ELECTROSLAG STRIP OVERLAY OF PIPE, FITTINGS, AND PRESSURE VESSELS

ElectroSlag Strip Overlaying (ESSO) process has been around since 1970. ESSO process had limited acceptance due to a few problems associated with the use of this process in its very early stage. Limited knowledge and, most significantly, poor quality of the equipment and welding flux gave the ESSO process a bad name. However, this process is well accepted today and used in North America, Europe and Japan. The ESSO process provides low dilution overlays at high deposition rates, excellent and consistent deposit chemistry with excellent surface quality, and virtually no defects. Capitan has taken this process one step further through extensive research and development of the process itself as well as the equipment. The improvement brought to the process warranted the issuance in May 2000 of an US patent. This study demonstrates the feasibility of this process with immediate positive production results. The main achievements of this work are as follows: $\textbullet$ Development of six various strip-flux combinations on three different base materials: carbon steel, $\frac{1}{4}$ Cr/.5 Mo and 2 $\frac{1}{4}$ Cr/l Mo, fully tested with: penetrant, ultrasound, bends, hardness, overlay chemistry, corrosion and hydrogen disbonding. $\textbullet$ 12" dia. 90 hot formed elbows from straight pipe electroslag overlayed with "1 layer" and "2 layer" Alloy 625 $\textbullet$ a very unique development of miniaturized overlaying equipment able to perform overlay in pipe with diameters as low as 10" (254 mm). This development has large applications in the field of offshore, petrochemical, refining, pulp and paper and power generation industries. The aftermath of this development was its immediate acceptance by major end users with the completion of four projects of overlayed pipe in the USA and Far East Asia.