An EWI Success Story
“We knew EWI had modeling capabilities…what we didn’t know is how effective these capabilities would be in helping us solve a real-world shop floor production issue.”
Jeff Kikel, Welding Engineering Manager,
Babcock and Wilcox Company (B&W)

CUSTOMER
Babcock and Wilcox Company - Nuclear Operations Group specializes in the design and manufacture of large, heavy components with close tolerance and high-quality requirements. 3,000 of B&W’s employees work in the state of Ohio; 475 of them at the company’s Barberton, Ohio plant

CHALLENGE
Engineers at B&W’s Barberton, Ohio facility were struggling with cracking found during the cladding and buttering of a steel pipe. Nearly 1,500 man hours had already been spent on initial repairs. In order to mitigate the cracking problem and reduce time and costs associated with repairs, B&W contacted EWI.

SOLUTION
The EWI team knew that modeling could deliver an effective resolution. They used their modeling expertise to perform 3-D finite element analyses to simulate stress and strain evolutions during the cladding and buttering processes. The outcome suggested that reducing the heat input would lessen the cracking tendency—something that was confirmed by initial experimental results at B&W.

RESULTS
By leveraging EWI’s modeling capabilities, B&W gained effective resolution to their cracking issue and successfully avoided the time and costs associated with prototyping and mock-ups. Importantly, results were highlighted at the International Conference on Trends in Welding Research so that others in the nuclear power equipment manufacturing industry can beneft as well.

Mechancial Testing Capabilities at EWI

EWI’s mechanical testing capabilities range from standard laboratory tensile testing to on-site resonance fatigue testing. Our ISO 9001:2000 lab facility is equipped to perform routine static and dynamic testing of welded and joined materials as well as non-welded components. Our dedicated engineering and technical staff are capable of carrying out commodity, non-commodity and non-standard testing on all types of equipment components. The close working relationship within EWI between the mechanical testing, numerical modeling, materials and welding experts gives our clients access to solutions when test results don’t meet specific requirements. Whether it’s basic test results or in-depth integrity analysis, you can count on EWI to deliver quality results.

Fatigue Testing

EWI’s fatigue testing capabilities range from standard geometry constant amplitude high-cycle fatigue to full-scale pipe girth weld fatigue testing. Whether your requirement is high-cycle load-dependent testing or load-cycle strain-dependent evaluation, our 1,600 sq-ft dedicated fatigue lab contains an assortment of servo-hydraulic equipment ranging from 5 to 200-kip allowing EWI to match the right machine to your application.

If environmental and/or temperature effects are your concern, EWI is capable of performing fatigue tests in a variety of environments including corrosive liquids and/or at temperatures between -150 and 1,200°F. We also have thermal fatigue capability using both induction and resistance heating.

A partial list of our fatigue test equipment includes:

• 2 - 5,000-lb (25 kN) Universal servo-hydraulic Fatigue tension/compression

• 35,000 lb (160 kN) Universal servo-hydraulic Fatigue tension/compression

• 1 50,000-lb (250 kN) Universal servo-hydraulic Fatigue tension/compression

• 2 - 100,000-lb (500 kN) Universal servo-hydraulic Fatigue tension/compression

• 2 - 220,000-lb (1000 kN) servo-hydraulic tension/compression

• 100,000-lb (500kN) Universal servo-hydraulic and 50,000 in-lb (5650 newton meter) torsional servo-hydraulic

PEC/TIG Flux Compounds for Gas Tungsten
Arc Welding Available Through EWI

Benefits -Increases weld penetration by as much as 3x -Improves consistency welds -Improves quality of welds/reduces reject rates -Reduces distortion Learn more Visit www.ewi.org/capabilities/gtaw.asp or call 614.688.5000