Flash welding for billets with down cut billet ends
OwnerDavid Teng Ponginventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure is directed to methods and apparatuses for welding together steel billets for forming endless bar for continuously rolling into a rolled product. In particular, the apparatuses and methods disclosed herein are for use in welding together steel billets having down cut ends.
Claims16
A method for welding together steel billets having down cut ends, each down cut end comprising a deformation in a cross section of the billet by one side surface of the billet extending increasingly inwardly into a profile of the billet in an end region of the billet relative to a normal square cross sectional profile of the billet away from an end portion of the billet, the deformation resulting from a previous cutting operation, the method using a flash welding device and one or more shaving cutters for removing excess weld material, to form endless bar for rolling into a rolled product, the method comprising steps of:
- determining an orientation of a down cut end of a front of a billet to be welded to a rear of a previously welded billet;
- determining, based on the orientation, whether the billet to be welded to the previously welded billet needs to be rotated around a longitudinal axis of the billet to align the down cut end at the front of the billet to a down cut end of the rear of the previously welded billet, so that a weld to be formed by the flash welding device can be deburred successfully by the one or more shaving cutters;
- operating a billet rotation device, based on the determined orientation, to rotate the billet around the longitudinal axis of the billet, to form endless bar for rolling into a rolled product;
- flash welding the aligned billets using the flash welding device;
- and
- deburring the excess weld material from the flash welded joint of the formed endless bar with the one or more shaving cutters.
An apparatus for welding together steel billets having down cut ends, each down cut end comprising a deformation in a cross section of the billet by one side surface of the billet extending increasingly inwardly into a profile of the billet in an end region of the billet relative to a normal square cross sectional profile of the billet away from an end portion of the billet, the deformation resulting from a previous cutting operation, the welding being to form endless bar for rolling into rolled product, the apparatus comprising:
- a billet orientation determining means for determining an orientation of a down cut end of a front of a billet to be welded to a rear of a previously welded billet, and determining, based on the orientation, whether the billet to be welded to the previously welded billet needs to be rotated around a longitudinal axis of the billet to align the down cut end at the front of a billet to a down cut end of the rear of the previously welded billet;
- a billet rotation device configured to rotate the billet, based on the determined rotation, around its longitudinal axis of the billet to achieve the alignment;
- and
- a flash welding device for flash welding the aligned billets to form endless bar for rolling;
- one or more shaving cutters for deburring excess weld material from the weld joint between the billets;
- the determined rotation being so that a weld to be formed by the flash welding device can be deburred successfully by the shaving cutters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.