Esab (www.esab.com) has supplied an automated welding system to EWP Windtower Production AB for making longitudinal welds in sections of wind-turbine towers.

The submerged-arc welding system comprises a CaB 460C column-and-boom that manipulates a tandem ‘single + twin’ welding head with an FFRS Super flux feed and recovery system (complete with heaters and filter unit).

Power comes from three Esab Aristo 1000 welding power sources, with control via Esab PEK controllers complemented by a GMH automatic joint-tracking system.

In addition to this equipment, EWP Windtower is also using Esab consumables, namely OK Autrod 12.22 copper-coated unalloyed welding wire and OK Flux 10.71 agglomerated basic flux.

EWP Windtower needed to increase the capacity of its factory in Landskrona, Sweden, for manufacturing wind-turbine towers, so the company decided to automate the welding of longitudinal seams on the smaller-diameter sections by installing a column-and-boom submerged-arc welding system.

Tenders were invited from prospective suppliers, and the contract was won by Esab, which has been supplying welding equipment to EWP Windtower for 15 years.

The customised CaB 460C system has a working envelope that extends to a height of 6m with a reach of 6m. The maximum speed of the carriage and boom is 5m/min, and structural steel grades S235 and S355 are welded in thicknesses from 12 to 60mm.

Mahyar Mansoori, production manager at EWP Windtower, said: “Technical support from our suppliers is very important, and this is one of the reasons why we awarded the contract to Esab.

“Of course, the primary considerations were price and delivery time, but we would not have placed the order if we had any doubts about the equipment’s reliability.”