Why is narrow-gap welding sustainable?

Pipeline construction, shipbuilding, tank construction – where thick sheets are welded together, the welding equipment is put to the test. Several layers of filler metal have to be applied on top of each other and the extreme heat development puts additional strain on the welding equipment. Those who can use narrow-gap welding for this purpose really do act sustainably.

This is explained by the smaller opening angle of the joint to be welded.

The smaller the opening angle …

The opening angle when welding two sheets is normally between 30 and 45 degrees. With narrow-gap welding, the opening angle is reduced to 10 to 15 degrees. This is precisely what saves resources: the smaller the opening angle, the less layers have to be applied. With a standard opening angle of 30-45 degrees, approx. 30 to 40 layers are needed. With narrow-gap welding, on the other hand, the same work can be done with 10 to 15 layers. This not only saves filler material – i. e. welding wire - but also the energy required for welding and the shielding gas.

Preserving resources with narrow-gap welding

Narrow-gap welding is in fact a sustainable welding process. To summarise, narrow-gap welding requires less of the following resources:

• filler material
• energy
• shielding gas

Required: suitable wear parts

The narrower the gap to be welded, the more difficult the accessibility. For this reason, there are special slim gas nozzles and contact tips for narrow-gap welding.

Narrow-gap contact tips

Coated contact tips, also called narrow-gap contact tips, ensure safe welding processes, especially in pipeline construction. Due to their special shape, which looks like a sword or a pin depending on the design, they reach deep into the gap to be welded. Their coating prevents short circuits in case of accidental contact with the workpiece wall and thus unintentional arcs or copper inclusions in the weld seam.

Narrow-gap gas nozzles

There are different gas nozzle shapes for welding in narrow welding gaps: very conical gas nozzles, bottle-shaped gas nozzles and special narrow-gap gas nozzles. The latter are used when gaps are very narrow and other gas nozzle shapes cannot get in. They ensure that the shielding gas also covers the weld optimally at the root.

Bottom line: With the right wear parts for narrow-gap welding, process reliability is increased. In this way, reworking is also considerably reduced. Thus, narrow-gap welding with the right equipment is sustainable in several respects.

If you want to have more information about sustainability in narrow gap welding, please also have a look at this video:

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