At its factory in Eskilstuna, Alfa Laval Tumba manufactures stainless steel separators for a wide range of applications. Jarmo Meriläinen is the welding engineer of Operations Manufacturing Eskilstuna (OME). He feels that, as his company buys filler metals for welding duplex steels from Avesta Welding, it is only natural to use the same expertise for welding training.
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Welded distributor in duplex stainless steel 2205.
Jarmo Meriläinen welding engineer, with Fredrik Johansson, welder.
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“Welding duplex stainless steels is a rather exclusive niche and demands special techniques. We find it difficult to recruit new welders with the necessary skills. Thus, welders have to undertake additional training. We are extremely pleased with Avesta Welding’s courses. It has given our welders good and useful know-how,” he explains.
Alfa Laval Tumba AB OME has around 200 employees, 12 of these being welders. Three of them have just been to Avesta for a welding course organised by Avesta Welding. Last autumn, welders Fredrik Johansson and Patrik Sundkvist attended a basic course in the welding and post-treatment of austenitic and duplex stainless steels. In February, joined by colleague Veli-Pekka Turunen, they went to a more in-depth course on the TIG and MMA welding of the same steels. |
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The separators made in Eskilstuna are used in all imaginable sectors of industry – biotech, off-shore and, not least, dairy. Jarmo Meriläinen estimates that around 90 percent of the unit’s welding is done at the factory. Most of this is machine top parts for separators and distributors, the latter being primarily made in duplex steel.
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Alfa Laval BTPX 710 separator system
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The Alfa Laval group has operations in almost one hundred countries and is a world-leading manufacturer of pumps, valves, heat exchangers and separators. Its products are used in countless applications. Industry, the energy sector, waste water plants, breweries, foodstuffs preparation and the merchant marine all provide customers.
Welding Competence Network, a global internet community promoting exchanges of know-how between welding units within Alfa Laval, was started around half a year ago. “Focused on the sharing of technology and experience, it aims to facilitate the lifting of welding levels to a global Alfa Laval standard. No matter where in the world we weld, we must offer the same standard. The network is still relatively new, but I think it will be immensely worthwhile,” explains Jarmo Meriläinen, who has himself been involved with welding for over 20 years. Before joining Alfa Laval, he worked many years for Outokumpu.
OME’s welders have several exciting projects at the moment. One of these is a distributor in super duplex 2507, the weldability of which is markedly different from that of 2205. With the spotlight on quality and lead times, this area requires extra effort being put into the identification of optimum methods. Increasing competence via, for example, training courses is thus an important part of this work.
“Most often, we weld rather thick materials. In this connection, we use covered electrodes for duplex steels. Above all else, we use filler metals such as Avesta 2205-PW and Avesta 2507/P100 Rutile from Avesta Welding,” reveals Jarmo Meriläinen.
It is even planned to introduce Avesta 2507/P100-3D. Compared to the rutile option, this offers considerably improved weldability. Practical welding tests have given good results and investigations are currently under way to establish that other requirements (impact strength in particular) are also satisfied. |