Welding Tips and Tricks

Check out this new Aussie developed TIG system.
http://innovativewelding.com.au/

Anyone seen or heard of it yet?
Comments?

There's going to be an operational system demo at the National Manufacturing Exhibition in the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre 26-29 May.

I hereby delegate Weldin Mike to go and be our eyes and ears.

Further reading reveals this system is released to the market for 1G and 2G operations. 5G still under development.

Cant wait to see it demonstrated. Sounds too good to be true but apparently its not. Dang...I just got a new tig machine and this comes out

@track ranger would be a better informant.

Wow! That's amazing! Wonder how much those bad boys are going to sell for? You know the ole saying if you have to ask... hahaha

pgk wrote:Wow! That's amazing! Wonder how much those bad boys are going to sell for? You know the ole saying if you have to ask... hahaha

Ill bet its going to be big dollars but it looks to be geared towards industry more than shop use. I sure am curious about how to weld without filler material.

Trackranger, what do you reckon? Could you make it to the show?

I'm 2+ hours away and might be taking the 31st off work, for a trip to Melbourne, so don't think I can swing more time, and another trip. I'll put it out to my people though.

That's cool. We'll see if trackranger can make it to the show.
Anyone else in Melbourne interested in having a look and reporting back?

I'll post it on the awesome boileys page and see if anyone is interested.

Coldman wrote:Trackranger, what do you reckon? Could you make it to the show?

Hi Coldman, am traveling overseas at present, but back in Melbourne soon. I'll definitely try to make it to the show and see if we can find out how good this little baby is. I presume they'll have demo's of the unit.
Let me start some investigations from this end. I'll be in touch.
Cheers
Trevor

Good on you mate.

Yes that would be my guess too, probably priced up in Liburdi territory! Single pass on 10mm 304 with no filler! Damn!!

exnailpounder wrote:

pgk wrote:Wow! That's amazing! Wonder how much those bad boys are going to sell for? You know the ole saying if you have to ask... hahaha

Ill bet its going to be big dollars but it looks to be geared towards industry more than shop use. I sure am curious about how to weld without filler material.

I posted a topic of this K-Tig about a year ago. It was kind of new thing back then I guess. Now they seem to have a lot more stuff on their website, which is good of course.

About the process. To me it's very similar to plasma welding machines. They talk about special torch desing, which tells that it will create enourmes arc pressure and very focused arc energy, I believe.
That close up video of metal flowing in the puddle tell all about it. Very nice indeed!
However just like plasma this machine is propably very dependent of the welding position. Mainly 1G and 2G... With filler this machine could replace plasma and SAW. Compared to SAW there wont be need for flux etc. So saving etc. In the other SAW dont use argon at all...

Are people going to exhibition to see this machine? Did I understood right? If so please ask about the difference between PAW and K- Tig.

Hi Markus
I'm definitely going to attempt to get to the exhibition. I'll make sure to find out as much as possible
Best
Trev

Trev,
I just found out the live demo will be on day 3.

Coldman wrote:Trev,
I just found out the live demo will be on day 3.

Great!

I've registered for the exhibition for the 3rd day (28th May). It's on over a 4 day period.

Trev

Update: Booked in, packed and heading off first thing tomorrow to check this out. Will give feedback ASAP

Trev

Awesome

I personally like the TOP-TIG system from Air Liquide. As in, I like the principles on how it operates, not that I have one, LOL.

OK, I'm back
Show was a great success, lots to see and take in.
I made sure I was there for the demo, and talked at some length to Alistair and Adam who were running the K-TIG stand.

K-TIG is an Australian invention developed with the assistance of CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific Research and Industrial Organisation) which is Australia's National Science Agency

The had their demo set up with Schedule 40, 10" Stainless Steel Pipe. The machine can do a square-butt joint in pipe without filler, but in the actual demonstration presented, they just performed a weld bead around the circumference of a standard piece of pipe, so it wasn't actually two pipes welded together. Can do up to 12mm wall thickness in a single pass

The weld they performed was also a full penetration in a single pass.
They claimed that normally a joint like this would take several hours - Vee preparation, root pass, multiple other passes and a cap pass, with cooling and cleaning in between.

The weld they performed -full penetration - was completed in 2 minutes, 40 seconds. Guaranteed no inclusions. Not bad.

The weld pool was so smooth with a mirror surface that you could see the electrode reflection in it quite clearly!

They advise that the weld will pass all of the standard tests both Australian and International.

They were running at 405 Amps, but the heat input was about the same as normal because they are running so much faster. Heat input was advised as 1.33 Kilojoules / mm

The Power Unit was capable of up to 1000 Amps, continuous duty cycle!

Here's some photos:

Thanks so much for attending on our behalf Trev! It looks amazing.
Some questions please -
Did they say how much the beasty is?
Any information supplied about how much current is required to run the power source and how the 5G development is going?
Cheers,
Vic.

Hi Vic

Didn't ask price, but I'll try to find out. (The reason I didn't ask, is because I knew it might be a couple of bucks more than I had in my pocket )

I got the impression that it would be very suited to petrochemical, gas and nuclear industries as an example. The single pass with no inclusions has to be a massive bonus in this area.

I'll also ask about the power source input requirements but I imagine it'd probably blow a 15 amp fuse (ha ha)

They seem to only be focusing on 1G at present although they mentioned that they can adjust torch angle to 'lead' the weld.

There was brief discussion about 5G but they indicated that this had some challenges that they had not yet resolved. They did say that they were still working in this area. It certainly wasn't dismissed.

I'll try and get some more info to you guys anyway.

best

Trev

Hi Team

Here's a couple of videos that show the process in action:

KTIG Introduction

304 Schedule 40 weld

(Moderator, please move/remove if this is not suitable for this forum.)

Interesting videos! I had not seen them. On behalf of us all I thankyou for your effort in attending the show and reporting back to us.

I have some more info myself:

Power input:
the power source is a 1000A 100% duty cycle rated unit to ensure robust longevity. They don't use the 1000A. Typical welds are between 400amps and 500amps. They connect to 32A 3-phase 415V 50Hz input power (Aussie standard 3-phase) and have never tripped the breaker.

Carbon Steel:
Works well in single pass butts, no prep. Filler not necessarily required but can be used if extra reinforcement on the cap is required. Sulphur affects surface tension of the weld pool so if triple recycled steel/pipe from you-know-where is used, you will likely have to adjust settings to compensate or suffer blow through.
The unit does come standard with a wire feeder independent of the torch with adjustable feed speed and automatic control of feed start/stop.

Aluminium: nope.
Copper: nope.

Good for all carbon, alloy, stainless steels and titanium.

Standard features:
1000A power source
Water cooled torch
water cooler
wire feeder

Availability: now ex-stock. There are units out there in production right now.

5G development update:
The torch welds upside down and in the 2G position already.
Ongoing development is in controlling/changing parameters as the position changes around the pipe/vessel. So it is definitely coming, just question of time. Major focus right now but may take a year or so. 5G will be downhill.

Price: if you keep the thing running 2 shifts/day in production, it pays for itself in three months. Do you really want to know more?
I reckon once 5G capable, it will replace current techniques (bugs, stick, mig, flux etc) out on the cross country pipeline projects around the world. But it ain't ever replacing my 200DX for positional welding and up a scaffold.

Home garages, jobing shops, part time use, maintenance or repair type use - this system is not for you.