SHI FW ENERGIA FAKOP Sp.zo.o., Poland

CMT cladding tower for finned walls

FAKOP company building

SHI FW Energia FAKOP: Specialist in boiler system components

Industrial company SHI FW Energia FAKOP can reflect on tradition stretching back over a century. In 1880, Wilhelm Fitzner and Konrad Gamper founded the “W. Fitzner Dampfkesselfabrik” steam boiler works in Sosnowiec. Today, the company is a successful manufacturer of boiler system components, including circulating fluidized bed boilers.

  • Company HQ: Sosnowiec, Poland
  • Employees: ~200
  • Manufacture of: Boiler system components, including circulating fluidized bed boilers
  • Fronius products used: CMT cladding tower incl. 2 x TPS 500i CMT, HMI-T10, ArcView camera, WeldCube welding data management software
  • Process application: CMT cladding
Jaroslav Olej, Senior Welding Expert at FAKOP
“The majority of our customers now demand the CMT process. In fact, it’s fair to say that it has become the standard when it comes to cladding. And anyone who knows how to use it properly has a good chance of succeeding on the market.”
Jaroslav Olej, FAKOP senior welding expert

The challenge facing FAKOP

The task at FAKOP is to surface finned walls up to 12 meters high and 1.6 meters wide with a robust, pore-free welded metal alloy while ensuring a uniform thickness across the entire surface. Finned walls is the name given to the heating surfaces constructed from tubes and flat bars within the (sometimes huge) water tube boilers used in power generation facilities such as waste to energy plants. Due to the corrosive nature of the fuels used, the surfaces require long-term, durable corrosion protection. The protective process used for this is known as overlay welding or cladding. This is the most economical method of effectively protecting metal surfaces against abrasion and corrosion. A key factor determining the quality of the surfacing is the ‘dilution rate’, in other words the mixing of the base material (which is always steel in the case of finned tubes) with the alloy to be applied—in this instance a special chromium-nickel alloy. To ensure optimum protection, the dilution rate must be as low as possible; FAKOP pursues the ambitious goal of keeping this consistently below 3%.

Fin walls at FAKOP

The solution? Our cladding tower

FAKOP discovered the ideal solution in the form of our cladding tower, which stands approximately 15 meters tall. It can accommodate finned walls ranging from 2 to 12 meters in height and 1.6 meters in width, and is operated using two elevator platforms, each equipped with innovative CMT technology.

 

FAKOP cladding tower for the automated coating of large boiler components.
Highlights of our cladding system
CMT process optimizes droplet detachment
FAKOP primarily opted for our cladding solution due to its use of innovative CMT technology. The advantage of this system lies in the digital process control, which automatically detects short circuits and optimizes droplet detachment by retracting the wire. This creates a back-and-forth movement, which keeps the arc phase short and reduces heat input, resulting in a material transfer process that enables spatter-free cladding with a particularly even surface, smooth seam overlaps, and consistent layer thickness.
Stable arc prevents porosity
Another major system advantage that influenced FAKOP’s decision is the exceptional arc stability guaranteed by our cladding system. This reduces susceptibility to porosity to a minimum and, like the dilution rate, has a decisive influence on weld quality, although it relies on a consistently optimal wire speed. Our reliable wirefeeder ensures this by consistently maintaining the selected wire speed over an impressive distance of 15 meters, guaranteeing the desired arc behavior.
Dilution rate consistently below 3%
Both cladding system welding torches are water-cooled, with the torch temperature having a significant influence on the dilution rate. To ensure the temperature stays within FAKOP's targeted 3% limit value, it must be neither too high nor too low, and must be precisely regulated by the cooling system. This control is achieved through the cladding tower, combined with fine torch adjustments via joystick.
CMT process optimizes droplet detachment
FAKOP primarily opted for our cladding solution due to its use of innovative CMT technology. The advantage of this system lies in the digital process control, which automatically detects short circuits and optimizes droplet detachment by retracting the wire. This creates a back-and-forth movement, which keeps the arc phase short and reduces heat input, resulting in a material transfer process that enables spatter-free cladding with a particularly even surface, smooth seam overlaps, and consistent layer thickness.
Stable arc prevents porosity
Another major system advantage that influenced FAKOP’s decision is the exceptional arc stability guaranteed by our cladding system. This reduces susceptibility to porosity to a minimum and, like the dilution rate, has a decisive influence on weld quality, although it relies on a consistently optimal wire speed. Our reliable wirefeeder ensures this by consistently maintaining the selected wire speed over an impressive distance of 15 meters, guaranteeing the desired arc behavior.
Dilution rate consistently below 3%
Both cladding system welding torches are water-cooled, with the torch temperature having a significant influence on the dilution rate. To ensure the temperature stays within FAKOP's targeted 3% limit value, it must be neither too high nor too low, and must be precisely regulated by the cooling system. This control is achieved through the cladding tower, combined with fine torch adjustments via joystick.
FAKOP finds our WeldCube welding data management software particularly useful, as it records all process data during welding operations and supports process management.

Products used

TPS 500i CMT
Robust touchscreen display; Welding Packages: Standard / Pulse / LSC / PMC / CMT; high-quality range of torches

Downloads & press releases

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Media contact

Franziska Dopona, MA
+43 664 850 2106

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