One of the most important developments in Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger manufacture in recent years is the use of orbital welding techniques for the fixing of tubes to tube plates. Joints of very high integrity can be achieved by using this method. Our fully automatic machine, once programmed, uses the TIG welding process, either vertically or horizontally, to produce welds of high quality and consistency. Of the various types of weld that the equipment is capable of producing the most commonly specified are:

Seal Welding, whereby a fixed protrusion of the tube is fused with the tubeplate to give an extra seal and crevice free tubeplate surface, as an addition to roller expansion.

Fillet Welding - in this case the tube protrusion is welded to the tubeplate using single or multiple runs or filler wire.

The six condensers shown below were manufactured to PD 5500 Category 3 and TEMA 'C' in Stainless Steel type 316L and Carbon Steel. Each unit contains 680 tubes 19.5 mm o.d. which were welded to the tubeplates by this automatic process.