History Of Explosion Welding

To make a decent weld, one has to have a steady hand, the proper safety equipment, and the welding tools must be set up to sometimes exacting specifications; unless you’re using explosives, then the specifications must always be exact.

The explosion welding process was discovered in the United States in the 1950’s, and developed in the 1960’s. Also known as explosion cladding, or explosion bonding, the welding process uses extremely high amounts of pressure to bond, sometimes highly dissimilar metals together, such as copper and stainless steel, or aluminum and carbon steel, to make a product with various desirable properties of both metals. According to High Energy Metals Inc. one of the many difficulties of Explosion welding is calculating

This is to identify any surface impurities of the metals being prepared. After the pieces pass inspection, they are then sent to a grinding station where the surface impurities are removed to maximize the welding force of the explosion, and remove rust, oxides, and flaws. Spacers of uniform height are then tacked on to the surface of the base metal, or “backer” in a uniform grid pattern, typically between one-fourth, and one-half the thickness of the cladder but in some instances up to four times the thickness, and usually at an angle of two to four

Depending on the thickness of the materials to be joined, they would next be put through one of two machines; either a three million pound press, or a series of rollers, known as levelers for the thinner material.

The final step is a very astringent inspection and testing process to ensure the qualities of the welding exceed the customers’ requirements. Most of the applications for this type of welding are for high pressure operations, where a company might need the strength of carbon steel, but the chemical resistance of aluminum, or the heat resistance of titanium.

Among the wide variety of uses for explosion welding are things you might think were too delicate, such as bundles of copper tubing, spiraling fins on an aluminum tube, or a “U” channel on an alloy plate. Explosion welding can also be used to make field repairs, such as that of heat exchanger tubes when conventional welding is impractical. Utilizing this process, it has also been shown that you could weld flammable materials, such as copper plated aluminum wires, with a wall thickness of around three thousandths of an