The welding processes used to weld armour plate have changed little in recent years. Submerged arc and MIG/MAG welding still predominate for the joining of both steel and aluminium alloy armour. There have been some developments in MIG/MAG welding which are being used to great benefit and which have been extensively investigated at TWI, these are cored wire welding and twin wire welding.
Cored wires have been developed for welding of alloy steel armour plate. These, to a great extent, have replaced the very large-diameter manual metallic arc electrodes, which were used formerly to achieve high deposition rates. These cored wires are capable not only of equally high deposition rates but also enable automated and robotic equipment to be employed - a further area in which TWI has particular expertise.
A more recent development has been twin wire MIG welding of aluminium using linked pulsed-MIG power sources. This process can give extremely high deposition rates, but is generally confined to automated applications. TWI are actively investigating the process.
For information about TWI’s capabilities please email contactus@twi.co.uk.