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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY0.1 Welding electrode is a delicate tool wh ich while in us e com bine sphysic al, chemical, an d metallurgica l proc esse s of th e flux, core wire

an d pa ren t metal to achieve a durable weld joint or surfacing. Withadvent of electronically controlled welding equipments and use ofgas as shielding medium the co nstruction of welding electrode ha ssimplified con siderably. For m as s welding jo bs solid co nt in uo uswelding wires find increasing application. Welding electrodes areus ed in joining, surfacing an d protective ma int en an ce for variedmaterials and thus their variety is large while their raw materialrequirement being very specific.0.2 Com mercial prod uctio n of welding electrodes w as sta rte d in India inearly 1960s. In 1970s a number of companies with foreign collabo-ration or joint venture w ent into produc tion. Sm all scale sectorentered the scene in 1980. In 1980s too, a number of organisedsector un its were set up with foreign collaboration b u t now in specialwelding con sum ables .0.3 In Welding Electrode indu stry there are 28 organised sector un its ofstick electrodes and 8 m anu factu rers of con tinu ous welding wires.There are around 100 small scale units in this industry. Stick

electrodes, wh ich can be categorised into 8 to 10 bro ad gr oup s, areof around 150 varieties. Continuous welding electrodes of solidcore(MlG an d MAG) type and flux cored type are m an ufa ctu red inIndia. In stick electrode the product mix is of mild steel electrodes(about 60%), mild steel high tensile and low hydrogen low alloy(about 30%), and special type (about 10%). Indigenously producedelectrodes find application in major industries like Railways, Petro-chemicals, Fertil izers, Sugar, Automobile, Nuclear Power andothers .0.4 Foreign collaboration s have contin ued in welding electrode in du str yfrom early 196 0s till da te . Initially AOL, Philip s, and IOL en ter ed th em ark et with joint ven tures with their pa ren t com panies . GEEL andModi Arc went ahead with technical foreign collaboration in whichknow-how an d ma chinery supply were included. In late '80s collabo-rations were for specialised welding consumables like SAW fluxes,

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Flux cored wires, etc. Status of collaborations in welding electrodeindustry is given at Table-0.1.TA BLE-0 .1

STATUS OF FOREIGN COLLABORATION OF ELECTRODEMANUFACTURERS

S r.No.

1.

2 .

3 .

4.

5.

6 .

7 .

8 .

N a m e of theCompany

Apar Pvt Ltd.

Advani OerlikonLtd.

Genera l Elec trodes& Equipments Ltd.

T&R Welding Prod ucts(India) Ltd.

NucorWeld Pvt Ltd.

Ewac Alloys ltd.

Krish Brown Welding(P) Ltd.

Aditya Electrodes PvtLtd

Collaborator

West inghouseUSA

Welding Indus-tries,OerlikonSwitzerland

Messer G rie-sheim GmbH -Germany.

T&R Weldingprod ucts , UK

UTP Schwiss-materia l AG,Germany.

EntecticCastoline, USA

Alexander BrownU.K.

OmmitrodeEdels tahlElec troden GmbH,Germany.

ProductN a m e

WeldingElectrodes

Weldingc o n s u m a b l e s

WeldingElectrodes

WeldingElectrodes

Weldingconsumable s

-do-

-do-

SpecialElectrodes

Nature ofCollaboration

Technica l

Technica l

Technica l

Technica l

Technica l

Technica l

Financia l

Financia l

Year

1987

-

-

1987

1986

1986

1989

Status

Expired

Valid

Expired

Valid

Valid

Valid

Valid

Valid

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Sr.No.

9 .

1 0 .

II )

1.

2 .

3 .

4 .

5 .

6 .

Name of theCompany

D&H SecheronElectrodes (P) Ltd.

Esab India Ltd.

Collaborator

D&H SecheronGermany

Esab A B,Sweden

ProductName

-do-

ElrctrodeRecipes

Continuous Solid Wires/Flux Cored Wires

Maharashtra WeldaidsLtd.

Mig-Weld & Machines(P) Ltd.wires.

Advance Welding AlloysPvtLtd.

Kostech India Ltd.

Nucor Wires Ltd.

Modi Arc ElectrodeCo .

Lamnea BrukAB, Sweden

Italfll SNC,Italy

Welding AlloysLtd., UK

Kostech International ltd.W.Australia

Alloy RodsCorpn., USA

Hobart BrosCo., USA

Coppercoatedwires.

co 2Welding

Tubularweldingalloys

do-

-do-

Submergedwelding

Nature ofCollaboration

Technical

rechniedl

Technical

Technical

Financial

Financial

Technical

TechnicalElec-trodes andfluxes

Table -Year

r989

1986

1984

1986

-

1989

1.0 (Contd.)Status

Expired

Valid

Valid

Valid

Valid

Notknown

Valid

Valid

Source: Company Annual Reports0.5 Atpresen t there are 28organised sector welding electrode u ni ts w ithinstalled capacity of 1054.61 million runnin g m eters in India. Out of

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the 2 8 uni ts two uni ts control arou nd 40% of the instal led capacityand six un its control aroun d 60% of the instal led capacity. The restis fragmented among 22 units . The SSI sector which entered thisind ustry a decade ago h as a t present a sh are of 30% of the total s t ickelectrode production. Confirmed production data of continuouswelding electrodes is no t available. In welding electrodes ex po rts a swell as imp orts have be en very l imited. In 1991 im po rts were of theorder of Rs.4.10 crores and exports Rs.6.5 crores.

0.6 For majority of the electrode m anu factu rers the major m anu factu r-ing processes involved in production of stick electrode are wiredrawing, wire cutting to size, flux constituent grinding, dry mixing,wet kneading, s lug preparation, wire coating, brushing, printing,drying and packing. They have similar m anu factu ring facil it ieswhich includes major machinery l ike drawbench, dry and wet f luxmixers, s lug press, wire feeder, ex truder, bak ing oven, and pack ingm ach ine. A few un its have very sophist icated insp ection an d test ingfacilities and observe stringent quality control procedures.

0.7 The technology with respect to welding electrodes aro un d the worldis basically based on extrusion press. Leading manufacturers haveautom ated the i r plan ts by process control equipmen ts , and ma ter ia lhand l ing equipm ents . They have int roduced com puter ised b atchingplants , X-ray f luorescent testers , high speed extrusion presses,digital concentricity testers etc . Use of su ch equ ipm ents is economi-cal for the m as they have very high plan t capacit ies . Special pu rpo seelectrode manufacturers at tain their leadership by carrying outres ear ch in specific application ar eas like protective m ain ten an ce , intheir rese arch cen tres spread world wide. In co ntin uo us weldingwires automat ic drawing plants and coat ing plants a re used.

0.8 Technology for welding electrodes imp orted over th e last 3 de cad eshas been fully absorbed and adapted. Indian collaborators havebeen able to improvise and indigenous f lux formulations and al lmanufacturing machinery. However no further innovative changesnave been carried out in manufacturing machinery design.

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0.9 CONCLUSIONS0.9.1 Welding electrodes are required for joining, ha rd facing an d pro tec-tive maintenance. They are delicate tools. Their end results aredependent on interplay of physical, chemical and metallurgicalprocess. There are wide variety of welding processes but all do not

us e electrodes. Nor are all proc esse s which us e electrodes ha ve widecommercial application and large consum ption. The process whichuses electrodes and has largest commercial application and con-sum ptio n in India is Man ual M etal Arc welding proce ss. It is carriedout by stick electrodes and continuous welding wires. Stick elec-trod es of 8 to 10 broa d varieties find wide application in India. CO 2type continuous welding wires and to some extent MIG wires arefinding increasing acceptance. Flux cored wires are yet to beaccep ted for regula r comm ercial us e.0.9.2 Welding technology is practise d in India since las t 3 dec ade s. Atpresent there are 28 organised sector welding electrode units withinstalled cap acity of 1054.61 MRM in India. A m atrix of pr od uc ts an dcom panies is given at Annexure-16. Ou t of the 2 8, two un its controlmore than 40% of the installed capacity. There are no public sectorunits producing welding electrodes. The SSI sector which enteredthis industry a decade ago has a share of 30% of the total stickelectrode production of India. Its significant growth is attributed toits low price product, which has been well accepted.0.9.3 Basic technology of welding electrode prod uctio n w as received fromdeveloped countries like Sweden, Germany, USA, and UK throughforeign collaborations and joint ventures. Initially basic machineslike extrusion pre ss, wire feeder, etc. were impo rted with th e kno w-how of electrode recipes and m ethod of prep aring flux com positio ns.Most of the organ ised sec tor uni ts who have had foreign know -howhave assimilated the technology and now do not depend on importedraw materials and equ ipm ents except for very sophisticated require-

m en ts. M /s . Advani Orlikon Ltd. h as played a lead role in technolog yassimilation and upgradation as well as in training of technicalman pow er. At prese nt quite a few m anu factu rers have not ex tendedtheir decade long collaboration aggreement. An assessment indi-cate s tha t tho se with extended foreign collaboratio ns of join t ven-tur es are more up-to-d ate technologically and hav e synergic adv an-tage in export market.(xv)


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0.9.4 In India, basic m anu factu ring technology for welding electrode s h a sremained same over the years. Various electrode coating plantdesigns have been tr ied out by the Indian electrode m anu fact ure rs .At present horizontal type (angular and rightangled both) electrodecoating plants have found wide acceptance. Screw type press wasalso tried out bu t wa s found com mercially unviab le. Ind ian e lectrodemanufacturers and electrode plant manufacturers can now developcomplete stick electrode manufacturing plant as well as CO 2 wireplant. Capital equipment in new organised sector units and all theSSI sector units are largely Indian.

0.9.5 In Welding Electrodes, export as well as impo rt have bee n quitelimited. Exports are increasing although the pace is s low. Importshave decreased over the years. However they are mainly for smallhighly specialised application requirements.

0.9.6 The dem and of general purp ose mild steel and special pu rpo seelectrodes ha s been estimated at 867 MRM and 9 6 MRM in 1 994 -95.Increase in the dem and in the coming decade is dep end ent on steelcon sum ption . The dem and of con tinuo us weld wire is estima ted atat 12040 Tonnes in the year 1994-95.0.9 .7 Res earch an d developm ent activities in th is sector are carried ou t by

leading 5 private sector companies and public sector WeldingResearch Insti tute, Tiruchy. Electrode manufacturers who do notcarry out in house research suffer from limited product range.

0.9.8 Welding Research Insti tute, Tiruchy h as don e considerable work indevelopm ent an d spre ad of welding electrode pro du ction technology.Its work has specially benefitted small scale sector units. The laterhav e received technology for general pu rpo se electrodes, SAW fluxes,hard facing and super hard facing electrodes etc. and weldingequipments .0.10 RECOMMENDATIONS

Re com me nd ations w ith resp ect to sta tu s of technology in the field ofwelding electrodes and i ts upg radation, ad option an d ab sorbtio n ofexisting and future technologies in the field are as follows :(xvi )


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0.10.1 D ue to lack of knowledge of its application and cost econ om ies, to alarge extent, higher productivity welding consumables like CO 2continuous welding wires and flux cored wires fail to find higherdem and . In view of this i t is pertinent to star t vigorous m arke tingefforts by existing leading manufacturers of consumables andequipments to educate the users .

0.10.2 Majority of organised sector un its have quite low installe d cap acitie sto enable them to use modern machinery set up like computerisedbatching plant, X-ray florescent tester, etc. The electrode plantm anufa cturers should arrange these technologies and try to adoptit for lower capacity plants if possible

0.10.3 The organised sector m anu factu rers are adequ ately equipped forphysical p art in electrode produ ction . However test ing facilities an dquality assurance systems are inadequate. Approval of inspectionagencies, Indian and foreign, is for limited specific types of elec-trodes. Quality and reliability of other varieties are dependent onQuality Assurance Systems of the manufacturer . The m anufa ctur-ers need to be exposed to international practices in Quality Assur-ance Systems like ISO 9000, which are desirable, in order to faceinternational competition.

0.10.4 Err atic supp ly of rutile an d electrode quality steel is affectingcapacity utilisation of electrode manufacturers. With full fledgedcomm issioning of IRE, Orissa plant th e Rutile sho rtage is expectedto be relieved. Teething trouble of the plant need to be quicklyresolved.

0.10 .5 Electrode quality steel shortage is felt in sum m er m on th s du e topower cuts at major producer plants. It is met by Mini steel plantsby non-rimming semi-killed steels but they have higher trampelements, TISCO has established metallurgy, drawability and con-sistency of non rimming semi-killed steels. Future trend of concastroute of steel production will lead to tramp element free steel fromMini Steel plants. Concast route of steel production should beencouraged.

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0 . 1 0 . 6 E l e c t r o d e m a n u f a c t u r e r s h a v e t o d e a l w i t h 1 0 t o 1 2 d i ff e re n t I n d i a na g e n c i e s t o g e t a n d m a i n t a i n t h e i r a p p r o v a l . L a r g e o r g a n i s e d s e c t o ru n i t s c a n c o p e u p w i t h i t b u t s m a l l o r g a n i s e d s e c t o r u n i t s a n d S S Iu n i t s f ind i t d i ff icu lt . Bigger un i t s ge t ad va nt ag e of s ize wh i le d ea l in gw i t h l a r g e n u m b e r of a p p r o v a l a g e n c i e s . A c e n t r a l i s e d i n s p e c t i o na g e n c y c a n g o a l o n g w a y i n e n c o u r a g i n g S S I u n i t s a n d o r g a n i s e dsec to r un i t s t o go in fo r m or e ap p rov a l s .

0 .1 0 .7 Fo r e l ec t rod es for sou r ga s p ipe l i nes , cen t ra l i se d co r ro s ion t e s t i n gfaci li ty ba se d on NACE s t an da n ds n ee ds t o be p u t u p . I t i s d i ff icu ltfor any one un i t to have such a fac i l i ty .

0 .1 0 .8 R & D e ffor t i n Ind i a for we ld ing e l ec t rod es i s f ragm en ted a m on g fewl e a d i n g m a n u f a c t u r e r s a n d W R I , T i r u c h y . V e r y f r e q u e n tl y r e s e a r c he ffor t i s be ing sp en t on a l read y deve loped p r od uc t s . Ma jo r i ty o f t h em a n u f a c t u r e r s c a n n o t o f f e r t o c a r r y o u t r e s e a r c h o n t h e i r o w n .D e p a r t m e n t of S c i e n c e a n d T e c h n o lo g y , N e w D e l h i h a s w o r k e d o u tS E R C j o i n t f u n d i n g s c h e m e fo r c o o p e r a ti v e r e s e a r c h a f te r d e l i b e r a -t i o n s i n 1 9 9 0 s e m i n a r o n W e l di n g E q u i p m e n t a n d C o n s u m a b l e s .D e t a i l s of t h e s c h e m e a r e g iv e n a t A n n e x u r e - 1 7 . D e p a r t m e n t ofSc i en ti f ic a nd Ind us t r i a l R ese a rc h (DSIR) un de r one of i t ' s s ch em ePr og ram m e Aimed a t Techn o log ica l Se lf Re l i ance (PATSER) p rov idep a r t i a l s u p p o r t t o a p p r o v e d R e s e a r c h , D e v e l o p m e n t , D e s i g n a n dEng inee r ing (RDDE) p ro j ec t s p roposed by indus t ry fo r :

A b s o r p t i o n a n d U p g r a d a t i o n of i m p o r t e d t e c h n o l o g y .I n d i g e n e o u s d e v e l o p m e n t o f C a p i t a l G o o d s .D e v e l o p m e n t a n d d e m o n s t r a t i o n o f n e w o r im p r o v e d t e c h n o l o -g ies .

B u l k of t h e f inanc i a l su pp or t t o t h e p ro j ec t i s t o be f rom Ind us t ry ' sr e s o u r c e s , t h e D e p a r t m e n t ' s s u p p o r t is m a i n l y t o m e e t p a r t of t hed e v e l o p m e n t a l e x p e n d i t u r e s f o r :

P ro to type o r p i l o t p l an t deve lopmen t .R a w m a t e r i a ls a n d c o m p o n e n t s .

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Research consultancy and assistance from National researchOrganisations.Consumables and other operational costs in experimentalwork and field/users tr ials.

Electrode manufacturers should take lead role in such schemes.0.10.9 Over the years Electrode m anu factu rers have not been exportoriented. Exports have been less than one percent of total stickelectrode production. With new exchange rate of rupee, Indianelectrodes are becoming internationally competitive. Electrode m an u -facture rs need to app roa ch Ministry of Com merce, Govt. of India w ithproposals to get Input /Output norms and Value Addit ion norms.These are ne cessa ry to get export incentives. Priority in quo ta sup ply

of raw materials like EQ steel and Rutile should be given forrequire m ents of export orders. Expo sure among electrode m anu fac-tur ers to world ma rke ts need to be increased by concerned insti tu -t ions, l ike EEPC, through seminars etc.0.10 .10 Com parison of prices an d quality of welding electrode pl an ts ofEuro pean and Indian plant m anu factu rers reveal tha t the former'sprices are quite high relative to their quality. Indian pla nt m an ufa c-tu re rs ca n be competitive in exports if they improve their w ork m an -

ship, basic engineering and stick to delivery schedules.0.10.1 1 Majority of the existing sma ll scale m an ufa ctu rer s are no t qualityconscious and are inadequately equipped in terms of testing facili-ties. Experts estimate that a fullfledged laboratory would costaround Rs. 20 lakhs. Sophisticated testing and inspection equip-me nt should be arranged by these ma nufacturers through securingfinances from financial institutions and others.0.10 .12 Till date the re are 11 foreign collaborations in stick electrode s an d 5foreign co llabo ration s in CO2 wires/FCW wires/copp er coated wires .Five of the se h ave been in form of join t ven tur es. T hese have provedto be more successful in term s of benefits accru ed to the India n un it.In future, new collaborations can be encouraged for products notmanufactured in India like SS flux cored wires, TIG wires, SAWfluxes, special application FCW, etc. Units may critically examine

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before entering into any foreign collaboration for electrode of MildSteel, Mild S teel H igh Ten sile, Low Alloy Low Hy drogen an d CO 2 wire.Hard facing electrodes, he at resis tant electrodes and s tainless steelelectrodes available in India fulfil the Indian requirements.0.10.1 3 Large organised sector m anu factu rers sho uld work on projects forelectrode plant with technology supply to developing countries.0.1 0.14 National level rese arc h effort, in welding in general and w eldingeldctrodes in particular should be coordinated by a centralisedagency like WRI, Tiruchy. This will help to focus scarce resourcesbette r. The funds m ay be sourc es from leading fabricators, electrodeproducers and others and for special projects joint sponsorship oftwo or more can be considered.0.1 0.1 5 In MIG wires, low and high alloy co ntin uo us filler m ateria l an d fluxesbo th for joining an d surfacing n eed to be developed. Leading m an u -facturers can take up such development work.0.1 0.1 6 In India the re is no one point natio nal level testin g facility withadequate equipment , t ra ined manpower and nat ional and interna-tional recognition. WRI has the first two ingredients. With installa-tion of testing facilities as p er NACE stan da rd s, WRI can be recognisedas National Test House for welding consum able s an d pow er sou rces .

A brief writeu p on WRI facilities, to work a s n atio na l Test H ouse isgiven at Annesure - 18.

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