A method of manufacturing a cylindrical cargo container includes: providing a plurality of rigid panels together formable into a cylindrical shell; forming a first semi-cylindrical shell from a first set of the panels; forming a second semi-cylindrical shell from a second set of the panels; forming the cylindrical shell from the first semi-cylindrical shell and the second semi-cylindrical shell; forming a collar conformably encircling the cylindrical shell; constricting the collar to compress joints formed at abutting edges of pairs of adjacent panels; rolling the cylindrical shell and collar to bring respective joints of pairs of panels to a lower position, and welding an inside seam of the joint when at the lower position; removing the collar from the cylindrical shell; and rolling the cylindrical shell to bring respective joints of pairs of panels to an upper position, and welding an outside of the joint when at the upper position.

A method for limiting fitting distortion when welding a fitting to an in-service pipeline—where the fitting includes a thick, longitudinally extending, seam located between fitting halves—involves welding, on each side of the fitting, a middle third section of the seam in a pyramid-like fashion using an inward progression starting from an end of the middle third section along a profile of a seam bevel, and welding outer third sections of the seam using an outward progression from an end adjacent to the middle third section along a profile of the seam bevel. The welding of each of the three sections per side includes a temper bead welding technique of at least two layers to provide stress relief in lieu of traditional post weld heat treatment.

An optical cable and method for forming an optical cable is provided. The cable includes a cable jacket including an inner surface defining a channel and an outer surface. The cable includes a seam within the cable jacket that couples together opposing longitudinal edges of a wrapped thermoplastic sheet which forms the cable jacket and maintains the cable jacket in the wrapped configuration around the plurality of optical fibers. The method includes forming an outer cable jacket by wrapping a sheet of thermoplastic material around a plurality of optical core elements. The method includes laser welding together portions of thermoplastic material of opposing longitudinal edges of the wrapped sheet such that a seam is formed holding the sheet of thermoplastic material in the wrapped configuration around the core elements.

A brazing process includes placing an accessory on a tube and interposing a brazing material between a bearing surface of the tube and a complementary bearing surface of the accessory. The brazing material is melted. The bearing surface and the complementary bearing surface together define a chamber having a converging portion whose height perpendicular to the bearing surface decreases radially away from the orifice. The converging portion of the chamber has a radial width greater than one times the thickness of the tube, so that the brazing material is distributed by capillary action in the chamber, and binds the bearing surface and the complementary bearing surface to one another.

The disclosed apparatus, systems and methods relate to the design principles for forming a welded joint between two sections of tubing or pipe. The material at the end portion of a first section of tubing to is folded inwardly to create a support surface. This support surface improves the ability to weld light gage material with traditional arc welding and it creates conditions to allow brazing to be as strong as traditional arc welding by using A shaped piece of filler material which is located at the intersection between the support surface of the first section of tubing and a side wall section of the second section of tubing. While holding together the first and second sections of tubing with the filler material, heat is applied at the intersection at a temperature and for a duration sufficient to melt the filler material and form the 3t joint.

A method for forming a large-diameter special-shaped cross section thin-wall tubular part. A tailor welded barrel blank is adopted as an original blank for forming of the large-diameter special-shaped cross section thin-wall tubular part. After a desired shape is formed, the original weld joint is removed and butt joint tailor welding is performed on the tubular part again. Since the tailor weld joint of the original barrel blank is removed from the final part, there is no need to consider the consistency or coordination of the microstructure of the weld joint and the base metal during the forming process and the subsequent thermal treatment process.

A method of joining parts, where at least one of the parts has a faying surface defining grooves therein. One of the parts is formed of a majority of titanium, and the other part is formed of a majority of iron. The method includes providing a set of opposed welding electrodes disposed on a side of each part and applying pressure to and heating the parts via the set of electrodes to form a joint between the parts. A bonded assembly includes a first part formed of a majority of titanium and a second part formed of a steel alloy. The first and second parts having a bond that includes a portion of the first part directly in contact with and attached to a portion of the second part. The parts may be a titanium-containing differential carrier case bonded to a steel gear.

A heat-weldable weld fitting that has a cylindrical fitting main body portion. The cylindrical fitting main body portion includes an outer periphery including a first end portion, a second end portion, and a middle section between the first end portion and the second end portion, and positioning scales formed at equal intervals in a peripheral direction of the second end portion of the outer periphery of the fitting main body portion. The first end portion being configured to be heated by a heater and is welded to an end portion of another weld fitting. The positioning scales are configured to define an angular portion of the weld fitting relative to the welding apparatus at the time of welding the first end portion to the first end portion of another weld fitting by matching the positioning scale with a reference mark provided on the clamp portion of the welding apparatus.

A method of preparing a pipe-section for welding to another pipe-section to form a pipeline comprising a plurality of said pipe-sections, the method comprising at least the steps of: (i) providing a pipe-section having first and second pipe-ends; (ii) defining a first portion L1 of the longitudinal length of the pipe-section from the first pipe-end being in the range 3% to 40% of the overall length of the pipe-section; (iii) defining a second portion L2 of the longitudinal length of the pipe-section from the end of the first portion L1 towards the second pipe-end; (iv) heating at least the first portion L1 to at least a first temperature T1 of at least 500 C. for at least 2 minutes; (v) maintaining a second temperature T2 of the second portion L2 during step (iv) below the first temperature T1. The invention is able to reduce the strain capacity during reel-laying of a pipeline formed from a plurality of pipe sections formed by the invention.

An air conditioner and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The air conditioner includes an indoor heat exchanger and an outdoor heat exchanger, each including a plurality of refrigerant pipes and at least one connection pipe for interconnecting the refrigerant pipes, a brazing hole formed in the connection pipe by punching, and a brazing ring mounted over the brazing hole, wherein portions of the refrigerant pipes are inserted into the connection pipe through inlet ends of the connection pipe, the brazing hole is located between ends of the refrigerant pipes and the inlet ends of the connection pipe, and the connection pipe is bonded to the refrigerant pipes by heating at least one selected from between the refrigerant pipes and the brazing ring.