APPLYING LASER-ARC HYBRID WELDING TECHNOLOGY FOR LAND PIPELINES

World demand for natural gas has generated the need for many new land transmission pipelines to be installed in the next decade or so. Although mechanized gas metal arc welding is well developed, there are opportunities for cost savings by using alternative welding processes. Hybrid Nd:YAG laser - gas metal arc welding enables fibre optic delivery of the laser energy to a robotic welding head to be combined with the addition of extra energy and a consumable to produce good quality, deep penetration welds in a single pass. The present paper describes initial procedure development to optimize the laser and gas metal arc welding parameters for making joints in pipeline steel. Satisfactory joint quality was obtained and it is intended to develop the process to prototype field trials.