Portable Electric-Welding Plant.
Page 14
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Some Remarkable Results are Attained with the Process Introduced by the Anglo-Swedish Electric Welding Co., Ltd.
The advantages of antogenous welding or electrically fusing together two metals are not, we fear, becoming so generally appreciated as the process deserves. To the management of many repair shops and garages, viewed as a. commercial proposition, the operation implies possible complications during the . actual welding, which, it is perhaps feared, may lead to Unsatisfactory results. In consequence, expensive entire replacements are often unnecessarily manufactured or ordered, or a costly repair to some part of a machine is undertaken, so entailing a heavier repair bill than need be the ease. Nevertheless, there are now specialists who have reduced the art of welding to so fine a process that. they can produce or repair complicated metal work of structure undreamt of but a few short years ago.
There are two classes of electric welding, one known as resistance welding, the other as arc welding. Tt is with the latter class, and incorporating what appears to be an improvement over the old . carbon-arc method, with which we are at present concerned: The process, involving what are known as the
• Kjellberg patents, has been .introduced into this country by the Anglo-SwedisheElectric, Welding Co., • Ltd., of Wood Wharf, Greenwich, S.E. This process was first of all developed very satisfactorily on the Continent, and the Anglo-Swedish company has met with much success in respect of its introduction to England. The greater bulk of its work is in connection with marine repairs of all kinds, and it is found most suitable, in connection with that CIFIFS of work, to employ self-contained plants carried on suitable indastrial-motor chassis. These vehicles can be readily run down to the dockside, and cables can then with facility be taken aboard to any point where it is desired to effect a Welded repair. It is also found convenient to be able to send the whole plant from one docketo another at short notice, and indeed
so pronounced is this advantage that the company not infrequently despatches a complete welding vehicle to far-distant parts of England, and recently we heard of a run to Newcastle, on the Coinmercar outfit, from Maryport, in order to carry out contracts.
As a result of a recent visit to the works, where we saw demonstrations of the latest practice in this particular form of welding, we have little hesitation in stating that the operation, as carried out by skilled workers, gives results of a highly-satisfactory nature, the process, as is claimed by the management, certainly lending itself, with facility, to the producing of a highly homogeneous weld in the parts operated upon. As to the efficiency of the joint when finished, evidence was offered in the form of a repair to a Foden firebox, into which a patch, 9 ins. by 64 ins., had been welded, and which we ourselves inspected. The subsequent hydraulic test proved that the fusion of the joint had been perfectly completed, and within four hours of receiving the vehicle for repair the boiler was again ready for re-firing.
The outstanding feature of this process is that the familiar form of carbon electrode has been superseded by the utilizing of a metallic rod of special composi, tion to form the positive electrode ; this is fused to make up the section of the jointed parts. A point which should be emphasized is that, in the manufacture. of these rods, the metallic composition is varied to suit different classes of welds, and tensile strengths ranging frorri 18 to 35 tons per square in. can be obtained to suit the class of work in hand. Moreover, the rods are covered with a patented solution, which, the makers claim, prevents undue oxidization of the immediate working surfaces, arid which also serves to exclude foreign matter from the weld during the process.
During our recent visit to the Greenwich depot, we were interested to note the different. classes of repair