith wrote:I mostly make repairs using GTAW, I have a miller syncrowave 250 and a miller passport plus, so I have access to all processes.

d.smith,
You should receive better help with your question in this section.
-Jonathan

If possible, maybe you could send Jody a piece of that contaminated inconel and he might be able to make a video on it. Try the contact us part of the page.

Will do, I will have to see if I can get a decent enough sized piece from one of the pans thats beyond repair and we can get rid of. I will also try to get some pictures so you guys can see the kind of stuff that I'm working with.

These are the pans that I have to weld.





This is what it looks like ground down, barley gets to bare metal, which seems to hardly make a difference anyways.



And this is pretty much what the beads look like at best...




So far the only way I have been able to run beads is in very short runs. Go maybe a half and inch and let it cool down, rinse and repeat. I have found the only way that I can fill these gaps is to bridge the weld, the metal is so thin and is spits stuff everywhere while trying to get a pool going. It also ruins tungsten pretty quickly. ( we have had contractors try welding these and they just end up leaving because its ruining all their tungsten lol) This crap has aluminum fused into it from being heated up to 2000 degrees with powder and engine parts in them, they crack due to heat and when my employer sends them out to get pressed back into shape from warping. So these pans will never go away. I would really like to find an efficient way to weld these.

d.smith wrote:These are the pans that I have to weld.


This is what it looks like ground down, barley gets to bare metal, which seems to hardly make a difference anyways.


And this is pretty much what the beads look like at best...


So far the only way I have been able to run beads is in very short runs. Go maybe a half and inch and let it cool down, rinse and repeat. I have found the only way that I can fill these gaps is to bridge the weld, the metal is so thin and is spits stuff everywhere while trying to get a pool going. It also ruins tungsten pretty quickly. ( we have had contractors try welding these and they just end up leaving because its ruining all their tungsten lol) This crap has aluminum fused into it from being heated up to 2000 degrees with powder and engine parts in them, they crack due to heat and when my employer sends them out to get pressed back into shape from warping. So these pans will never go away. I would really like to find an efficient way to weld these.

Lucky you! I know what you're up against, do you back purge these? I would think you'd have to, especially being inconel

sadly this isn't any sort of legit fabrication shop. they wont spend the money or want to waste the time doing anything extra to weld these so I'm just looking to tips and options, I don't back purge them and I barely have the space to bring them inside the weld booth.

I also work in a jet engine plant and I have to deal with some of the same stuff. I repair some of the furnace racks that we use to coat turbine compressor parts. We have some of the same CODEP processes that use powder. Most of our powder process uses mild steel trays and we just scrap them and replace with new ones after so many runs. I have had to weld the Inconel furnace racks a few times and I haven't been able to grind the surface enough to get to good metal when welding them. The coating penetrates the material so far that it's hard to get through it. Grinding wheels load up and won't cut the metal, so I just weld over it and hope for the best. It doesn't look pretty, but it's holding up pretty well. I've used Inconel 625 and 718 wire, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Would getting rid of the Aluminum help any? Could try a soak in oven cleaner.

big gear head wrote:I also work in a jet engine plant and I have to deal with some of the same stuff. I repair some of the furnace racks that we use to coat turbine compressor parts. We have some of the same CODEP processes that use powder. Most of our powder process uses mild steel trays and we just scrap them and replace with new ones after so many runs. I have had to weld the Inconel furnace racks a few times and I haven't been able to grind the surface enough to get to good metal when welding them. The coating penetrates the material so far that it's hard to get through it. Grinding wheels load up and won't cut the metal, so I just weld over it and hope for the best. It doesn't look pretty, but it's holding up pretty well. I've used Inconel 625 and 718 wire, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

sounds like we're in the same business haha. my shop does coatings and stuff for jet engines for pratt & whitney, so we're probably dealing with all the same powders/materials.