HISTORY

Explosion Welding Background

The origins of explosion welding go back to World War II, when it was observed that pieces of shrapnel were not only embedded into armor plating but also being clad, or welded, to the metal. Since there was none of the extreme heat involved in other forms of welding, it was determined that the weld was caused by the explosive forces. DuPont later applied for a patent on the explosion welding process, which was granted in 1964 and resulted in the use of the Detaclad trademark. In 1996, DMC acquired DuPonts Detaclad operations. The explosion welding process uses the energy of an explosion to create a weld between metals. The process is most commonly used to clad steel with a thin layer of corrosion-resistant alloy metal, such as stainless steel, brass, nickel, silver, titanium, or zirconium. However, explosion welding can join nearly every kind of metal together. In fact, more than 260 metal combinations are possible. Although the explosion generates intense heat, there isnt enough time for the heat to transfer to the metals, so theres no significant increase in the temperature of the metals. There also arent any significant changes in the characteristics of the component metals. The cladding process therefore creates a ductile, highstrength weld over the entire metal surface.

Shrapnel pieces

What is Explosive Welding?

Explosion Welding, which is also known as EXW is the solid state process where the welding is accomplished by accelerating one of components at the extremely high velocity through use of the chemical explosives. This process is most commonly utilized to the clad carbon steel plate with a thin layer of the corrosion resistant material. For example: Nickel Alloy,stainless steel, titanium or zirconium. EXW can produce a bond between the 2 metals that cannot necessarily be welded by the conventional means. The process doesnt melt either metal, instead it plasticizes the surfaces of both the metals, causing them to come into the intimate contact sufficient to create a weld. This is a similar principle to the other non fusion welding techniques, a group that includes the friction welding & inertial welding. Large areas can be bonded extremely quickly & the weld itself is very clean, because the surface material of both the metals is violently expelled during the reaction. EXW can also be referred to as the explosive welding, explosive bonding, or explosive cladding.

MEANING
Welding by means of controlled explosion due to which two different plates of metal join together.

Construction
Component Terminology
Base component Joined to cladder Remains stationary Supported by anvil Cladding metal Thin plate in direct contact with explosives Can be shielded by flyer plate Flyer plate Sacrificial plate placed between explosive material and cladder

plate Used to protect cladder metal Anvil Surface of which the backer rests during explosion Standoff Distance between cladder and base plate before explosion Bonding Operation Detonation of explosives that result in a weld

Basics Explosion welding is a solid-state process that produces a high velocity interaction of dissimilar metals by a controlled detonation More then 260 metal combination possible
Principle of Explosion Cladder metal can be placed parallel or inclined to the base plate Explosive material is distributed over top of cladder metal Upon detonation, cladder plate collides with base plate to form weld

PROCESS
Flyer plate is joint with the parent plate and buffer plate is above the flyer plate which is made of rubber. Cardboard is used for protecting the top surface of flyer plate due to explosive charge of detonation. Now charge is exploded with the help of detonator which is placed at the one end of the flyer plate. As the explosive ignited flyer plate moves towards the target with the high velocity. Under such high pressure and high velocity metal flows ahead of the joining front acting like a fluid jet in such a way inter locking bond is formed.

Explosive material
High velocity (14750-25000 ft/s) Trinitrotoluene (TNT) Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN) Mid-low velocity (4900-47500 ft/s) Ammonium nitrate Ammonium perchlorate Amatol

ADVANTAGES
No heat-affected zone (HAZ) The term use HAZ means

Only minor melting(plastic deformation) Material melting temperatures and coefficients of thermal expansion differences do not affect the final product The shock front compresses and heats the explosive material which exceeds the sonic velocity of undetonated explosives

PROCESS OCCURS AT VERY SAFE PLACE GENERALLY DONE UNGROUND BECAUSE OF USE OF HIGH REACTIVE EXPLOSIVE. GENERALLY IT NEED an miles distance in the ground.

Now a days DYNAMIC MATERIAL CORPORATION (DMC) is a leader in explosive welding it uses a process decribed below:-

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF JET AND WHATS ITS USE HERE?

IN EXPLOSIVE WELDING explosive burns at a constant velocity And put the downward force of 200 million psi & air pressure in the gap between the upper plate and base metal is start getting out at very fast velocity this we called a jet (due to its high velocity)

The use of jet in explosive welding is important as due to its high velocity it clear the dust particles from the base metal which help in getting good welding. There is no dust particle left on the base metal when upper plate(clad metal or flyer) join to the base metal at the time of explosion