ORBITAL WELDING OF STAINLESS STEEL TUBING

Orbital welding has been proven to be a very effective method for joining of
stainless steel tubing for systems in which the products flowing through them must
be maintained in a clean and/or sterile condition. The capability of making smooth,
crevice-free welds that maintain uniformity and consistency for thousands of joints
have made orbital welding technology the accepted joining technology for the
semiconductor and biopharmaceutical industries in the United States. Crevice-free
welds are essential for controlling the growth of microorganisms in hygienic piping
systems.

The food and dairy industries in the United States, which have been slow to adopt
orbital welding, have shown an increasing awareness during the past year or so that
the joining technology used for the fabrication of sanitary piping systems is
fundamental to achieving and maintaining cleanability and sterilizability and are
taking steps to improve the hygienic condition of their piping systems.

The food and dairy industry is following the lead of the bioprocess industry which
introduced a new standard for the design and fabrication of bioprocessing
equipment, including piping, (ASME Bioprocessing Equipment Standard BPE 97)
in November, 1997. The 3-A Sanitary Standards Committee in collaboration with
the American Welding Society (AWS), has just published the AWS

D18.1 Standard for welds in stainless steel piping systems which come in contact
with the product.

This standard is more precise and well defined than previous standards used by the
food and dairy industry. However, breweries, both in the USA and abroad, have
long recognized the advantages of orbital welding for achieving a high level of
cleanliness in their piping systems. The demand for higher standards is driven by
new technologies including bioprocessing and advanced food processing
technologies, as well as by the global marketplace. International trade in
biopharmaceutical as well as food and dairy products has led to improvements in
plant construction methods abroad, including the introduction of orbital welding, to
meet the more exacting requirements for export, particularly to the USA.
The standards writing groups have had to deal with defining weld acceptance
criteria and related issues including metallurgical considerations, such as the
optimal sulphur content of 316L stainless steel, and the amount of permissible
discoloration of the weld and heat-affected zone. These issues will be examined as
well as orbital welding standard operating procedures (SOPs) that have been