Process for automatically vertically butt welding steel sheet material for containers

An automatic process for butt welding a vertical seam along a vertical butt joint between sheets of rust-proof and chemically resistant steels containing more than 2 percent by weight Ni, in which method the feed motion of a welding wire toward the weld seam, an oscillating movement of the welding wire transverse to the weld seam and the movement of the welding wire along the weld seam are automatically controlled and in which method the edges of the sheets are bevelled on one side only so as to form an open side of the butt joint, said method comprising performing the welding operation along the open side of the butt joint by providing an electrode having a maximum wire thickness of 1 mm, by oscillating the electrode over the whole width of the weld seam with a frequency of 70 to 140 double strokes per minute, by moving the electrode downwardly along the vertical weld seam and by keeping the welding area under a reactive gas atmosphere which contains carbon dioxide, oxygen and a major proportion of argon.