Marking one of the company’s thickest weld procedures to date, GF Engineering was engaged by Chevron Australia to perform a tough task.
Taking five weeks to fabricate, run and test the weld procedure , this signalled a rare project in the GF Engineering portfolio – one that GF Engineering Managing Director Todd Jones labelled as something that was “Pretty rare to see in our field and most people in our local industry won’t see at all.”
“We sourced a 24” 1500# A350 gr LF2 blind flange (224mm thick) and had to mill it down to 140mm to be able to water jet cut our coupon size and then mill it down again to 120mm thickness,” Project Manager Gabriel Bangera said.
An 18” 1500# spectacle blind (203mm thick) was utilised for the A516 gr70 material – as a plate at this thickness isn’t easily available to acquire in Australia. This also had to be milled down to 120mm thickness.
Taken on by long-term welder Vinnie, the challenge was set to weld the coupon completely with ‘stick’ and took two weeks to physically weld out.
The purpose of this procedure was to, ultimately, enable the client to navigate and avoid trouble on-site by providing a large range PQR that they could generate weld procedures from to suit their specific requirement.
A breakdown of the procedure:
Material: A516 gr 70 to A350 gr LF2
Length: 600mm
Thickness: 120mm
Bevel: 40 degrees
Process: All SMAW vertical up
Runs: 482x
Consumable: Over 3000x rods went in
Test piece weight: 500kgs upon completion
Testing results show UT, macro, tensile, bends, hardness & impact testing all passed.
Check out the photos of this great project below:
