Orbital Welding of Duplex Stainless Steel Tubing and Pipe for Critical Offshore Applications

Soldagem Orbital de Tubos de Ao Inoxidvel Duplex e Tubulao para

Aplicaes Offshore Crticas
Barbara K. Henon, Ph.D. and Eng. Angel Brond
Arc Machines, Inc.

Abstract
Over the last decade or two extremely harsh offshore and subsea environments have mandated the
development of improved grades of duplex stainless steels. These newer materials have the ability to
retain a good balance of austenite and ferrite and thereby toughness and corrosion resistance in the
welded condition. However, in order to retain the desirable properties of these technically complex
materials, special care and attention is required for the joining of tubing and pipe.
Orbital GTA welding with preprogrammed weld schedules provides maximum parametric control and
repeatability of process and is preferred to manual welding of duplex stainless steel wherever practical.
The fine control of heat input makes it possible to meet the highest quality specifications for phase
balance, corrosion resistance and mechanical strength. A major advantage of orbital welding over
manual welding is that once a procedure has been established for a particular duplex alloy, consistent
welds which meet all of the requirements of the qualified test coupons can be achieved with a high
degree of repeatability throughout a project.
The use of orbital GTA welding for subsea and offshore applications includes autogenous welding of
small diameter 0.250 inch tubing, as well as tubing installations on subsea Christmas Tree well
heads. Orbital GTA welding with filler metal has also been done successfully on small diameter super
duplex 2507 (UNS 32750) tubing for subsea umbilical coils as well as for large diameter headers.
A recent example of orbital welding of larger diameter duplex stainless steel pipe was done for the
800,000 barrel P-52 Platform. Built at the BrasFELS Shipyard in Angra dos Reis, Brazil and owned by
Petrobras; this is the largest offshore platform in the world. The installer welded 22 inch Schedule 80
2507 (UNS 32750) duplex stainless steel pipe using two orbital welding power supplies and two fullfunction weld heads mounted on a single guide ring. The welds were accomplished with low heat input
and the radiographic results were excellent. The index of repair over the six months of production
welding was so outstanding that the fabricator received a special award from the BrasFELS shipyard
for production quality. This project will be described in depth.
This presentation will describe orbital welding procedures and fabrication techniques as well as
welding equipment used for autogenous and filler metal applications. The importance of tube and pipe
end preparation, joint design, purge gas composition and purging techniques will be discussed.

Resumo
Durante as duas ltimas dcadas ambientes offshore e submarinos extremamente severos levaram ao
desenvolvimento de melhores qualidades de aos inoxidveis duplex. Estes materiais mais recentes tm
a capacidade de manter um bom equilbrio entre a austenita e a ferrita e, assim, tenacidade e
resistncia corroso na condio de soldado. No entanto, a fim de manter as propriedades desejveis
destes materiais tecnicamente complexos, especial ateno e cuidado necessrio para a unio de
tubos.

Soldagem orbital TIG (GTA) com horrios pr-programados de solda oferece controle paramtrico
mximo e repetibilidade do processo e o preferido a soldagem manual de ao inoxidvel duplex
sempre que possvel. O controle preciso do aporte de calor faz com que seja possvel atender s
especificaes de alta qualidade para a fase de equilbrio, resistncia corroso e resistncia
mecnica. A maior vantagem da soldagem orbital sobre a soldagem manual que depois que um
procedimento foi estabelecido para uma liga duplex particular, soldas consistentes que satisfazem
todas as exigncias do teste de amostras qualificadas podem ser obtidas com um alto grau de
repetibilidade ao longo de um projeto.
A utilizao de soldagem orbital TIG para aplicaes offshore e submarinas incluem a soldagem
autgena de tubos de pequeno dimetro 0,250 polegadas, bem como das instalaes de tubulao
submarina "rvore de Natal" que atuam como cabeas de poo. A soldagem orbital TIG com metal de
adio, tambm foi realizada com sucesso em superduplex 2507 (UNS 32750) de pequeno dimetro
para bobinas umbilicais submarinas, bem como para os cabeotes de grande dimetro.
Um exemplo recente de soldagem orbital de tubulao de ao inoxidvel duplex de maior dimetro foi
feito para a Plataforma P-52, cuja produtividade de 800 mil barris/dia. Construdo no estaleiro
BrasFELS, em Angra dos Reis, Brasil e de propriedade da Petrobras, a maior plataforma offshore no
mundo. A instalada tubulao de ao inoxidvel duplex 2507 (UNS 32750) de 22 polegadas de
dimetro, Schedule 80, foi realizada com duas fontes de energia de soldagem orbital e duas de solda
de guia montadas em um anel nico. As soldas foram realizadas com baixo aporte de calor e os
resultados radiogrficos foram excelentes. O ndice de reparao ao longo dos seis meses de soldagem
de produo foi to notvel que o fabricante recebeu um prmio especial do estaleiro BrasFELS para
a qualidade da produo. Este projeto ser descrito em detalhes.
Esta apresentao ir descrever os procedimentos de soldagem orbital e as tcnicas de fabricao,
bem como os equipamentos de solda utilizados para a execuo da soldagem autgena e soldagem na
qual se fez uso de metal de adio. A importncia do tubo e preparao final da tubulao, o projeto
conjunto, a composio do gs de purga e tcnicas de purificao sero discutidos.

Introduction
As the development of engineered duplex stainless steel alloys for the offshore, subsea, and deepwater
industries has advanced, so has the need for advanced welding technology for these materials. Orbital
welding, which is defined as automatic or machine welding of tubes or pipe in-place with the
electrode rotating (or orbiting) around the work, has been shown to offer many advantages compared
to manual for welding the new generation of duplex stainless steels. The following examples show the
range of applications and range of orbital welding equipment used for welding of duplex stainless
steels:
In the early 1990s, orbital welding technology was used by Cameron Forged Products Division of
Cooper Ltd. (Great Britain) to fabricate a super duplex (UNS S32760) test manifold for Philips
Petroleum (Henon, 1992). A full-function track-mounted Model 15 weld head was used to join the
specially forged tees to form the manifold used for a high-pressure application on an offshore platform
in the North Sea. (Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Embla Test Header built by Cameron from forged super duplex tees using orbital GTA
welding11. The Weld Procedure Specification (WPS) required preparation and examination of
metallographs for sigma phase and ferrite counts.
(Photos from Henon, B.K., December, 1992)
Sandvik Chomutov Precision Tubes in the Czech Republic was one of the first companies to develop
the combination of orbital welding technology with an advanced duplex grade, SAF 2507 super duplex
(UNS 32507), for the fabrication of umbilical tubing used in todays remote deepwater fields (Henon,
B.K. 2001). Arc Machines, Inc. Model 227 Power Supplies and Model 95 weld heads were used for
this orbital wirefeed application. (Figure 2.)

Figure 2. Left: Sandvik orbital welding set-up with orbital welding power supply with cooling unit and
orbital weld head. Orbitally welded lengths of super duplex tubing were wound onto large coils for
umbilical tubing. 100% radiography of the orbital welds was performed. (Photos from Henon, B.K.,
2001)
Acute Technological Services (ATS), a well-known petroleum industry support company, based in
Houston, Texas USA, made an early decision to specialize in welding engineering, consulting and
fabrication of duplex stainless steels. ATS has developed highly specialized manual and automatic
orbital welding procedures for these materials (Hayes, M.D. and B.K. Henon, 1993).

Material and Methods

Material. Duplex stainless steels consisting of iron alloyed with chromium, nickel, molybdenum and
nitrogen are engineered and manufactured to produce a material with a balanced phase microstructure
of approximately 50% face centered cubic (fcc) austenite () phase and 50% body-centered cubic
ferrite() phase in the annealed condition. The balanced phase structure combines the favorable
properties of austenitic and ferritic stainless steels when welded properly.
Weld procedure qualification of duplex materials usually requires corrosion testing of the weldments.
Ferrite counts, either point counts from sections which are destructive tests, or ferritscope
measurements which can be done on tubing in the field or between passes on pipe welds are commonly
made. For weldments to be placed in low temperature service, low temperature Charpy impact testing

may be required as a test for ductility. The NORSOK Standard M-601 used by the BrasFELS Shipyard
requires 100% positive material identification (PMI) for stainless steels and nickel-based materials to
be used in subsea applications. This standard also requires the use of matching the consumable with
enhanced Ni content compared to base metal in order to promote the formation of austenite during
welding.
Equipment. For orbital GTA welding there are basically two types of equipment: equipment for
autogenous welding used to weld tube, and pipe welding equipment with the capability of adding filler
wire to the weld.
Orbital tube welding equipment. Orbital tube welding is a nearly automatic process in which the
operator installs the tubing or components to be welded into an enclosed weld head, selects the
appropriate welding program or schedule from the power supply memory, sets the ID purge flow and
initiates the weld sequence. The power supply controls weld parameters. There is no operator
intervention during the weld sequence in which the electrode, and thus the arc, completes a single pass
weld with full penetration. Water cooling of weld heads is strongly recommended, especially for wall
thicknesses greater than 0.049 inch or for high production welding. The end preparation for tube
welding is typically a square butt weld (no groove) with the ends precision squared by machine.
Orbital pipe welding equipment. Orbital pipe welding power supplies generally provide higher welding
current than tube welding power supplies and have the ability to feed wire into the weld. In addition to
controlling the parameters for tube welding, they may also have electronic arc length control (AVC)
and controls for torch oscillation for weaving the torch back and forth across the weld seam. For both
tube and pipe systems, the weld program or schedule is stored in the memory of the microprocessorcontrolled power supply, but with pipe welding power supplies, weld parameters such as AVC,
welding current and torch centering may be adjusted or modified by the welding operator during
welding.
There are several types of pipe weld heads. The most basic is an open-frame head such as the AMI
Model 95 with wire feed that clamps onto the pipe and uses mechanical arc length control. The Model
79 is a similar head which also has AVC and oscillation functions in addition to wire feed. Also
available are large full-function track-mounted heads such as the AMI Model 15 for welding pipe from
4 inches nominal diameter and larger. These heads move around the weld joint on a track while the
pipe remains in place. Other heads for limited clearance are used for boiler tubes and heads and torches
exist for a large variety of applications.
Orbital Pipe Welding at BrasFELS Shipyard in Brazil
The Offshore Standard DNV-OS-F01 Appendix C Welding used by the BrasFELS Shipyard specified
that mechanized and automatic welding systems where previous experience is limited or where the
systems will be used under new conditions shall be subject to a more extensive prequalification
program or documentation before they may be used. The Contractor was required to prove and
document that the welding systems were reliable and that the process could be continuously monitored
and controlled.
Installers at BrasFELS used two AMI full-function track-mounted Model 15 orbital weld heads
mounted on the same track for welding up to 22 inch schedule 80 2507 (UNS 32750) duplex stainless
steel pipe. A Model 79 open frame head was also used for welding smaller diameters up to 4 inch pipe
in the pipeshop. At BrasFELS, there were two different joint configurations, pipe-to-pipe using a
modified J end preparation and pipe-to-fitting which was a standard V groove with a 37 bevel. The
preferred end preparation for pipe welding up to about 0.500 inch wall thickness is the modified-J
preparation with a land of about 0.065 to 0.095 inches (Figure 3.) The land extension may be adjusted
depending on the material. The fittings at BrasFELS were received with a 37 end prep which could
not be machined or modified.

The PQR reflects the distribution of weld sizes and joint configurations for fully orbital welds or
manual root passes combined with orbital welding. Pipe-to-elbow or tee fitting welds were done with a
manual root followed by orbital filler passes, while pipe-to-pipe welds with a J end preparation (Figure
4.) were completely orbitally welded. In the pipeshop the pipe was segregated by ODs larger and
smaller than 4 inches. (Figure 4.)

.
Figure 3. Left: Detail from BrasFELS PQR showing separation of duplex stainless steel pipe by sizes
over 4 inches and 4 inches and less. It also shows manual root passes for pipe-to-fitting welds and
complete orbital welds for pipe-to-pipe joints. Right: A modified J end preparation is recommended
for orbital welding of pipe.
Arc Machines employee, Eng. Angel Brond, worked closely with BrasFELS to develop their PQR
according to the requirements for limiting the heat input in duplex stainless steel welds listed in
Offshore Standard DNV-OS-F101, Submarine Pipeline Systems, October 2007, App. C. This
standard requires the control of heat input to avoid detrimental weld cooling rates. In order to
achieve optimum control of heat input they recommend faster welding times and higher welding
currents. Stringer beads are recommended to ensure a constant heat input and any weaving of the
weld bead was limited to a maximum of 3 times the filler wire or electrode diameter. In this case the
wire diameter was 0.035 inches supplied by Sandvik. The heat input for girth welds was limited to a
range of 0.5 1.8 kJ/mm, with the lower end of the range specified for thinner wall pipe. It was also
required that welding be continuous for an entire pass rather than stopping and starting the arc or
performing a split pass.
Appendix C of DNV-OS-F101 required that welding personnel be qualified to ISO 14732 and EN
1418. Qualification of welding operators was done by BrasFELS with AMI consulting on site. As
specified by this standard, the qualification tests were done on the actual equipment and premises
that were used during production welding.
An additional standard DNV-RP-F112 Recommended Practice - Design of Duplex Stainless Steel
Subsea Equipment Exposed to Cathodic Protection October 2008 was used as a Recommended
Practice to asses the quality and repeatability of the ferrite and austenite composition of the base
metal before welding and after welding.
NORSOK M 601 Standard, Edition 5, April 2008 is also referenced with respect to 4.4.4 Heat Input
and 5.1 Welding Requirements. The maximum variation allowed in heat input is +/- 15%. Table A.3
lists acceptance criteria for welds including the amount of weld bead reinforcement or internal
protrusion. A normative annex was added in this edition with color photos for acceptable
oxidations/coloration on the I.D of pipes. Color ranges from no color (good) to heavy black, brown
and blue discoloration which is unacceptable. Loss of corrosion resistance has been shown to be

proportional to the amount of color (Hansen, J.V. 1997). To assure minimal discoloration, gas purity
and dewpoint had to be certified and monitored at the point of use with an oxygen analyzer.
NORSOK M 601 requires the use of filler metal in root passes of Type 25Cr duplex and Ni-alloys
for seawater service. Filler metal on 4 inch 2 lbs spools was supplied by Bohler. A separate welding
procedure (WPS) was required for repair welds. NORSOK M-601 allows only one attempt at repair
in the same area. Re-welding must include complete removal of the original weld and HAZ.

Results
BrasFELS welding of super duplex pipe
The BrasFELS Shipyard was very successful in orbital welding of all of their sizes of super duplex
stainless steel pipe. Their welding operation lasted for 1-1/2 years welding two shifts per day. The
results of radiographic examination were excellent with a very low reject rate. BrasFELS passed the
very stringent maintenance audit of the ISO 9001:2000 certification conducted by Bureau Veritas
Quality International (BVQ1) with flying colors. They received an award from Petrobras for their
excellent welding.

Figure 4. Left: Orbital welding of 2507 (UNS 32750) 20 inch duplex pipe with the AMI Model 15 and
4 inch pipe with the Model 79 weld heads in the prefabrication environment in the pipeshop at the
BrasFELS Shipyard in Brazil. Right: Some orbital welds on pipe and fittings for the Petrobras P-52
Platform. Photos from Arc Machines, Inc.
Discussion
In deepwater installations, defined as over 1,000 feet or more beneath the surface, materials are
expected to perform under higher pressures (15,000 psi) and to withstand higher temperatures (300
Fahrenheit) than ever before (Chater, J., 2007). To satisfy the requirements for deepwater applications,
the use of stainless steels, especially duplex and super duplex have become nearly indispensible. Since
proper welding of these materials is essential for maintaining their corrosion resistance and mechanical
properties it is absolutely critical that good welding procedures be developed and carried out in a
repeatable manner throughout a project.
Each application of duplex and super duplex material is unique and weld procedures must be developed
accordingly. The steel tube umbilical must be manufactured to meet the requirements of the specific
subsea application which varies with environmental conditions. Material selection and welding
procedures must be determined independently for each individual project.

It is generally agreed that duplex stainless steels benefit from the addition of filler metal overalloyed in
nickel and nitrogen. However, for some small bore tubing, acceptable ferrite counts and corrosion
resistance have been achieved with autogenous welding. This has been accomplished by the use of
shield gas containing helium, argon and 2% nitrogen (Hayes, M.D. and B.K. Henon, 2002).
Orbital welding of duplex stainless steel for subsea umbilical tubing is continuing. Several
manufacturers of coiled tubing have told AMI, that this would not be possible without the use of orbital
welding. Umbilical tubing is typically welded with a Model 95 or a Model 79 weld head feeding wire.
AMI has recently been active in assisting with the development of the PQR/WPS for umbilical tubing
in Brazil.
Petrobras in Brazil is a major player in this industry. The P-52 platform, recently commissioned, is
largest in the world. BrasFELS Shipyard was given an award by Petrobras for their excellence. Weld
criteria for duplex stainless steels must include ferrite counts or evaluation of the mechanical properties
of the weldment since a good looking weld alone does not assure a good weld. A weld can have a good
appearance while still have unacceptable ferrite numbers or deleterious phases that result in
embrittlement. In order to accomplish repeatable welds with all of the favorable properties of the
qualification welds, there must be proper and repeatable end preparation, joint configuration, purging
techniques, and operator training.
Installers must be aware of the unique properties of the material and to understand the need for strict
adherence to the qualified weld procedures (WPS). Precise, consistent control of heat input is essential.
In addition, purging with inert gas is even more critical for duplex than for austenitic stainless steels for
the retention of corrosion resistance. The recommendations for cleaning, end-preparation, welding
environment, purging for manual welding of duplex stainless steels (Messer et. al, 2010) apply to
orbitally welded duplex stainless steel as well.
The PQR for the Petrobras duplex stainless steel pipe made specific requirements for welding of duplex
stainless steel, as outlined in the Sandvik and DNV Standards that would be very difficult to achieve by
manual welding. To our knowledge this is the first time that a specification has gone so deeply into the
details of a welding procedure. Compliance with the requirement for stringer beads or limiting the
amount of oscillation of the weld bead, the upper and lower limits of heat input per pass with a maximum
of 0.5-2.5 kJ/mm (10-65 kJ/inch), and the requirement for continuous welding virtually demanded the use
of mechanized or orbital welding equipment.
Orbital welding with a proven WPS is the most reliable method for welding of duplex alloys.
Unfortunately, installing contractors using manual welders working in the pipeshop or field environments
are not always able to consistently meet the same quality requirements as those of the qualification welds
that were done under ideal conditions. There have been several occasions when manually welded duplex
and super duplex weldments have failed in service. It should be apparent that working in the deepwater
environment drives up cost of repairing welds and weld failures may be catastrophic. However, there is
very little in the welding literature to document the causes and effects of weld failures.
In an article on CalEnergys use of corrosion resistant alloys (Van Wijngaarden, M., and J. Chater, 2006)
they stated With failures we reach a topic that is sometimes overlooked: welding. The authors
interviewed Project Manager for CalEnergy, George Furmanski who indicated that in the United States
there are not many companies that can provide proper welding specialists or welding equipment. Mr.
Furanski is quoted as saying The majority of the stress corrosion cracking failures that we have seen
occurred in the weld or the heat-affected zone. We therefore now tend to favor companies that use fully
automatic welding machines. Our biggest technical challenge right now is to find people who can weld
2507 duplex.

The use of duplex stainless steels for deepwater applications is increasing worldwide and this trend likely
to continue as most new oil and gas discoveries are in deepwater fields. Michael Hayes of Acute
Technological Services, Inc. estimates that presently about 60% of umbilical tubing for subsea
applications is joined by orbital GTA welding, while only about 20-25% of heavier wall duplex and super
duplex pipe are joined with this technology. Orbital welding is becoming more and more indispensible
for welding these critical materials.

Conclusions
1. Orbital GTA welding is uniquely suited for the joining of advanced duplex stainless steel materials due
to the precise control of welding parameters.
2. A wide range of orbital GTA welding equipment is available for welding of small diameter, thin-wall
tubing to large diameter heavy wall pipe and all sizes in between.
3. Whether the alloy is duplex or superduplex and, whether the size is small bore or large diameter, these
materials and applications have in common the requirement for welding procedures that are optimized for
the specific material. Precise control of heat input, shield gas composition and filler metal chemistry are
critical for achieving weldments with balanced phase microstructure and minimal deleterious phases so
as to retain the favorable mechanical properties and corrosion resistance that were designed into the
alloy.
4. Installers of duplex stainless steel pipe must understand the properties of these complex materials and
welding operators and technicians must be aware of all of the requirements of the WPS in order to carry
out the weld procedures consistently from joint-to-joint with a high degree of repeatability throughout a
project.
5. Companies that began orbital GTA welding of duplex stainless steels for offshore applications in the
1990s are still using this technology and have expanded their operations worldwide.
6. The recent installation of pipe sizes up to 22 inch schedule 80 2507 duplex pipe with orbital GTA pipe
welding equipment at the BrasFELS Shipyard was highly successful. The fabricator received an award
from the Shipyard for completing the welding with a very low index of repair. This installer was clearly
aware and focused on all of the details of the WPS.
7. Orbitally welded duplex and superduplex stainless steels will be critical in expanding the exploration
and recovery of gas and oil from deepwater fields.

Acknowledgements
David Just, Arc Machines, Inc. 10500 Orbital Way, Pacoima, California 91331 USA
www.arcmachines.com
Michael D. Hayes, Acute Technological Services, Inc. 11925 Brittmoore Park Drive, Houston, Texas,
77041 USA www.acutetechserv.com

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Corresponding authors:

Barbara K. Henon, Ph.D.

RC International LLC
P.O. Box 60182
Seattle, WA, 98160, USA
[email protected]

Angel Brond
Director Latin American Sales
Arc Machines, Inc.
10500 Orbital Way
Pacoima, CA, 91331, USA
[email protected]