Basic Consideration for Commercial Processes

Abstract

Clad plates have been commercially available since the 1930s initially by the hot rolling of stainless steels and nickel alloys to carbon steels. Copper alloys have also been offered by some mills. Explosive cladding was first introduced by Du Pont of USA in the early 1960s and subsequently by other firms in various parts of the world, several of whom are licensees of Du Pont. The advent of explosive cladding opened up the range of metal combinations available in clad form to include virtually all the ductile engineering alloys, and has set higher standards of bond strength and continuity of bond. Guaranteed bond strength 50% greater than the levels offered for roll bonded clads became available. However, the explosion bond market complements rather than replaces the rolled product, the latter being more economical in large area thin gauge clads, whereas explosive clads supply the demand for combinations outside the roll bonded range or where the standard of bond quality required, or the dimension and quantities do not suit the roll bonded route. In practice several explosive cladding organisations work in close co-operation with mills producing rolled clad plates and it is common for slabs to be explosively bonded and then rolled out and marketed by the mill in preference to their traditional methods. The worldwide production of explosively clad plate is several tens of thousands of square metres per annum.