FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to the field of Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) process and Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) process with multi-torches. More particularly, the invention relates to change in design and change in material of welding consumable wire feed guide to facilitate minimal material damage and efficient utilization of machine hour and man hour during continuous welding operations.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:
The submerged Arc Welding (SAW) machine and Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) machines uses two torches, or six torches or eight torches. These machines are intended to weld tube to fin fillet joints continuously throughout the length in boiler panels varying from 5 metres to 24 metres. In both SAW and FCAW process, welding consumable in the form of wire is fed from electrode spool to contact tip through wire feed guide for continuous welding operations. Being a continuous process with high heat input, the machine is intended to be used with minimal damaged parts, minimal machine stop-start and minimal time to change the damaged parts during welding operations to meet the requirements of reduced cycle time and early delivery of products to customers. In addition, material wastage has to be avoided to achieve high output through low cost.
The top portion (1) of the conventional wire feed guide (2) which is completely made of copper as shown in Figure 1, and fitted with the machine. The bottom portion (11 and 12) of the wire feed guide (2) is used as a contact tip holder, that is, the wire feed guide (2) had an external thread (1) at top to fit with an integral part of machine and an

inner thread (12) at the bottom to which a contact tip (13) made of copper as shown in figure 2 is screwed in.
During continuous welding operations, since both the wire feed guide (2) and contact tip (13) are made up of copper, due to high thermal conductivity, it was observed that the contact tip (13) gets frequently burnt and gets damaged due to high heat input which subsequently damages the threaded portion (12) of the welding consumable wire feed guide (2). Hence, the complete assembly of contact tip (13) along with the welding consumable wire feed guide (2) had to be replaced with new parts. This led to incurring high cost by replacing the complete set very frequently. In addition, more idle time is created to change the complete set of parts. This calls for the need to design an improved welding consumable wire feed guide which results in minimal material damage, minimal removable parts, minimal replacement time and also change in material to control damages through minimal heat transfer during continuous welding operations. This will facilitate continuous welding process with effective utilization of machine and man hour.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of invention to propose a welding consumable wire feed guide minimizing material damage during continuous welding operations.
Another object of the invention is to propose a welding consumable wire feed guide minimizing material damage during continuous welding operations, which adapts dissimilar materials in welding consumable wire feed guide to control thermal conductivity along the length of welding consumable wire feed guide.

A still another object of the invention is to propose a welding consumable wire feed guide minimizing material damage during continuous welding operations through SAW and FCAW process which results in significant material savings through minimal damaged parts, minimum idle time of the machine, and reduced cycle time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, there is provided a welding consumable wire feed guide minimizing material damage during continuous welding operations. A single integral wire feed guide made of copper is modified into three parts namely, a main wire feed guide made of brass, an intermediate wire feed guide made of copper, and a hexagonal connecting nut cum contact tip holder made of brass. The contact tip has no thread. This leads to reduction in cost of contact tip. The main wire feed guide is fixed to the machine through an outer thread. The intermediate wire feed guide is fixed to the main wire feed guide through an inner thread. The hexagonal connecting nut cum contact tip holder that holds the contact tip is connected to the intermediate wire guide through the inner thread in a nut and the external thread in the intermediate wire guide.
Such an innovative structural configuration of the wire feed guide ensures minimal material wastage and thereby significant savings in cycle time including idle time of the machine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Figure 1 shows the constructional features of conventional welding consumable wire feed
guide made of copper that is used in SAW and FCAW machines.
Figure 2 shows the design of contact tip made of copper with external thread to connect
with conventional wire feed guide.
Figure 3 shows the constructional features of main wire feed guide made of brass with
external thread at both the ends.
Figure 4 shows the constructional features of intermediate wire feed guide made of copper
with internal thread at one end and external thread at other end.
Figure 5 shows the constructional features of hexagonal connecting nut cum contact tip
holder made of brass with internal thread at one end.
Figure 6 shows the design of contact tip made of copper with no thread.
Figure 7 shows the constructional features of modified welding consumable wire feed guide
assemblymade of dissimilar materials.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
Figure 7 explains the modified welding consumable wire feed guide assembly with three
removable parts. Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5 explains individually the three detachable
parts of welding consumable wire feed guide assembly namely main wire feed guide made
of brass, intermediate wire feed guide made of copper, hexagonal connecting nut cum
contact tip holder made of brass respectively. Figure 1 explains the constructional features
of conventional welding consumable wire feed guide made of copper. Figure 2 and figure 6

explains the conventional and modified contact tip respectively used in the machine both made of copper.
A single integral wire feed guide which was made of copper was modified into three parts namely main wire feed guide made of brass (2) as shown in Figure 2, intermediate wire feed guide made of copper (6) as shown in figure 4 and hexagonal connecting nut cum contact tip holder made of brass (10) as shown in Figure 4. The contact tip (13) with external thread (14) as shown in figure 2 is now replaced with contact tip (13) with no thread as shown in figure 6. This leads to reduction in cost of manufacturing and procurement of contact tip. The main wire feed guide made of brass is fixed to the machine through outer thread. The intermediate wire feed guide made of copper is fixed to main wire feed guide made of brass through inner thread. The hexagonal connecting nut cum contact tip holder made of brass that holds the contact tip is connected to intermediate wire feed guide through inner thread in nut and external thread in intermediate wire feed guide.
Now, if the contact tip burns or gets damaged due to high heat input, only contact tip is removed from nut and is replaced whereas the whole assembly of contact tip and wire feed guide was replaced earlier. Since, dissimilar material copper and brass were used in the assembly now, the heat transfer is controlled and damage is limited to contact tip alone. This has resulted in saving the cost of material associated with full length of wire guide.
In figure 7, the external thread (1) is screwed into the machine. The welding consumable wire is fed through main wire feed guide (2) and this part can be detached from the machine using spanner seat-I (3) available on the length of the body. The main wire feed

guide (2) has an external thread (4) which connects through internal thread (5) in the intermediate wire feed guide (6). The intermediate wire feed guide (6) can be detached from main wire feed guide using spanner seat-II (7) available on the length of the body. The external thread (8)in intermediate wire feed guide connects thehexagonal connecting nut cum contact tip (10) via internal thread (9) on it. Earlier the contact tip (13) shown in figure 2 was connected to conventional wire feed guide through external thread (14) in the contact tip (13) and internal thread (12) that is inside the tapered part (11) of the conventional wire feed guide (2) in figure 1.

WE CLAIM:
1. A welding consumable wire feed guide minimizing material damage during
continuous welding operations, the wire feed guide comprising at least three detachable components,
• the first component in the form of a main wire feed guide made of brass (2) with external threads on both ends (1 and 4) and a first spanner seat (3) on the length of the body that connects a SAW or FCAW machine at the top and connects a second component in the form of an intermediate wire feed guide made of copper (6) at the bottom,
• the Intermediate wire feed guide connecting an internal thread (5) at top, an external thread (8) at bottom and a second spanner seat (7) on the length of the body connecting the main wire feed guide and a third component in the form of a hexagonal connecting nut contact tip holdermade of brass (10), wherein the hexagonal connecting nut cum contact tip holder made of brass (10) with internal thread (9) holds the contact tip with no thread made of copper (13).