Department of Metallurgy and Technology of Welding High-Alloy Steels and Alloys

Figure 1. P145 vacuum furnace for heat treatment of parts made of nickel heat-resistant alloys.

P145 vacuum furnace for heat treatment of parts made of nickel heat-resistant alloys. Manufactured jointly with Zaporizhzhia Machine-Building Design Bureau “Progress” State Enterprise named after Academician O.H.Ivchenko (Ukraine) in 2004-2006. Technical specification: heating temperature – up to 1300 °C; vacuum 2.0-4.0 × 10^-4 mmHg; type of heaters – carbon-composite; type of heating – radiation from 6 sides; shields – molybdenum; water-cooled jacket for vacuum chamber; vacuum chamber material – stainless steel; working area volume 800×800×1000 mm; heating rate 5-70°C/min; automatic control of vacuum pumping and heating modes.

Figure 2. Installation for microplasma powder surfacing – MST-50 welding current modulator with adjustable amplitude and time parameters.

In 2018, the E.O. Paton State Research and Production Enterprise (now PATON INTERNATIONAL) together with Yakhont Trade House LLC (Kyiv, Ukraine) manufactured a modern MST-50 microplasma powder surfacing installation for heat-resistant nickel alloys according to the technical assignment of the specialists of the Department 19 of the E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute. It has a modular configuration and consists of the DSI-15 power supply for the duty arc, MST-50 process control system based on a programmable logic controller of the Modicon M241 type from Schneider Electric and an upgraded drum-type powder dispenser, built on a modern elementary base of the MPI-50 microplasma arc power supply. MST-50 provides a rational selection of process gases in the Ar → 90%Ar + 10%H2 system; allows setting synergistic modes based on several types of pulsed welding current shape with individual amplitude and frequency parameters of current and powder feeding in the ranges of 2-75 A, 0.5-10 g/min and 0.2-30 Hz.

Figure 3: PPS70 3-D surfacing printer for microplasma powder and argon arc surfacing.

In 2018, jointly with Yakhont Trading House LLC (Kyiv, Ukraine), according to the technical assignment of the specialists of the Department 19 of the E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute, PPS70 3-D surfacing printer was manufactured for microplasma powder and argon arc surfacing. The printer provides a programmable 3-D movement of the surfacing tool (plasmatron or argon arc torch) and is designed to work with a surfacing installation, such as MST-50. It is designed for multilayer surfacing at welding currents of up to 75 A at arc voltages of 20-40 V. Working area dimensions: longitudinal movement (Z-axis) -500 mm; transverse movement (X-axis) – 380 mm; vertical movement (Y-axis) – 230 mm; rotation of the welding head around the Z-axis with an angle of ±30º. The motor control drive is based on Spartan Xilinx Spartan XCS05XL PLD, the torch trajectory is programmed using MACH 3 CNC software, the linear movement speed is 0.01-1000 mm/s, the coordinate accuracy is up to 0.01 mm. The motor control drive is capable of changing the direction of movement with a resolution of up to 20 Hz.

Figure 4. PPS36.01.000 plasmatron with PPS38.01.000 dosing unit for microplasma surfacing, E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute of the NAS of Ukraine.

According to the technical assignment of the specialists of the Department 19 of the E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute, SmartKB Engineering Company (Ukraine) manufactured the PPS36.01.000 microplasmatron and the PPS38.01.000 dosing unit designed for operation in a set with specialised power supplies (MST-50 type designed by the E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute). They are used for restoration of operational damages to the working and nozzle blades of aircraft gas turbine engines made of nickel heat-resistant alloys of limited weldability by microplasma powder surfacing in the current range of 1-50 A and filler powder feed rate of 0.5-6 g/min in continuous or pulsed mode. The PPS38.01.000 dosing unit is of drum-type, a stepper motor is used to drive the drum; the operating range of drum rotation speeds ranges from 0.2…0.5 to 20 rpm.