Abstract :
WHEN THE submerged melt welding process was first introduced 15 years ago, one of its most attractive features was the extremely large welding currents that could be used for making heavy welds in one pass. At that time there were a number of automatic welding machines available for arc welding with bare-wire or coated electrode. None of these machines, however, had the capacity to handle the maximum welding currents and rod diameters usable with Unionmelt∗ welding. Consequently it was necessary to design new equipment which could handle currents up to 4,000 amperes and could feed coiled welding rod up to one-half inch in diameter.
