Study on self-restrained explosive welding with high energy efficiency

An innovative explosive welding technology, self-restrained explosive welding (SREW), was studied in this work. Compared to the conventional method, the new technology significantly increased the energy efficiency of explosives and produced less toxic and greenhouse gas. Moreover, it was able to obtain three or more welded plates all at once, and the motion of the plates was restrained by each other. Welding employing SREW method for a three-layer setup and two five-layer setups was conducted with different initial parameters. The dynamic parameters during the collision process were obtained theoretically and experimentally, and the welding quality was evaluated through optical metallographic observation. The results showed that the motion of all the welded plates was well restrained using this method, and the explosive consumption of a five-layer setup was reduced by 63% compared to the conventional method, when getting the same bonding quality and numbers of welded plates. The measured impact velocity values were found to be slightly lower than the calculated ones. According to microstructure analyses, excellent bonding interfaces were obtained through SREW method when employing suitable welding parameters.