interestingengineering.com: Binding two pieces of metal underwater involves a lot of consideration towards safety. There are a few ways welders approach the task. In most cases, and most ideally, a dry chamber system is used. Temporary hyperbaric chambers are used to prevent water from entering the work area. The chambers house up to three welders at a time.
7 comments:
The amount of precautions that go into the engineering of underwater welding is astounding. Something not mentioned is deep water welding which requires a pressure suit and hard hat diving (like with a brass diving bell) Not only is there the risk of pressure sickness but there is the risk of damaging lifeline tethers that go up to the surface and supply the pressure and communications. This is one of the few jobs that i AM happy about robots taking over. No matter how many precautions are taken the sea is unpredictable and dangerous.In this kind of profession the focus on safety and precautions is so important it really is an example that all welders and all professions for that matter should follow. Also the conditions and care to clean the welding surfaces is so important because this kind of welding needs to hold. It is also something we should consider not to take for gradate. If there are people making clean welds under dangerous conditions underwater than there is no reason we should accept a sloppy weld in the theater.
As soon as I started reading this, I started thinking about how strange humans are as a species. We are this weird primates making apparatuses to go underwater so we can melt metal together with our own version of lightning, just so we can build more things. That aside, I did find the process of underwater welding interesting, and I suspect I will gain more appreciation for it once I gain some more experience with welding on land. I already know that welding and scuba diving are both dangerous on their own, so the idea of doing both at the same time feels insane even though I understand it is necessary in our modern society. I do wonder how people figured out how to do it in the first place, and I also wonder how people like Jeff Peters get into the industry in the first place. Do underwater welders typically hear about underwater welding and decide they want to learn to do it, or do most of them fall into the profession because they are welders who know how to scuba dive or scuba divers who know how to weld and notice a job that combines the two? Either way, it is a very impressive job.
While I may have no experience or knowledge of welding or how to do it, I do have a lot of experience with scuba diving and the different variations and types of scuba that there are such as rescue diving and wreck diving. However, the underwater welding brings exposure to an entirely new field of diving. The article points out the most concerned, main issue of Delta P, but I'm curious about the other factors that play into the task past the Delta P. I'm mainly interested in the different protocols for the environments, considering any dive is affected and majorly impacted by day to day based on things like the weather. I would also like to further learn how these welding tools are used in areas with a strong current underwater, and if the technology is able to compensate for the change or if it's mainly a shift in how the process is physically done and operated by the welder. Being at CMU and seeing the welding done here, it's interesting to see it applied to another job in a completely different way.
I met a guy a long time ago who did this for a living. He mainly working on dams. Unfortunately I was too young to be sufficiently fascinated by his occupation but I would love to meet him again now, I would have a million questions for him. This is the kind of thing that I would love to try once to be able to say I’ve done it, but to go to work day after day and put yourself in that kind of danger? That takes a very specific mindset. Echoing Julian’s comment, I think it’s fascinating that humans are even willing to do this kind of thing that on paper is just insane. It reminds me in a strange way of this sci-fi trope that what makes humans special out of all the imagined species is their resilience and ability to work with danger rather than just run from it. Our cities get destroyed by earthquakes and other natural disasters and do we move the cities? No, we just build them stronger and hope for the best. The idea of underwater welding scares me and yet there’s a small part of my brain that really wants to try it, and you can’t convince me it’s not the same part that whispers “Jump” when I’m standing at the edge of a long drop. And because of that human ability to push past their fear and meet danger like an old friend, we can do incredible things like weld metal under water.
Welding above water is a hard enough task as it is. Once you bring the element of water into the equation I can only imagine the level of complexity that is involved. I am currently taking an introduction to welding class and the experience needed to be an above ground welder is not something that can be obtained in one semester. The need for being able to weld underwater is not something I have thought about but between all the operation that go on under the ocean, I can see the need for such technology and skill. Welding is an art that requires precision accuracy and years of practice that I’m sure to come along with a laundry list of stories and learning experiences. I would be very interested to see what in fact the differences are between welding underwater and above ground. From the pictures in the article, it appears that it is a similar technique to stick welding but what has to change for the current to be exposed to water.
I am by no means an exceptional welder, i doubt i’m even really average at such a precise skill, and so thinking about people who go and take such a complicated task and stick it underwater, i can not believe the incredible attitude it must take to do something so incredibly dangerous day after day. I am beyond interested in almost any type of metal-work, however i think welding has always taken the bait, partially because of the sheer spectacle of it, and partially because of the skill it takes, i’ve always thought it would be a great tool to have in my tool-belt. I have never gone scuba diving. I have always had problems with being fully submerged in anything larger than a pool, and i couldn't imagine going scuba diving deep into the ocean. The people who take on this job combine one of my worst fears, and one of my more avid fascinations, and i think they deserve some serious respect for the daunting task they manage.
I am absolutely fascinated with the deep ocean, it's cloying blackness, the incredible pressure of hundreds of feet of water above one, and fantastic monsters of the sea that trawl the mysterious depths. That anything can survive down there, is truly a testament to the tenacity of life, in any form, which continues to exist at the most extreme conditions. I think my awe is matched in many people, as there are countless movies, tv shows, and books which deal with the perils of deep-sea diving. I saw a movie recently which, although I forget it's name, seems to capture perfectly this sentiment of awe and intensity. It was about deep-sea welders, as is this article, who had descended in a diving bell and had been cut off from the surface. The completely enveloping diving suits, the pitch blackness, the intensity of being trapped strongly reminded me of outer space, where the only thing protecting one from the deadly vacuum is your space suit. In this case, i think it is even scarier, because underwater, there are no stars, no planets, there is no light whatsoever except for what you bring with you. I would honestly rather be an astronaut than a deep sea diver.
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