Orbital Tube Welder

[bosco]

Have any of ya'll ever used one of these welders for welding stainless steel tubing..? The reason I ask is that I have a situation at work where I need to run 2 hydraulic tubing runs about 1000 ft. It has been stated that fittings are not acceptable to join the tubing sticks together, because of a leak potential. Both runs are 316L SS tubing. One run is 1/4" OD and the other is 1/2" OD, both have a 0.049 wall thickness. Just curious if anyone has experience with an orbital welder and your thoughts on it.

Thanks....

[JimmieD]

I don't have hands on with the exact machine you describe, but have used fixture type automated welding equipment. The main problem is that with all types of friction/resistance welding I know of it is a fixture process, not portable in any way.

Obviously extreme precision in alignment is necessary, at least to .001's [thousandths, don't know if I wrote it right]. Therefore you're faced with a problem of how to get the 1,000' run to the machine? It's not flexible enough to play with much, so unless the fusion machine is moved along the run it can't be welded this way.

Seems that overall a good TIG setup would be best, with a good portable alignment jig fabbed up to insure accuracy. With TIG your filler metal can easily make up for minor mis-alignment.

[bosco]

Thanks for the feedback JimmieD. The unit I'm refering to is actually portable. I found one manufactured by Swagelok and it appears to be inline with what I'm needing. See link below for more info (click on the green arrow at the end of article for addition info). I just need to talk to one of their reps and see just what this puppy can do for our application.

Thanks again...

http://www.swagelok.com/markets/orbi...ing_system.htm

[JimmieD]

I gave inaccurate information in my former post. I've since been looking into another tube welding project and the industry standard in stainless is a high-silver alloy brazing. It is stronger that the parent metals, simple, quick, efficient, and far more return on any captial investment. It is spec on many installations requiring extreme tolerances and strength and is commonly specified in government related contracting, nuclear plants, and many other projects requiring the utmost in precision tolerances and durability. All you need is ultra-clean joints, flux, a good torch and acetylene set and high quality silver solder.

Generally 2 different types of flow characteristics in the alloy braze, one to .001" tolerance fitup and one to .003-.005 tolerance fitup, both demonstrating extremely good welds in all respects.

I got a bunch of links on this, if you want e-mail me and I can load you up. A brand new top quality acetylene set and all materials is under $1,000, no special skills or training required.