On  Feb. 4, the submerged arc automatic welding for storage tanks of the sulfuric  acid project in KSA was officially kicked off, marking a major breakthrough of  automatic welding application in the international projects. The procedure  involves a number of innovations: Un-supported vertical welding, vacuum cup  orbital, full-position flux cored gas shielding, etc.

Automatic  welding features with a variety of advantages when it is applied in storage  tanks and towers, and is a key process which is encouraged by the government to  be developed. At the commencement of the project, SNEI decided to employ the  automatic welding procedure for towers and storage tanks of the sulfuric acid  project. The Project Management Team made all the preparations including  procedure approval, equipment purchasing, welding material purchasing,  preparation of welding procedure qualification, welder qualification, and have  overcome various difficulties, and achieved start of automatic welding on Feb.  4. Seams made by the automatic welding have a pleasant appearance, and have high  one-time pass rate, which have earned positive recognition by the  PMC.