Large-Scale Testing Capabilities

EWI has been working with various industry segments to address the increasing awareness that small-scale testing does not always provide the information necessary to support design and qualification conditions. In recent years, EWI has made significant strides to address this need by state-of-the-art equipment additions to our welding and testing laboratories.

On the welding front, EWI maintains the latest technologies for large-scale fabrication processes. This includes our investment in friction stir welding, with installation of one of the world's largest friction stir machines. Our capabilities now include the welding of thick sections (>0.75-in.) for hard metals like steel, inconel and titanium. EWI has also recently added a high power 10-kW fiber laser to its technology portfolio. This new laser system has already been integrated with gas metal arc welding (Laser/GMAW hybrid) to enable thick section welding at travel speeds greater than 40-in. per minute (ipm). In near future, EWI will push the technology to travel speeds over 130-ipm. Parallel to the laser/GMAW hybrid technology, significant strides have been made to deploy tandem GMAW for out-of-position welding (reference last issue of Insights).

In the testing and qualification arena, EWI has made similar investments. The total load capacity of our server-hydraulic (fatigue) testing has ratcheted upwards. EWI now houses multiple test frames capable of 220,000-lb for large- and full-scale testing. This is significant for strain based materials evaluation where the specimen geometries require exceptionally high loading. Additionally, EWI houses one of the few research-dedicated full-scale resonant fatigue machines in the world. While this testing technology is becoming common in the oil and gas industry, the equipment available at EWI has been built specifically for research and development. It has the monitoring and data acquisition capabilities required to make engineering decisions regarding life prediction and failure mode evaluation. Lastly, EWI procured a full-scale bi-axial rig capable of testing components 35-ft long and 36-in wide in tension and bending simultaneously. Atop the large working envelope of this machine, EWI also has the ability to combine the tension and bending with pressurization (for pipe), temperature (-196° to 400°C) and application specific environmental simulations.

For more information about large-scale testing, please contact John King at 614.688.5232 or john_king@ewi.org.

Welcome John King