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Show Now Pipe Welding Equipment Used at Consolidated Western There is a lot of difference between be-tween a welding machine and a railroad car. Yet, a new piece, of welding equipment in the West's most modern pipe plant has brought a circus train look to the humble railroad flat car. It started recently when the Utah pipe mill of U. S. Steel's Consolidated! Western Steel Division Divi-sion put into operation a new welding weld-ing machine which seams together two 40-foot lengths of heavy, large diameter steel gas line pipe into one section 80 feet long. Pipeline customers of this U. S. Steel operation op-eration were anxious to buy pipe in longer lengths to cut down welding the sections together in the field. Load specialists from three Western Wes-tern railroads and traffic engineers engin-eers from Pacific Gas and Electric Elec-tric and Consolidated Western put their heads together and devised a method of carrying the extra long sections of pipe soi that turns and switchbacks in the rugged western mountains are negotiated with no trouble. Five flat cars are used to carry car-ry two loads of the pipe stacked four sections high. The second and fourth cars carry loads while the first, third and fifth cars act as overlap cars. "It's very simple, works fine, and we do not have a bit of trouble," the engineers report. The operation of the new welding weld-ing machine which is called a round seamer adds another feature fea-ture to the C-W Utah pipe plant which started operations early last year. Engineers of Consolidated Western designed and built the machine, which takes the ends of two pieces of pipe and welds them together. Using a submerged arc weld, the sections of pipe slowly rotate under the welding head making mak-ing the seam. Pipe ranging in size from 36 inches in diameter to 24 inches in diameter can be welded on the new machine. More than one pass through the welder is necessary depending on the size of the weld. Pipeline engineers say this method of welding sections together produces a very high quality qual-ity weld which aids operations in the field. |