GB1353610A - Welding electrodes - Google Patents

Abstract

1353610 Welding by fusion, making consumable electrodes BRITISH OXYGEN CO Ltd 10 June 1971 [12 June 1970] 28659/70 Headings B3A and B3R An arc-welding consumable electrode, for use with or without shielding gas, comprises a tubular, electrically conducting sheath enclosing dry powdered flux and an electrical conductor which is non-integral with the sheath and makes continuous electrical contact with the sheath along the length of the electrode. The sheath and conductor may be of iron, steel or a nickel, cobalt, or copper base alloy. The conductor cross-section is such that the conductor makes contact with the sheath at three or more symmetrically spaced parts on the sheath crosssection. The conductor may have a Y, cruciform, or regular polygonal (e.g. equilateral triangular) cross-section, and may be formed from flat strip or initially square cross-section solid wire. In one electrode example, the flux is in the form of 72 mesh powder comprising, in weight per cent of the flux in which the sum of the first nine constituents of the table constitutes from 5 to 75% by weight of the flux. In a further electrode example, the sheath and conductor are of iron and the powdered flux comprises in weight per cent of the total electrode In Figs. 1, 2, flat iron strip 2 is formed into a U-shaped channel 6 by shaping rollers 4. Powdered flux 8 is fed from a hopper 10 into the channel, a preselected level of the powder being maintained by a gate 12. A triangular crosssection iron wire 14, roller formed from a square cross-section wire, is fed into the channel 6 downstream of the gate 12. The combination of the channel 6, powder 8 and conductor 14 is then fed through closing rollers 20 to form a tube 22 which is then driven by a capstan 24 to a drawing stage where it is drawn to a size such that the sheath makes continuous electrical contact with the conductor. The electrode of Fig. 3 includes a Y-shaped conductor 48 formed from flat iron strip by passage through five sets of rollers, the axes dispositions of which are preferably alternately horizontal and vertical. A similar electrode (Fig. 5, not shown) has a cruciform shaped conductor.