Automatic submerged-arc welding (Paton Institute)
Soldadura automática por arco sumergido (Instituto Paton)
- Date
- 1940 · confidence medium
- Place
- Kyiv, Ukraine
- Credited to
- Yevhen Paton Electric Welding Institute
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A process in which an electric arc jumps between a continuous wire and the workpiece under a layer of granulated flux. It allows thick sections to be welded at high speed with little spatter, and was used in mass production of armoured vehicles.
The submerged-arc process had already been patented in the United States around 1935 (Jones, Kennedy and Rothermund; Linde Unionmelt); the Paton Institute developed it independently in 1938-1940 with its own fluxes and applied it on an industrial scale, above all in wartime armoured-vehicle production. Yevhen Paton and his son Borys led the work.
What it led to
- mass production of T-34 tank hulls
- welding of large structures: ships, bridges, tanks
- electroslag welding (1949)