Welding Procedure/Tips 253MA Stainless

[weeds]

This is high end stainless.....just wondering if anybody has welded this stuff.

Given the price and availability Ive gone out to market for pricing on a welding procedure....but my knowledge is low so looking for advice/tips so I can talk the talk.

$7k for one 6mm sheet
$11k for one 10mm sheet

[Don 130]

From Sandvik: Sandvik 253 MA — Sandvik Materials Technology (https://www.materials.sandvik/en/materials-center/material-datasheets/tube-and-pipe-seamless/sandvik-253-ma/)

'Welding

The weldability of Sandvik 253MA is good. Suitable welding methods are manual metal-arc welding with covered electrodes and gas shielded arc welding with the TIG and MIG methods as first choice. Preheating and post-weld heat treatment are not normally necessary.

Since the material has low thermal conductivity and high thermal expansion, welding should be carried out with a low heat input and with welding plans well thought out in advance, so that deformation of the welded joint can be kept under control. If, despite these precautions, it is foreseen that the residual stresses might impair the function of the weldment, we recommend that the entire structure is stress relieved.

As filler metal for gas shielded arc welding we recommend Sandvik 22.12.HT wire electrodes and rods. When using gas metal-arc welding (MIG/MAG), pulsed arc and an inert shielding gas like pure argon or an argon helium mix is suggested. In manual metal-arc welding, Sandvik 22.12.HTR covered electrodes are recommended. The composition of these filler metals is designed to yield a weld metal with creep strength and oxidation resistance corresponding to those of the parent metal.

Data concerning the creep strength of weld metal and welds is available on request.'


Will there be enough off cuts for you to do some practice welds? The procedure set out above suggests you shouldn't have too much trouble if you've got a reasonable level of welding competence and you prepare the joints adequately.
Don.

[DAMINK]

Well i learned something new today.
Never heard of 253ma before. Apparently you can buy tig rods to suit.
Not the cheapest material around is it!!
TIG WIRE 253MA STAINLESS STEEL 1.6MM (https://www.weldingsupply.com.au/product/3778-tig-filler-wire-253ma-stainless-steel-1-6mm#.W7-ec3szaHs) is a link i found on google. No importance beyond the fact they do sell that particular rod.
Will ask the old man today if he calls (old boil maker) and see whats up.

[weeds]

Thanks Don.....

Late yesterday arvo I found out Sandvik was a big player and a quick reach took me to Vulcan which seem to be Sandvik supplier but didn’t have time to search for welding procedure.

Re: off cuts, we may have some 6mm but will have no 10mm.....the 6mm is 90%of the welding. 5.3m of fillet weld on the longest assembly all up 70-80m of welding m. My drafty is also playing around with soildworks to get to drawing correct for the cut pattern as the sheets need to be bent into a tight U shape. The end/folding company have suggested we supply in extra as a test run so they can set the folder/press. We may have to send the weld to be tested.

My two boiler makers are good but they have never welded stainless or alloys. They mentioned yesterday that they would probably be using pure Argon and will need to limit heat input and that a pulse mig would be handy which aligns to the text above.

One thing I did learn yesterday was we should work out the life of the material in it operating environment so we can predict change out......although the root cause wasn’t the root cause of the failure but im now thinking the assemblies might have been at end of life which has made the failure look worse.

Cheers

[DAMINK]

My two boiler makers are good but they have never welded stainless or alloys.

Damn!!! Im a shed hack and i have welded stainless and many other metals. Although my old man is a boiler maker and he never welded aluminium......

Stainless is great to weld if its clean. The heat colors are beautiful.

In my reading its either pure argon as per norm or a mix of helium, i imagine to get the heat up a bit more.

[paulthepilot_5]

Never done any stick or mig on stainless but a fair bit of TIG. Might be worth getting some off cuts of 6mm and 10mm 316 for you boys to practice on. Definitely want to get the heat input correct with stainless. It will also expand and contract more than mild during welding, something to keep in mind when setting up the welds. At least the 316 would be a bit cheaper and readily available to practice.
cheers
Paul

[weeds]

Stainless is great to weld if its clean. The heat colors are beautiful.

.

Apparently the end result doesn’t look overly attractive.

[weeds]

Never done any stick or mig on stainless but a fair bit of TIG. Might be worth getting some off cuts of 6mm and 10mm 316 for you boys to practice on. Definitely want to get the heat input correct with stainless. It will also expand and contract more than mild during welding, something to keep in mind when setting up the welds. At least the 316 would be a bit cheaper and readily available to practice.
cheers
Paul

Different league I’m starting to find out......

[weeds]

We are going down the full weld procedure which will include three welding procedures, and the boilies qualified on the procedure.

Quite impressive what’s involved, like how they work out the kilojoules/mm plus the boys get some professional development which includes coaching.

Quite looking forward to overseeing the whole process.

[Don 130]

Good luck with it. I hope you haven't chewed your fingernails down too much over it. Are you able to show us pictures of the project and the progress of it?
It sounds like an interesting job.
Don.

[Homestar]

Agreed - sounds like a real interesting project - if you're able, would love to know more details/pics, etc but I get it if not. [smilebigeye]

[weeds]

would love to share....just gotta be careful


Good luck with it. I hope you haven't chewed your fingernails down too much over it. Are you able to show us pictures of the project and the progress of it?
It sounds like an interesting job.
Don.

[weeds]

Good luck with it. I hope you haven't chewed your fingernails down too much over it. Are you able to show us pictures of the project and the progress of it?
It sounds like an interesting job.
Don.

Don, attached a 3D PDF....if you have the latest adobe yo should be able to zoom in. the top piece isn't quite right in this version.

81m of welding for the boys.......currently shopping around for wire given the cost of it

test material has arrived.....just waiting for it to be folded, D Day is booked for 5th Dec.

146159

[weeds]

5th Dec didn’t go that well.....between scheduled work, breakdown, XMAS we had to reschedule for today....

Needed to hire a Pulse MIG.....

No standard settings on the MIG for 253.....after a bit of a fiddle I.e. dialing in 13mm plate thickness for the 6mm we had to weld the welds started to flow.

Had some fancy equipment hooked up along with a couple of stop watches the procedure was finalized.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190109/e5b5847cd4343bbbaf60a06a0c2723f3.jpg

Test pieces are now at the lab....hopefully have the results early next week. To the naked eye they looked the goods.

One issue is how bright it was during welding, 13 shade doesn’t get dark enough. Just so happened the Speedglass Rep was handy and dropped in. He swapped in a lasted generation auto lense which was a 13 but it just changed the colour and didn’t reduce brightness. Boys will wear sunglasses and dial back the lense.

Drawings have been adjusted and I can now order the stainless.....

One other issue is getting the material folded.....there is only one place in Brisbane that can do it and the test folds were not quite right. Will have to work with them a bit or go interstate.

[Pub247]

interesting to me as welder. Folding stainless aint the easiest job you never know how much material is going to eat up. Also being a solidworks user it never get the material allowance for bends right. Personally we work of inside dimensions as its easier to fudge the numbers aslong as your not to concerned about radius accuracy.

Having done a fair bit of stainless mig welding including making some 316 10mm thick i beams for some food industry i don't envy your 81m of weld. especially if your chasing pressure test vessels. Lots of back-stepping of welds and cooling down between runs is the ideal method. Also having welded to something solid and substantial to minimise warpage