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Introduction:
Coiled tubing is a unique product, because it is designed to retain pressure
during and after undergoing fatigue cycling. It often becomes necessary to place
butt welds into sections of coiled tubing. These butt welds must also be capable
of withstanding fatigue cycling while providing continued pressure containment.
In order to assure the weld will provide the desired result in the field, a
systematic approach to making good welds repeatedly must be adhered to. This
systematic approach must consider the following individual phases to the
system.
Qualified Welding Procedure
Qualified and Competent Welder
Tubing condition at time of welding and welding preparation
Welding environment conditions
Welding techniques
Weld finishing and Inspection
This Technical bulletin will review the considerations for individual phases of a
well-planned coiled tubing welding system. Because every location and situation
is different, not all of the comments included will be applicable all the time or at
every location.
Welding Environment
Welds can be made at the factory or in service centers in nearly ideal
environments. Welds made at service company’s district yards; at field camps;
outside operations and on site operations can present far less than ideal welding
environments. Welds made in non-ideal environments may be the need to have
a safety factor or mechanical property derating applied to the tubing. This
derating should be considered independently from fatigue derating (if any) and
only to the section as defined by coiled tubing management program containing
the butt weld. The magnitude of any derating is the responsibility of the coiled
tubing user. An example might be to treat QT-800 and QT-1000 butt weld
mechanical properties as equivalent to QT-700 properties. The butt welds made
in less than ideal environments, should be removed at the earliest opportunity
and replaced by a butt weld made in a near ideal environment. The replacement
weld should be capable of carrying all intended loads of the parent tubing.
Welding Joint
Several joint designs have been used on coiled tubing. They include double "V"
grooves, with and without a land, "J" and "U" bevels and occasionally the square
butt joint. Diagrams of these bevels and the terminology used in bevel design are
shown in figure 1.
"V" grooves employ bevel angles to allow introduction of filler metals and
distribute welding stresses developed due to thermal contraction of the weld
bead. Included angles in the bevel can vary from 30° to as much as 90° ,
dependent on local needs. Studies on piping components have shown that 37
½° ± 2 ½° per side or 75° included angles distribute these stresses and minimize
distortion in tubing welds effectively. "V" grooves may have featheredges of 1/16"
to 1/8" root faces or lands on the root of the bevel. Featheredges are easier to
prepare by hand grinding, which may be the only option in some locations.
Consistent lands are best prepared by weld beveling tools, but can be made by
experience hand grinding operator.
"J" and "U" bevels must be prepared by weld beveling machines. They are used
to reduce the amount of filler metal required in a weld groove. In coiled tubing
welding of thicker and higher strength materials, the dilution of too much filler
metal can have an adverse influence on the mechanical properties of the welded
joint.
Square bevels have been used for relatively thin wall coiled tubing and are
normally welded autogenously (without filler metal additions). These joints are
no longer recommended for welding coiled tubing. These close fit joints have no
root spacing and the base metal provides the metal for the weldment. Weld
penetration to fuse the inner root must be carefully controlled and may be limited
by the maximum welding amperage. Without filler metal the bead can be
concave, which can in turn, lead to weld cracking.
Weld joint preparation requires removal of internal flash, if present, from the
weld area. If left in place, the flash could crate an artificial heat sink or source for
weld contamination, effecting welding characteristics and quality. Joint
preparation must leave the weld joint within tubing tolerances while not creating
any local stress risers, such as visible to the naked eye, circumferential grinding
marks, which could effect finished fatigue and mechanical properties.
Base Metals
Coiled tubing grades are predominately made from high strength low alloy strip,
like coiling operations. This can significantly increases the tendency for coiled
tubing to ASTM A606 Gr4 (Mod.). Tubing manufacture forms the tubing, seam
anneals, stress relieves and spools this material, making each grade of coiled
tubing a unique base material. This generally leads to the requirement that each
separate grade of coiled tubing requires separate procedure and qualification.
Much welding is performed on tubing that has been used. Provisions must be
made to handle residual bending, ovality, diameter and wall thickness
differences in fitting up the tubing for welding. Contingency plans for handling
contaminated, corroded or magnetized tubing should be in place as well.
Filler Metals:
There are no known filler metals with chemistry and welded mechanical property
results matching coiled tubing grades. Filler metals must be selected from the
available commercial grades primarily designed for welding carbon and low alloy
steels. GENERALLY, AWS A5.18 ER70S-2 or ER70S-6 filler metals are used for
grades up to and including QT-900. Though listed as having comparable
mechanical properties to coiled tubing grades, many ER80X-X and ER90X-X
grades contain chromium or other elements are not recommended. These filler
metals are hardenable during air-cooling from welding temperatures and require
preheat and or post weld heat treatment to control hardness and cracking. These
thermal treatments are capable of severely reducing the strength of the
surrounding coiled tubing base metal. AWS A5.28 ER120-S-1 is normally used
for joining QT-1000.
In most cases the filler metal is "under matched " to the base metal. That means
it either contains fewer alloying elements, which will not develop the same as
welded strength as the material being welded. To compensate for the under
match, dilution of the base metal chemistry and reproduction of the grain size
are important to the finished weldment properties. Precautions must be taken to
assure the filler metal does not create a deposit of under matched filler metal
large enough to create a weak zone in an other wise uniform, strong coiled
tubing string.
Filler metal sizes or GTAW rods are normally 1/32" to 3/32", based on the
thickness of the bead and welder control required. 1/16" diameter filler metal is
most often used.
Positions
Most procedures are developed in the ASME Section IX defined 5G position with
the tubing horizontal. This requires the weld bead to start at the bottom of the
weld joint and progress upward. Welds made in the factory, service centers base
camps and even field locations are made in this position. Occasionally there are
requirements for welds to be mad in the 2G position with the pipe vertical. In
ASME Section IX qualifications, both welding procedures and welders qualified
in the 5G position qualify to weld in the 2G position, but not vice versa. Field
experience has indicated the same is true for coiled tubing qualifications. There
are instances in operations where welding in the 6G position or between 15° of
vertical and 15° of horizontal. If the tubing cannot be positioned within 15° of
vertical or horizontal, the codes require separate qualifications. If performed, the
qualification in 6G position, then qualifies the procedure or welder for the 5G and
2G position also.
Preheat
Coiled tubing is made from high strength low alloy steels designed to be welded
without preheat to prevent thermal cracking. Experience has shown preheating
existing coiled tubing grades can reduce mechanical properties of the heat-
affected zone. In fact, the use of chill blocks to remove heat and preserve
properties is well established in welding all grades of coiled tubing. To assure
mechanical properties in thicker walls, requiring multi-pass welds; it may be
necessary to provide auxiliary cooling to the chill blocks between passes. There
have been no reported incidences of weld cracking due to lack of preheat.
Heat may be applied to drive off absorbed surface moisture from sources
including over night condensation or contaminates carried by used tubing. When
this is done, it is advisable to cool the joint to approach ambient temperature
before making the weld.
Historically carbon equivalent equations have been used to predict the need for
preheat in carbon and low alloy weldments. The chemistries of the higher
strength grades of coiled tubing suggest preheat should be employed. The
carbon equivalent equations were developed to include much thicker welds and
highly restrained weld joints. Today’s coiled tubing wall thickness and weld
fixturing allow more latitude. Coiled tubing grades, primarily due to their high
strength low alloy, fine grain structure; appear more tolerant to welding without
preheat then their low alloy counterparts with comparable carbon equivalents.
Gas
The shielding gas will usually be either welding grade Argon or 75% Helium,
25% Argon. It is important that the gas be welding grade or better to assure it is
not contaminated with elements such as oxygen. Since the shielding gas
protects the tungsten electrode and weld puddle from high temperature
oxidation, the purity is important.
The selection of welding gas may first be dictated by availability, particularly in
remote locations. Argon tends to have a cooler welding arc with less penetrating
power than helium. Mixed gases of argon and helium will tend to have hotter
arcs and more penetrating power as the concentration of helium increases. A
second benefit is helium, being lighter than air, tends to rise from the torch flow,
while argon, being heavier than air, tends to fall. Mixed gases entering the inside
diameter of the tubing are believed to provide better overall protection of the root
when backing gases are not used.
Gas flow rates are important to provide continuous shielding of the weld pool.
The minimum flow rate must protect the weld pool, while overcoming disruptive
influences of arc heating or cross drafts. If the flow rate is too high, the gas flow
can become turbulent and inspirited air with its oxygen to the weld pool. To allow
higher flow rates, gas lenses are used in the torch nozzle to keep flow laminar at
higher flow rates. Flow rates should be measured with a flow meter calibrated
for the molecular weight of the shielding gas. The difference in molecular weight
between helium and argon means the flow rates required to provide equivalent
protection for helium are normally higher than for argon.
An important step in assuring the effectiveness of shielding gas is the protection
of the welding area form strong cross drafts. When welding in exposed areas, it
is often necessary to employ barriers to wind flow. Area or cooling fans should
be turned off during the time actual welding is performed. The welding shielding
cannot compromise the safety of the welder and the quality of his breathing air.
Electrical characteristics
The GTAW process uses direct current, straight polarity in the welding arc. This
makes the tungsten electrode negative in the circuit.
The tungsten electrode is normally 3/32" diameter 2% Throated Tungsten. The
electrode is ground to a point with a controlled included angle, typically 60
degrees. The tip is then truncated, with a small flat place on the end of the point
to prevent the tip melting off into the weld puddle.