PREVENT WELD DISTORTION AND CRACKING
Bonal Technologies, Inc. offers a new process to prevent weld distortion and cracking called "Meta-Lax Weld Conditioning", more recently termed as "Pulse Puddle Arc Welding". In application, MLWC and PPAW are economical, convenient, and effective in preventing weld distortion and cracking which warrants an introduction to anyone in the welding industry. Meta-Lax technology involves inducing the weldment to very mild "sub-harmonic" vibrations during welding.
The mild vibrations keep the weld metal "liquid" a few seconds longer, which allows the weld metal to solidify more uniformly from the root gradually out to the face. Two immediate benefits result. First, there will be less weld distortion since the contraction that will occur on the face will not have as good a chance to distort the weldment because much of the solidification below the face will have already taken place. Second, more centers of freezing will occur at the exact same time the freezing temperature is reached. This results in refined weld grains which are crack-resistant. Ductility and impact values, in particular, are increased up to 400 and 75 percent, respectively. Furthermore, the welder can reduce weld amps 3 to 15 percent to prevent even more distortion, or increase weld amps 3 to 15 percent to achieve the highest quality weld possible and the fastest travel speed compared to non-treated weldments. In addition, using MLWC or PPAW often leads to other benefits. These include welding faster (up to 25 percent), reducing rework, reducing pre-heat temperature (up to 300 deg F), and reducing porosity. By adding sub-harmonic energy during welding, it is possible to prevent normal weld distortion and cracking by 50 to 95 percent. www.meta-lax.com
