CASE STUDY ON HIGH FREQUENCY

INDUCTION WELDING
 HIGH FREQUENCY INDUCTION WELDING
• Induction welding is a form of welding that uses electro magnetic
induction to heat the work piece.
• The welding apparatus contains an induction coil that is energized
with a radio frequency electric current.
• This generates a high frequency electro magnetic field that acts on
either an electrically conductive or a ferromagnetic work piece.
• In an electrically conductive workpiece, the main heating effect is
resistive heating, which is due to induced currents called eddy
currents.
 HIGH FREQUENCY INDUCTION WELDING
AREAS OF APPLICATION:

• Induction welding is used for long production runs and is a highly

automated process, usually used for welding the seams of pipes.
• It can be a very fast process, as a lot of power can be transferred to a
localized area, so the faying surface melt very quickly and can be
pressed together to form a continuous rolling weld.
 HIGH FREQUENCY INDUCTION WELDING
• CASE STUDY :
The rolled tube is then brought
together by two pinch rollers
(pressure Rolls) located right at the
point where two welding electrodes,
separated by a very small gap, contact
the tube. One electrode contacts on
one side of the joint and the other on
the second side of the joint such that
they are placing weld current across
the weld joint. This indeed is the
current path which performs the work
of making the weld, however there is
a second shunt current path going
around the back side of the tube. This
path adds heat but does not contribute
to the weld formation.
HIGH FREQUENCY INDUCTION WELDING
HIGH FREQUENCY INDUCTION WELDING

Tube Butt Seam Tube Butt Seam Tube Mash Seam

With HFRW, the current is conducted into the work through electrical contacts that physically
tough the work. With HFIW, the current is induced in the work by coupling with an external
induction coil. There is no physical electrical contact with the work
LITERATURE REVIEW
• Three Dimensional Analysis of High Frequency Induction Welding of
Steel Pipes with Impeder
Hyun-Jung Kim, e-mail: kim1392@kaist.ac.kr
Sung-Kie Youn, e-mail: skyoun@kaist.ac.kr
This research is aimed at understanding the variables that affect the quality of the high
frequency induction welding.
The welding variables include the
• welding frequency,
• weld speed,
• V - angle,
• Tube thickness.
Temperature distribution of the tube is calculated through three dimensional coupled
electromagnetic and thermal finite element analysis.
The effects of the operating welding variables on the temperature distribution are
investigated quantitatively by exhibiting the heat affected zone.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The impeder is made of materials, which are compounds with very low
conductivities such as ferrite. Since the temperature of ferrite plays a key role
in determining the life of the impeder, the impeder should be water cooled
below Curie temperature.
 
LITERATURE REVIEW
Summary and Conclusion
• In this research, HFIW process is simulated through three dimensional coupled
electromagnetic and thermal FE analysis.
• When a vee angle is as small as possible, not only a better welded structure can be
acquired because HAZ is reduced but also a wider molten zone will be available
because the proximity effect becomes stronger.
• However, if the vee angle is increased beyond the critical one, in the worst case,
edges will be overheated and the skelp would melt non - uniformly.
• To avoid the overheated edge, the vee angle should be adjusted not to exceed the
critical one by using the empirical equation.
• The tube which could not be melted can be heated to higher temperature by
increasing the radius of the impeder.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Tackling the toughness of steel pipes produced by high frequency
induction welding and heat-treatment
P. Yana, Ö.E. Güngör, P. Thibaux, M. Liebeherr, H.K.D.H. Bhadeshia
Steel line pipes produced by high frequency induction welding can result in a low-
toughness zone at the weld junction, even after a heat treatment which reaustenitises
the affected region.
The possible causes for low toughness are explored, including microstructure,
retained austenite, inclusions and crystallographic texture.
It is found that the toughness is reduced primarily by the tendency for cleavage
planes of ferrite crystals to align and hence create a macroscopic plane on which
cleavage can propagate easily with little resistance from grain boundaries.
This mechanism suggests that an appropriate heat treatment may alter the texture
sufficiently to enhance the toughness of the zone concerned.
LITERATURE REVIEW
• It is found that the high frequency induction welded junctions from two X65 grade
steel pipes with different wall-thickness possess unsatisfactory toughness after
post-welding heat treatment, even though the microstructure across the weld was
uniform and there is no decarburisation and remaining austenite after post-
welding heat treatment.
• Meticulous investigation has then identified three causes of the weakness:
• The existence of non-metallic inclusions,
• Crystallographic texture,
• Larger grain size.
• Persistence of manganese and silicon rich oxides have a negative effect on the
mechanical properties of the weld, but these inclusions only exist occasionally
along the welding direction.
LITERATURE REVIEW
• Low toughness in the weld-junction is substantially related to the grain orientation
favouring fracture. This ‘bad’ texture is produced during the welding process.
• Reaustenitisation during the post-welding heat treatment reduces the intensity of
the texture but does not alter it.
• The heat-treated weld-junction was also found to have coarser grains compared to
the base metal, which helps to enlarge the difference in toughness between the two
samples.
• More carefully designed post-welding heat treatment should be able to modify the
crystallographic texture in the weld junction.
• The frequency of inclusions can be reduced by expelling more material from the
weld junction during the induction welding process.
LITERATURE REVIEW
High frequency induction welding simulating on ferritic stainless steels
Ivan J. de Santana, Balsamo Paulo, Paulo J. Modenesi
• This work aims to develop and evaluate a piece of equipment to simulate high
frequency induction welding of ferritic stainless steels using a conventional power
supply for resistance spot welding.
• Modifications were performed in the power supply to allow but welding of thin
sheet and variation of process parameters like sheet width, welding time and
current. Tests were performed to evaluate the use of this equipment.
• The results were evaluated by visual inspection, tensile testing and metallographic
analysis.
LITERATURE REVIEW

The main system variables are the work piece transversal section, the free-length
between grips, current time and precharge and load values.
Result dispersion during these tests is associated with the variation of contact resistance
and applied load.
The resulting microstructure resembles the one obtained in the industrial process, but
the HAZ extension tends to be greater, and with coarser grains.
The strained grain structure in the central weld region was only observed in the
industrial process work pieces.
The present work results indicate the need for future system improvement concerning
performance in order to better represent the industrial process
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