Document No.

: TIPS : P-91 Welding Care 01

30.01.2010

Tips for Construction Engineers on handling P-91 / T-91 Piping materials Introduction : P-91 (T-91) materials widely used in critical piping of high pressure boilers of high capacity generally as Creep Strength Enhanced Ferritic Steel (CSEF) have become world wide usage to increase efficiency. The salient advantages are : Greater resistance to thermal fatigue. Lower thickness requirement leading to lower weights, smaller temperature gradients across the wall, lower time requirement to reach thermal equilibrium and less prone to thermal fatigue damage. Superior resistance to creep leading to operate higher temperatures. Higher allowable strength. Higher oxidation temperature leading to lower corrosion allowance.

The above advantages are for the designer and owner of the Boiler. These advantages are truly not advantage for Construction Engineers but looking at the overall advantage and need of the day while working on this metal from fabrication / construction point P-91 presents certain challenges to Construction Engineers especially Welding Engineers. They are: Weld Joint Design A transition piece to be introduced while welding a P-91 material to lower alloy such as P22/P11 to match the wall thickness.

Control WELDING PROCESS AND ITS Metellurgical behaviour Normal Code compliance is no guarantee. Control the micro-structural changes: This means thermal processing during welding. Ensure no hot working will be done on the metal without proper procedure and heat treatment process.
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Once the process of welding is started, it should end only on completion of post weld heat treatment (PWHT) without any break. Ensure the power back up is available.

Do not allow the weld to cool ambient temperature during the process. Ensure the pre-heating, control of interpass temperature, hold temperature, rate of heating, rate of cooling are well controlled as per the advice given in the drawings WPS / PQR.

Never work from memory.

Establish the procedure and strictly adhere to the same. Control temperature Soak or hold temperature as per SR Chart Control temperature rise not more than 2000 C / hr. Control Cool not more than 150 - 1800 C / hr.

Use induction machine for preheating to heat treatment process. This will heat the wall uniformly avoiding internal stress. Follow instructions given in document released from FQ-FQ1-02, dated 28.11.2007. Take utmost care from the material issue till completion of work. Use purging gas of high quality. Ref.: Use Argon gas of purity 99.99% Grade A only. Ensure the heat affected zone is normalized fully. Ensure availability of parallel source of power for the operation. Ensure qualified and reliable welder only. Follow NDE procedure as agreed. Avoid over temperature or under temperature under any circumstances. Document and record all activity from material receipt to completion of Hydro test. x Various write up by authors on Ferritic Tubes Pipes, Vallourec & Mannesman Tubes. Practical experience gained from erection of Boilers & Piping supplied by M/s Austrain Energy / Borsig Power / BHEL / Dong Fang, China / Siemens, Germany. Compiled by K. K. Rao
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