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Using Tungsten Inert Gas Welding Equipment to Locally Heat Tubes and Achieve Inhomogeneous Thickness in Tube Sinking Processes

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Abstract:

Abstract. Tubes with non-uniform thickness are needed to even out wall thickness in draw bending and provide higher stiffness in specific directions in some applications. Tailored local heating of the tubes in tube sinking operations should reduce the local flow stresses and facilitate differential deformation along the circumference of tubes to form tubes with uneven wall thicknesses. Local heating of tubes prior to entry into the die in tube sinking is implemented in this research to form tubes with higher thickness in desired directions. Initial experiments are conducted using plasma heating by tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding equipment on EN AW 6060 AlMgSi0.5 aluminum tubes. The process window is described by varying the process temperature (weld current between 50 A and 80 A) while altering the degree of deformation, the tube diameter, and tube thickness. Tubes with no defects were formed at 50 A. Increasing the weld current led to a higher wall thickness (up to 25% thickness increase), however, high weld currents also favored the formation of surface defects, wrinkle formation, or burn-through holes depending on the process setup. The process window was larger for tubes with higher wall thickness.

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Periodical:

Key Engineering Materials (Volume 1048)

Pages:

83-91

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4028/p-Jpedh0

Citation:

Cite this paper

Online since:

April 2026

Authors:

Lemopi Isidore Besong*, Johannes Buhl

Keywords:

Local Heating, Process Window, Tube Sinking, Variable Wall Thickness

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Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

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* - Corresponding Author

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