TANK AND EQUIPMENT CONSTRUCTION

Lorch turns up the pressure

and dials up the SPEED

At GOH in Dreis-Tiefenbach and Stadtfallendorf, everything revolves around pressure and impermeability at uncompromising
quality levels. At the two locations, a staff of approximately 85 produce tanks and pipeline components of superior q
­ uality
for equipment manufacturers and leading businesses supplying compressed air preparation products or operating in the
chemical sector and the aviation industry. After realising that their equipment was becoming too long in the tooth to still
be up to the task of producing the top-tier weld seams they require, GOH decided it was time to upgrade to the latest, most
­advanced technology. To find the right solution, GOH surveyed the market extensively – and, finally, became convinced that
a smart welding solution from Lorch works best for their purposes.

CHALLENGE i­ntuitive and easy-to-use Lorch control, allowing him to start

GOH manufactures up to 250 pressure tanks every year. A large welding in no time at the right amperage and with the proper
portion of these tanks are customised solutions such as the tanks argon-CO2 gas mix. The system allows the welder to assume
they made for Europe’s largest compressed air preparation sys- the best possible position in relation to the component and
tem, which deliver a capacity of 95,000 m3 of purified air an hour. can start welding right away. Every weld seam will turn out
Made of stainless and carbon steel, the tanks have a sheet metal as ­required from the start.
thickness of up to 120 mm and must be able to withstand pres-
sure levels of up to 1,000 bar. A daunting challenge that places Allowing for cold welding, the SpeedRoot delivers top-notch weld
enormous requirements on the quality of every single weld seam. seams in a much shorter period of time. This process cuts down
What is more, every welded joint that is created manually must the time needed to weld a container pipe socket to 8 ­minutes,
be perfectly free of any pores and have an optimum weld ap- which used to take 12 minutes when the welder ­applied TIG
pearance. Fully aware of this necessity, GOH subjects all of their welding. But the advantages do not stop there: While GOH
tanks to a water pressure test prior to delivery. Many weld seams used to require up to three welding units per workstation to
are also checked during an additional ultrasound / X-ray test. GOH handle the various seam layers and multitude of wires and gas
used to apply TIG welding to produce the root welded seams on mixes, they need only a single, compact-size S-SpeedPulse unit
the round profiles they process as TIG welding allows the welder today. Changing wires – for instance, from solid to flux-core
to join both edges of the material perfectly and with next to no wire, is a breeze as well. Since they can capture the root at
pores. The main downside of this welding process is, however, greater depth and with perfect accuracy, the welders at GOH can
its exceedingly slow speed. What the company needed, therefore, even forgo a back weld. This is made possible by SpeedPulse.
was a solution that can deliver both: perfectly clean seams and This welding process devised by Lorch provides for a nearly
a significant boost in welding speed and, as a result, increased ­continuous transfer of material onto the workpiece. The leading
productivity. droplet, which is pulsed, is always followed by a second, con-
trolled metal transition in spray arc form. Added benefit of pulse
SMART SOLUTION PROVIDED BY LORCH: MIG-MAG ­welding: Bridging gaps as wide as 10 mm is a now cinch, and
­WELDING SYSTEMS INCLUDING SPEEDPULSE AND filling p
­ enetration depths of up 120 mm, which are not uncom-
SPEEDARC mon for the massive spherical cavity resonators, does not pose
Until now, MAG welding in the area of pipeline and container a problem either.
construction was viewed with disfavour as the droplet transfer
was allegedly not as clean as in other processes. To disprove Lorch’s space-saving SpeedPulse technology offers GOH a host
this ­notion, Lorch developed “SpeedRoot” and supplied GOH with of additional advantages: The arc remains perfectly stable for
this solution. This MIG-MAG process is based on the technology the entire duration of the burning time. The penetration into
used in Lorch’s S-SpeedPulse system and marries TIG-like root the material is much deeper today despite the smaller heat
welding quality with the unique speed of MIG-MAG welding. penetration zone, enhancing the strength of the entire weld
­tremendously. Better still, the fact that this process produces
Today, a welder at GOH takes only a few minutes to clamp the little spattering and delivers higher working speeds cuts down the
round parts onto the table. Next, he sets the appropriate weld- time required for rework. The results are weld seams of flawless
ing parameters including material and wire thickness using the quality that will pass any durability test with flying colours.

Welding solutions for the world’s smartest companies

TANK AND EQUIPMENT CONSTRUCTION

THIS IS THE CUSTOMER’S VERDICT:

“Instead of just one droplet per pulse, the system produces ­ rocessing times that are up to three times faster than during
p
a droplet that is stretched out and provides for a newly continu- TIG welding. Aside from the pristine weld seam quality, it was
ous transfer of material onto the workpiece. The wire deposition this type of reduced processing time that won us over and led us
rate increases, and this ‘extra’ amount of material translates to to opt for this solution. Ever since we started using SpeedPulse
greater speed. These advantages drove us to purchase four new and SpeedRoot, the error rate of our welders has been approach-
systems instead of just one, as we had planned originally. Things ing zero. Meanwhile, our quality management system has been
moved fast after we placed our order: The four Lorch S-Speed- recognised by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. We also ­managed
Pulse systems including SpeedRoot option we ordered were up to obtain the ASME and SELO certifications that allow us to
and running on our premises within a week, thanks in no small ­operate on the Chinese market. Another welcome side effect of
part to Ralf Herrmann, who works as an application engineer at SpeedPulse welding on steel and stainless steel is a noise reduc-
Lorch and helped us configure the systems at rapid speed. And, tion of approximately 10 per cent. In consequence, our pulse
we were able to keep this speed up: At present, seven of our welding operations fill our factory halls with much less noise.”
welders are working on components that have been pre-assem-
bled and spot-welded by our metal workers. Depending on the Gunther Heupel, Managing Director and
application at hand, SpeedRoot allows our welders to achieve production manager at GOH

Gunther Heupel,
Technical Manager and
welding expert at GOH,
is thrilled with the quality of
the seams Lorch’s MIG-MAG
welding processes produce.

Lorch SpeedRoot: Spatter-free and requiring much

less energy, SpeedRoot works three times faster than
TIG welding even on an 8 mm gap during root welding.

The premium-quality pressure tanks made by GOH are sold

world-wide: Common applications include air treatment plants, Applying Lorch’s SpeedRoot
filtration systems for aircraft fuelling systems or CO2 generators process, Luis Braga uses an
in the beverage industry. S-SpeedPulse system to weld
the root layer of the pipe socket.
The top layer is welded using
Lorch’s SpeedPulse process.

Would you like to learn more?

Mr. Dalmer accompanied this project and will be happy
to receive your requests: [email protected]