Weld Purging of Pipes for the Oil and
Gas Industry
Weld Purging tubes and pipes for the Oil and
Gas Industry is crucial when joining metals such
as stainless, duplex and chrome steels, as well
as nickel alloys, titanium and zirconium.
For example, a 36” diameter stainless steel pipe
can be purged down to 100 parts per million
(ppm) of oxygen in under 32 minutes. Comparing
this with weld purging using foam dams or other
homemade devices that will outgas heavily into
the welding zone, which will take many hours.
However, when welding larger pipe diameters it is
not cost effective to completely fill tubes and pipes
with expensive inert gas.
Some features of QuickPurge® Systems include:
Weld Purging Experts Huntingdon Fusion
Techniques HFT®’s innovative QuickPurge®
Systems dramatically reduces the space that needs
to be purged, thereby reducing purging time
dramatically, making huge savings in both time
and gas costs.
Ron Sewell, Chairman for HFT® said: “Using
QuickPurge® means there is no longer a need to
fill complete pipes with an inert gas. The Systems
are so efficient they pay for themselves in the first
couple of welds in gas savings alone, whatever
the pipe size. QuickPurge® is simply inserted into
a tube or pipe, inflated within the pipe, restricting
the area that is to be welded, removing the oxygen
down to 100 ppm (parts per million) within
minutes.”
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• An additional gas input line, allowing extra
purge gas to be introduced for extra high
speed purging down to the lowest oxygen
levels, which is perfect for larger diameter
pipes where quality welds are required.
This extra cold argon gas input is perfect for
mitigating the extra heat produced by the
Plasma / TIG process.
• The advanced design of the QuickPurge®
System means that oxygen levels as low as
10 parts per million (ppm) can be reached
every time, allowing zero colour welds to be
achieved with no loss of corrosion resistance
caused by oxidation.