Welding Journal | February 2016 · Readers of Welding Journal may make copies of articles for...

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN WELDING SOCIETY TO ADVANCE THE SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND APPLICATION OF WELDINGAND ALLIED JOINING AND CUTTING PROCESSES WORLDWIDE, INCLUDING BRAZING, SOLDERING, AND THERMAL SPRAYING

FEBRUARY 2016

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32 LowEnergy Impact Spot Welding of HighStrength Aluminum Alloys A novel impact welding process utilizes a thin

aluminum foil and high electrical current to launch one piece of metal toward a stationary sheet A. Vivek et al.

FEBRUARY 2016 / WELDING JOURNAL 3

CONTENTS

47s Effect of Torch Height on Arc Stability in DividedArc Processes An experimental study was conducted to determine the effect of torch height on the operation of the divided-arc welding process S. J. Chen et al.

57s Liquation and Liquation Cracking in Partially Melted Zones of Magnesium Welds A variety of magnesium alloys was investigated to help

understand and predict liquation cracking susceptibility X. Chai et al.

68s TLP Bonding of Dissimilar FSX414/IN738 System with MBF80 Interlayer: Optimization of the Bonding Time and Temperature The effect of different temperatures on transient liquid phase bonding was researched B. AbbasiKhazaei et al.

WELDING RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT

February 2016 Volume 95 Number 2

FEATURES

36 Understanding the RunOut Behavior of a AgCuZr Braze Alloy Modifying filler metal composition or using a barrier coating on Kovar show promise in mitigating run-out P. T. Vianco et al.

*44 Techniques for Successful Aluminum VacuumBrazed Assemblies No need for flux, high joint strength, lack of salt contamination, and capability for joining large surfaces and complex geometries are some of the advantages vacuum brazing has to offer R. Caracciolo et al.

BRAZING & SOLDERING TODAY

THE AMERICAN WELDER88 Fabricating without Fear Daredevil depends on his own welding skill to support his tightrope suspended high in the air V. Hilton

92 Dos and Donts of Welding Information Management Systems Electronic gathering of welding data in a systematic way can help ensure the correct parameters are being used and production is performed in the most efficient manner R. Lindeman

44

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6 Editorial8 Press Time News

10 Washington Watchword12 International Update14 News of the Industry18 Business Briefs20 Aluminum Q&A24 Brazing Q&A26 Product & Print Spotlight

Brazing & Soldering Today48 Technology News52 Coming Events

56 Certification Schedule59 Society News68 Tech Topics73 Section News85 Guide to AWS Services86 Personnel

The American Welder96 Fact Sheet98 Learning Track

103 Brazing and Soldering Profiles110 Classifieds111 Advertiser Index

OFFICERSPresident David L. McQuaidD. L. McQuaid and Associates, Inc.

Vice President John R. BrayAffiliated Machinery, Inc.

Vice President Dale FloodTri Tool, Inc.

Vice President Thomas J. LienertLos Alamos National Laboratory

Treasurer Carey ChenCincinnati, Inc.

Executive Director Ray W. ShookAmerican Welding Society

DIRECTORST. Anderson (At Large), ITW Welding North AmericaU. Aschemeier (Dist. 7), Subsea Global SolutionsD. J. Burgess (Dist. 8), Alstom PowerD. A. Desrochers (Dist. 1), Old Colony RVTHSD. L. Doench (At Large), Hobart Bros. Co.D. K. Eck (At Large), Praxair Distribution, Inc.K. Fogleman (Dist. 16), ConsultantP. H. Gorman (Dist. 20), Sandia National LaboratoriesS. A. Harris (Dist. 4), Altec IndustriesJ. Knapp (Dist. 17), ConsultantM. Krupnicki (Dist. 6), Mahany Welding SupplyD. J. Landon (Past President), Vermeer Mfg. Co.S. Lindsey (Dist. 21), City of San DiegoD. E. Lynnes (Dist. 15), Lynnes Welding TrainingC. Matricardi (Dist. 5), Welding Solutions, Inc.S. M. McDaniel (Dist. 19), Big Bend Community CollegeW. R. Polanin (At Large), Illinois Central CollegeR. L. Richwine (Dist. 14), Ivy Tech State CollegeD. J. Roland (Dist. 12), Airgas USA, LLC,

NorthCentral RegionR. W. Roth (At Large), RoMan ManufacturingM. Sebergandio (Dist. 3), CNH AmericaK. E. Shatell (Dist. 22), Pacific Gas & Electric Co.M. Sherman (Dist. 10), SW&E, LLC

M. Skiles (Dist. 9), ConsultantW. J. Sperko (At Large), Sperko Engineering ServicesJ. Stoll (Dist. 18), The Bohler Welding Group U.S.H. W. Thompson (Dist. 2), UL, Inc.R. P. Wilcox (Dist. 11), ConsultantJ. A. Willard (Dist. 13), Kankakee Community CollegeD. R. Wilson (Past President), Welldean Enterprises

WELDING JOURNALPublisher Andrew CullisonEditorialEditorial Director Andrew CullisonEditor Mary Ruth JohnsenAssociate Editor Kristin CampbellAssistant Editor Melissa GomezAssistant Editor Annik BabinskiPeer Review Coord. Sonia AlemanPublisher Emeritus Jeff Weber

Design and ProductionProduction Manager Zaida ChavezSr. Production Coordinator Brenda FloresManager of International Periodicals andElectronic Media Carlos Guzman

AdvertisingSr. Advertising Sales Exec. Sandra JorgensenSr. Advertising Sales Exec. Annette DelagrangeManager of Sales Operations Lea PanecaSr. Advertising Production Manager Frank Wilson

SubscriptionsSubscriptions Representative Evelyn [email protected]

MARKETING ADVISORY COUNCIL(MAC)D. L. Doench, Chair, Hobart Brothers Co.S. Bartholomew, Vice Chair, ESAB Welding

& Cutting Prod.Lorena Cora, Secretary, American Welding SocietyD. Brown, Weiler BrushC. Coffey, Lincoln ElectricD. DeCorte, RoMan ManufacturingS. Fyffe, Astaras, Inc.D. Levin, AirgasR. Madden, Hypertherm

D. Marquard, IBEDA SuperflashJ. F. Saenger Jr., ConsultantS. Smith, WeldAid ProductsD. Wilson, Welldean EnterprisesJ. N. DuPont, Ex Off., Lehigh UniversityL. G. Kvidahl, Ex Off., Northrop Grumman

Ship SystemsD. J. Landon, Ex Off., Vermeer Mfg.S. P. Moran, Ex Off., Weir American HydroE. Norman, Ex Off., Southwest Area Career CenterR. G. Pali, Ex Off., J. P. Nissen Co.N. Scotchmer, Ex Off., Huys IndustriesR. W. Shook, Ex Off., American Welding Society

American Welding Society8669 NW 36 St., # 130, Miami, FL 331666672(305) 4439353 or (800) 4439353

On the cover: A Dynamic Fabricationjourneyman gas tungsten arc weldsaluminum aircraft spacers. (Courtesy ofDynamic Fabrication, Inc., Santa Ana,Calif.)

Welding Journal (ISSN 00432296) is published monthly bythe American Welding Society for $120.00 per year in the UnitedStates and possessions, $160 per year in foreign countries: $7.50per single issue for domestic AWS members and $10.00 per singleissue for nonmembers and $14.00 single issue for international.American Welding Society is located at 8669 NW 36th St., # 130,Miami, FL 331666672; telephone (305) 4439353. Periodicalspostage paid in Miami, Fla., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Welding Journal, 8669 NW36th St., # 130, Miami, FL 331666672. Canada Post: PublicationsMail Agreement #40612608 Canada Returns to be sent toBleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2,Canada.

Readers of Welding Journal may make copies of articles forpersonal, archival, educational or research purposes, and whichare not for sale or resale. Permission is granted to quote from articles, provided customary acknowledgment of authors and sourcesis made. Starred (*) items excluded from copyright.

Copyright 2016 by American Welding Society in bothprinted and electronic formats. The Society is not responsible forany statement made or opinion expressed herein. Data and information developed by the authors of specific articles are for informational purposes only and are not intended for use without independent, substantiating investigation on the part of potential users.

DEPARTMENTS

WELDING JOURNAL / FEBRUARY 20164

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During a past American Welding Society(AWS) board meeting, there was a discus-sion about our Sections being the grass-roots of our Society. This was stated by in-coming District 10 Director Mike Sherman. At the time, I did not really think aboutthe truth in that statement. However, re-membering back to when I served on theboard of my local Houston Section fortwelve years made me realize that was thegrassroots of my AWS career. Many of the volunteers who serve on ourcommittees, subcommittees, and the na-tional AWS board of directors came upthrough the Sections. That made me won-der how so many people were first intro-duced to AWS. Our members attend local Section meet-ings and are able to meet and network withother members of our Society to exchangeideas and concepts. But how do membersfind their local Section meeting time and location? All you have to do is go to the AWS web-site at aws.org. Click on About in the upper-right corner of the headings. This willbring up a screen that shows Sections atthe box on the right-hand side. Then clickon that and you will be taken to a screenthat has Find a Section in the box on theright. Click on that, and it will take you tothe listing of all the Sections names in al-phabetical order along with what city theyare located in. Then click on the Sectionname you want, and the next screen givesyou a picture of that Sections District Direc-tor along with all of his or her informationand a listing of contacts for each Section. Most Sections have websites that youcan click on to get all of their meeting in-formation and contacts. Some even giveyou pictures of past and future meetingsalong with speakers and events. It is all de-signed by AWS to help you get the informa-tion you need to contact with the local Sec-tions and Districts around the UnitedStates, and it only takes a few seconds. Information is critical to keep our grass-roots fed and nurtured so we can grow ourmembership. It can make you stop andthink about the fact that someone you met

at a local Section meeting might be the nextAWS president, and they dont even know ityet. As members of the Society, we havesuch a great opportunity to help grow newmembers. How we plant that seed of excitement insomeone to attend the local Section meet-ing is very important. With the youngergeneration so in tune with technology andsocial media connections, this has to be ourbest path to maintain their interest and de-sire to join AWS. The staff at AWS is doing just that rightnow with maintaining the following web-sites and accounts: AWS WeldLink, awsweldlink.org Jobs In Welding, jobsinwelding.com Careers In Welding, careersinwelding. com Facebook, facebook.com/AmericanWeldingSociety Twitter, @AWSHQ Instagram, americanweldingsociety. We need to discuss that informationabout our new features at every meeting. So, still the question comes back to howdo we grow those seeds into the roots of ourSociety? In particular, how can we reach outand develop in the next generation of menand women an interest in the welding pro-fession as an honorable way of life? Senator Marco Rubio said, Weldersmake more money than philosophers, andwe have to do a better job of getting themessage to people that you can make a verygood living by being a welder. Then the nextstep is to show all of the different avenuesyou can take in your welding career. So with all of our new AWS tools, it isour job as members to get the word out ofhow valuable being involved in your localSection really is. It goes back to being anAWS mentor. The most important assetwe have is people. When speaking at different engagementsabout AWS, I am always amazed at how 138AWS staff members maintain, serve, and as-sist more than 72,000 members worldwide. With the help of our staff and volun-teers, the sky is the limit for what we can ac-complish with growing our seeds for the fu-ture of welding and AWS.

EDITORIAL

Planting the Seeds of Our Future


John BrayAWS Vice President

How we plantthat seed of excitement in someoneto attend the localSection meeting isvery important.With the youngergeneration so intune with technology and socialmedia connections,this has to be ourbest path to maintain their interestand desire to joinAWS.

WJ

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Conventional welding by means ofhigh heat input, fusion, and so-lidification greatly alters the mi-crostructure in the welded region andcan be detrimental to the weldsmechanical properties, especially inthe case of highly engineered, highstrength-to-weight ratio materials.The strength of the heat-affected zone(HAZ) can be reduced to as little asone third the original strength of thebase material. Additionally, suscepti-bility to corrosion is greatly increasedafter welding certain alloys such as6xxx and 7xxx series aluminum alloys.Fasteners and structural adhesivesoffer nonwelding joining solutions.Solid-state welding techniques, such asimpact welding, friction stir welding,ultrasonic welding, and roll bondingare some alternatives to fusion-basedwelding and have undergone a certaindegree of industrial adoption so far.Impact welding is of particular interestdue to the potentially short cycle timeof the process, the possibility to join awide variety of metal combinations,and the ability to perform the processover varying length scales. Vaporizing foil actuator welding(VFAW) is a novel impact weldingtechnique that utilizes the force gener-ated by a thin aluminum foil vaporizedby high electric current to launch onepiece of metal toward one or more sta-tionary target sheets (Ref. 1). At highspeed, oblique impact between theflyer sheet and target plate(s) leads to

scouring of the colliding surfaces andsubsequent bonding under high pres-sure Fig. 1. Explosive welding(EXW) and magnetic pulse welding(MPW) are previously known andpracticed methods of impact welding.Implementation of EXW in atraditional factory environment is notpossible due to safety regulations intransportation, storage, and handlingof explosives, and because of theinability to automate such a process.Explosion welding is mostly used forwelding thick plates for the shipbuild-ing, nuclear, oil and gas, and locomo-

tive industries. Vaporizing foil actua-tor welding currently operates at thesame size scale as MPW while havingcertain advantages over it. Longevityof the solenoid actuator used for MPWis a major concern, whereas VFAW isdesigned to have a low-costconsumable for each cycle. WithVFAW, generated pressures andachievable flyer sheet velocities aremuch higher as compared to MPW;therefore, a wider variety of materialscan be effectively welded with VFAW. This article illustrates VFAW of alu-minum Alloys A5052 and A7075. This


Low-Energy Impact SpotWelding of High-StrengthAluminum Alloys

The results of impact welding of aluminum Alloys A5052 and A7075 performed with the recently developed vaporizing foil actuator welding technique are reported

BY ANUPAM VIVEK, SCOTT M. WRIGHT, TAESEON LEE, GEOFFREY A. TABER, AND GLENN S. DAEHN

Fig. 1 Schematics of the VFAW process. A Before and after experiment condi-tions of the foil actuator; B stackup of a typical VFAW assembly; C closeup ofthe welding operation.

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material combination is germane tothe effort in the automotive industrytoward vehicle weight reduction.While 5xxx-series aluminum alloys areincreasingly being applied for innercomponents of automotive structuralassembly, 7xxx-series alloys have beenscarcely utilized. This is despite the superior mechanical properties offeredby 7xxx-series alloys as compared to6xxx and 5xxx-series alloys. Formingand joining are considered two majorbarriers to the widespread implemen-tation of 7xxx-series alloy as alightweight alternative. Althoughthere are certain drawbacks with themethod, it is possible to use hotstamping to form 7xxx series intocomponents such as B-pillar outers(Ref. 2). In this work, VFAW will bepresented as a promising technique forsolving the joining problem.

Experimental Procedure,Results, and Discussion

A 0.0762-mm-thick aluminum foil,with a shape as shown in Fig. 1, wasconnected across the terminals of aMaxwell-Magneform capacitor bank,which has a short circuit current risetime of 12 ms. While the capacitorbank can be charged up to 16 kJ, forthese experiments it was operated at a4-kJ energy level. Once this energywas discharged through the foil, thelatter vaporized rapidly and formed a

high temperature gas that can push onthe 2-mm-thick A5052-H32 flyersheet. Some degree of confinement isessential; accordingly, the other side ofthe foil was backed by a block of steelapproximately 2 cm thick. The flyersheet was separated from the 2.3-mm-thick A7075-T6 target plate by a 2.5-mm-thick neoprene washer with an in-side diameter of 19 mm and outsidediameter of 37 mm. The target platewas backed by another block of steelabout 2 cm thick. The in-plane dimen-sions of the flyer as well as the targetplates were 40 mm 120 mm. The twowere overlapped by 40 mm along thelength and the welding experimentwas conducted to create lap-joint spec-imens. Due to the low strength of theneoprene washer, it breaks and getsejected from between the flyer sheetand target plate. Six welded sampleswere created this way and subjected tolap shear testing, microhardness test-ing, and imaging. In a separate experiment, the veloc-ity of the flyer sheet was measuredusing a device called the photonicDoppler velocimeter (Ref. 3). In thisexperiment, the target plate had athrough hole, which provided a line ofsight to the laser focusing probe. Withthis technique, the evolution of theflyer sheet velocity can be measuredwith a submicrosecond temporal reso-lution. Voltage was measured using a1000:1 probe connected across the ter-minals of the capacitor bank, and cur-

rent was measured by a 50-kA:1-V Rogowski coil. Figure 2A shows an impact spotwelded specimen before and after lap shear testing. The load vs. displace-ment data for each sample is plotted inFig. 2B. The samples failed outside theweld nugget at an average load of 14.5kN. The average nugget diameter was10 mm. As compared to friction spotwelds and resistance spot weldsbetween similar materials, the weldscreated by VFAW are roughly twice asstrong. This can be attributed to threefactors: 1) negligible thinning aroundthe welded area, 2) no HAZ, and 3)very effective metallurgical joining atthe bond line. The weld cross-sectionimage in Fig. 3A depicts the character-istic wavy morphology of an impactwelded interface in some parts of theweld. The figure also shows the flyersheet retained its original thickness inand around the weld. The microhard-ness data (Fig. 3B) also reveals thatthe Vickers hardness on both sides ofthe weld interface and around theweld nugget was held constant at thebase material level, which is 90 HV forA5052 and 205 HV for A7075. This isdue to the low external input energyto the weld. It turns out that the inputenergy for VFAW is not only an orderof magnitude smaller than that for re-sistance spot welding, but is alsomerely a fraction of the energyrequired for friction spot welding orself-pierced riveting processes (Ref. 4).


Fig. 2 A A5052/A7075 VFAW spot welded samples before andafter lap shear testing; B a plot showing variation in load withstroke during lap shear testing of the welded samples.

Fig. 3 A Cross-section image of the welded sam-ple depicting the lines along which microhardnesstesting was performed; B test data showingconstant microhardness on either side of the weldinterface.


Diagnostics show the impact velocitywas 770 m/s and the peak current was100 kA. Based on rough estimates onthe mass of the circular flyer sheet,the conversion efficiency from electri-cal to kinetic energy in launching theflyer sheet can be estimated as 5%.Other impact welding techniques suchas MPW and EXW tend to offer lessthan 1% energy efficiency. Various combinations of mate-rials including steel, aluminum, mag-nesium, titanium, copper, bulk metal-lic glass, niobium, nickel, and tungstenhave been successfully welded usingVFAW, and many of these studies and examples are provided on awebsite dedicated to these impulsetechnologies (iml.osu.edu). Therefore,VFAW has wide potential applicationnot only in automotive, but also in aviation, appliances, and power generation industries. However, likeany early-stage lab-based technology,much development work is requiredbefore the technique is commer-cialized. The research group at TheOhio State University has recognizedthe following three main areas for im-provement and is actively working onthem: 1. Automation: The present weld-ing apparatus is a manually assembledbench prototype. The placement, ener-gization, and removal of the foil actua-tor need to be automated to minimizesystem downtime and increase reproducibility. 2. Fixturing: As seen in Fig. 2B,there is variation in the failure loads,which is primarily due to variation inthe nugget size. More robust andreproducible fixturing can mitigatethis issue. Furthermore, the weldingfixture will need to be adapted toaccommodate industrial componentsand not just flat coupons. 3. Noise reduction and handlingof fumes: With a polycarbonate boxaround the work area, the noise levelfrom a vaporization event wasmeasured as 105 decibels. This is nearthe upper safe operating limit in a typ-ical factory setting. Beside, thegaseous products of each shot need tobe collected and properly disposed offor an industrial operation.

Conclusions

In this work, A5052 and A7075sheets were welded with 4-kJ inputenergy for each weld. The average fail-

ure load was 14.5 kN and all the sam-ples failed in the base A5052 material.The energy requirement for VFAW issignificantly lower than that for resist-ance spot welding of aluminum alloys.With minimal process-inducedchanges in geometric and mechanicalproperties of the base materials,VFAW enables almost 100% joint effi-ciency, which sets it apart from otheravailable joining techniques. Althoughsignificant effort is required for full-scale industrial implementation of thistechnology, early signs show thatVFAW can play an important role inthe world of joining.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful for spon-sorship from the U.S. Department ofEnergys Vehicle Technologies Officeunder grant no. DE-EE0006451 and bythe ALCOA Foundations AdvancingSustainability Research Initiativeunder grant no. GRT00025327.

References

1. Vivek, A., Hansen, S. R., Liu, B.C., and Daehn, G. S. 2013. Vaporizingfoil actuator: A tool for collision weld-ing. Journal of Materials ProcessingTechnology 213(12): 23042311. 2. Harrison, N. R., and Luckey, S. G.2014. Hot stamping of a B-pillar outerfrom high strength aluminum sheetAA7075. SAE International Journal ofMaterials and Manufacturing 7, No.2014-01-0981: 567573. 3. Strand, O. T., Goosman, D. R.,Martinez, C., Whitworth, T. L., andKuhlow, W. W. 2006. Compact systemfor high-speed velocimetry using het-erodyne techniques. Review ofScientific Instruments 77(8): 083108. 4. Briskham, P., Blundell, N., Han,L., Hewitt, R., Young, K., and Boomer,D. 2006. Comparison of self-pierce riv-eting, resistance spot welding, andspot friction joining for aluminium au-tomotive sheet. No. 2006-01-0774.SAE Technical Paper.


ANUPAM VIVEK ([email protected]), SCOTT M. WRIGHT, TAESEON LEE, GEOFFREY A. TABER, and GLENN S. DAEHNare with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio StateUniversity, Columbus, Ohio.

WJ

For info, go to www.aws.org/adindex


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How confident are you in yourwork? Would you bet your lifeon it? Thats what aerial artistand welder Jamie Hamilton does everysingle day. He builds the supportstructures for tight ropes that are sev-eral hundred feet above the ground,which he then walks across. He also

makes the safety nets that catch himin case he falls. For most people, the height alonewould be blindingly intimidating, butHamilton has been rock climbing sincehe was eight years old. Since then, hesclimbed summits in the Himalayas,Alps, Canadian Rockies, and Yosemite.

He started learning about weldingand fabrication in high school. Hamil-ton said he enjoyed building with met-al. I was fascinated by this materialthat could become liquid, but was alsostrong and ductile. I fell in love withthe material and the forgery of it. He built many practical structures


Fabricating without Fear Artist, rock-climber, and welder JamieHamilton fabricates his own tightropesupports

BY VIRGINIA HILTON

THE AMERICAN WELDERTHE AMERICAN WELDER

Jamie Hamilton walks on the aerial installation, Amor Fati (2015, steel, aluminum, nylon, neoprene, 70 x 260 x 150 ft), located outside ofSanta Fe, N.Mex. Photo courtesy of Hannah Hughes.

Hypertherm American Welder Feature.qxp_Layout 1 1/14/16 10:14 AM Page 88

while working as an apprentice for anarchitectural blacksmith and foundthat most of them were like works ofart. When structures become totallypragmatic, like a bridge, they becomebeautiful. Theyre not designed to bethat way, but in their purpose theyhave a sense of artistry and grace, hesaid. That beauty motivated him to con-tinue his fabrication work, but with aneye toward the arts. He studied sculp-ture at Bard College in New York andrecently graduated with a masters infine arts from Transart University inGermany Fig. 1. Once in his 30s, he decided hewanted to find a way to combine all

three of his passions: athletics, fabri-cating, and art. Soon after, he startedworking on his first tightrope. An ex-ploration of possibility and structurehas always been a staple in my work,but it becomes much more seriouswhen building aerial structures uponwhich my life depends. I take a stanceof total responsibility when I becomeengineer, designer, fabricator, and per-former, he explained. The first thing he does before eachproject is think about the scale of thebuild. I try to figure out how tall itsgoing to be. How will it be supportedor installed? Will it be across a gorge,natural setting, or supported by truss-es? Fig. 2.

Once he determines which supportsystem he is using, Hamilton heads tohis shop in Santa Fe to begin fabrica-tion. I have to start engineering thedimensions and determine what willbe needed to support the load, he ex-plained. In the example of a self-supporting rig, he essentially makestwo columns, anchored to the ground,that are supported by lattice trussesthat support each end of thetightrope. Hamilton uses a Hypertherm Pow-ermax85 plasma cutting machine tobuild many of the customized steelcomponents that are anywhere from to 1 in. thick. When building a steelstructure like this, you cant go to a


THE AMERICAN WELDER

Fig. 1 Image from a solo show at The Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, N.Mex. Photo courtesy of Nick Merrick, Hedrich Blessing.

Hypertherm American Welder Feature.qxp_Layout 1 1/12/16 1:57 PM Page 89


THE AMERICAN WELDER

Fig. 2 High-wire crossing a canyon outside of Santa Fe, N.Mex. Photo courtesy of Charles Calef.


hardware store to buy the parts. I de-sign and build many of them myselfwith a handheld torch and various cut-ting jigs, he said. His aerial structuresand sculptures are almost exclusivelygas tungsten arc welded. He uses aMiller Dynasty 350 as his primarywelding machine. If Hamilton has tomake a field or in-situ weld, he will use

shielded metal arc welding, but this isvery rare as almost all of his field con-nections are made with bolts and pins.The vast majority of his welding andfabrication takes place in the shop. In the past, he used grinders withcutting disks to do some of the workbut found switching from abrasive toplasma saved him hours of cutting

time and money. He also said he feltplasma was a safer option becausethere wasnt as much metal or grit de-bris produced during each cut. Once he has everything cut andshaped, he welds the components ofthe truss sections, which will becomethe high wires support columns Fig. 3. The columns are built to sleevetogether at the joints. When Imerecting them, I lay them out, boltthem together, then the hinges at thebase allow them to pivot upright via awinch and jin pole, he explained. Just above the ground he weaveshis own safety net made of thousandsof sliced nylon ropes. The process cantake several months to complete. Each time he takes the first step,

Hamilton said he tries to remain calm.While it seems totally crazy, eventhough I am trying hard to focus,sometimes my mind wanders, and I ac-tually think about mundane thingslike the bills I need to pay. Knowing that he made the struc-ture gives him the confidence andcomposure he needs to make it across.It gives me a sense of security know-ing that I built it myself. I have nobodyelse to blame if something goeswrong, said Hamilton Fig. 4. Thatmentality has carried over into otherparts of his life as well. Real self-responsibility. I dont wish to blameanyone else for things that go wrongin my life. That has been a great lessonfrom this.

For more information about JamieHamiltons work, contact him at [email protected].


WJ

THE AMERICAN WELDER

Fig. 3 Gas tungsten arc welding a component for a sculpture. Photo courtesy of James Autery.

Fig. 4 Portrait of Jamie Hamilton, cour-tesy of Ben Gilkison, The Needles, Calif.

VIRGINIA HILTON is a freelance writer.


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/CreateJDFFile false /Description > /Namespace [ (Adobe) (Common) (1.0) ] /OtherNamespaces [ > /FormElements false /GenerateStructure false /IncludeBookmarks false /IncludeHyperlinks false /IncludeInteractive false /IncludeLayers false /IncludeProfiles false /MultimediaHandling /UseObjectSettings /Namespace [ (Adobe) (CreativeSuite) (2.0) ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfileSelector /DocumentCMYK /PreserveEditing true /UntaggedCMYKHandling /LeaveUntagged /UntaggedRGBHandling /UseDocumentProfile /UseDocumentBleed false >> ]>> setdistillerparams> setpagedevice

/ColorImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorImageDict > /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages false /GrayImageMinResolution 100 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages false /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict > /GrayImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayImageDict > /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages false /MonoImageMinResolution 300 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict > /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly true /PDFXNoTrimBoxError false /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile (None) /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName (http://www.color.org) /PDFXTrapped /False

/CreateJDFFile false /Description > /Namespace [ (Adobe) (Common) (1.0) ] /OtherNamespaces [ > > /FormElements true /GenerateStructure false /IncludeBookmarks false /IncludeHyperlinks false /IncludeInteractive false /IncludeLayers false /IncludeProfiles false /MarksOffset 12.024000 /MarksWeight 0.250000 /MultimediaHandling /UseObjectSettings /Namespace [ (Adobe) (CreativeSuite) (2.0) ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfileSelector /UseName /PageMarksFile /RomanDefault /PreserveEditing true /UntaggedCMYKHandling /LeaveUntagged /UntaggedRGBHandling /UseDocumentProfile /UseDocumentBleed false >> ] /SyntheticBoldness 1.000000>> setdistillerparams> setpagedevice

















































/ColorImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorImageDict > /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages true /GrayImageMinResolution 300 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict > /GrayImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayImageDict > /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages true /MonoImageMinResolution 1200 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict > /Allo

Welding Journal | February 2016 · Readers of Welding Journal may make copies of articles for...

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