WELD PREPARATION IN ORBITAL WELDING

The standard preparation for the manual welding of tubes, bends, T-pieces and flanges is a
V-joint with a gap. For different reason, this type of preparation cannot be used for Orbital
welding (a gap is inapplicable in Orbital TIG welding, tack welding points are impossible to
remove, backing gas protection cannot be obtained, etc.)

30 deg. 30 deg.

Tube end preparation commonly used for manual tube welding

Preparations for Orbital welding are always designed as a joint without any gap at the root
face. For accessibility reasons, the angles of standard “V” preparations have to be increased
to 30 deg. or even 37 deg. With this type of joint a regular penetration cannot be obtained;
on the contrary, depending on the weld position significant concavities appear.

To avoid these problems, and to get the desired uniform penetration, a “J” preparation with
a collar of the width “L” and the thickness “T” has to be selected. Indications about the
recommended geometry of the preparation with respect to the tube diameter and thickness
are given in the table below:

A L

Recommended tube end preparation for Orbital TIG welding

POLYSOUDE INDIA
(A Div. of igm Roboticsystems (I) Pvt. Ltd.)
Shri Shanta Durga Niwas, Plot No. 7, Shivaji Co-operative Hsg. Society Ltd. Off Senapati Bapat Marg.
Pune-411 016 - Web : www.polysoude.com - E-mail ab.kulkami@polysoude.in
Ph.: +91 (020) 40035931 - Fax : +91 (020) 400035930
 Recommended geometry of preparation

Tube range (mm) Angle (deg.) Collar

Wall thickness (mm) A T L

3<E<6 1 2
30
E<6
1.5 2
10 < E < 15 20

Important information:

For automatic welding, the ID is often machined to get a thickness “T” with an acceptable
tolerance (+/- 0.2 to 0.3 mm)

To ensure the necessary precision and repeatability of the weld preparation, machines for
mechanical tube end preparation must be used.

Two types of machines are available in market:

 Stationary installed equipment designed to be used in the workshop.

 Electric or pneumatic mobile machines which can be hand-carried to machine small
batches or to be used on site.

To remove all traces of rust as well as Oil, Carbon or Calamine Oxide scale, the inside and the
outside of the tubes made from carbon steel must be machined.

Important information:

Metals which can be magnetised must be inspected thoroughly.

POLYSOUDE INDIA
(A Div. of igm Roboticsystems (I) Pvt. Ltd.)
Shri Shanta Durga Niwas, Plot No. 7, Shivaji Co-operative Hsg. Society Ltd. Off Senapati Bapat Marg.
Pune-411 016 - Web : www.polysoude.com - E-mail ab.kulkami@polysoude.in
Ph.: +91 (020) 40035931 - Fax : +91 (020) 400035930