Long-service life contact tips for arc welding: that is the product CEP Freiberg is renowned for. CEP's contact tips exhibit service lifetimes up to five times longer than such made of CuCr1Zr. They are manufactured from a double-walled composite tube, with a shell consisting of highly conductive pure copper and a core of copper-based high-temperature material. The latter is more resistant to the high-temperature wear that contact tips are exposed to.
CEP has now developed a new core material that is even more wear-resistant: in fact, it exhibits up to eight times higher wear resistance than CuCr1Zr. It's called Wolfram-DISCUP (“Wolfram” means tungsten in German), and is particularly suitable for long welding operations where, for quality control reasons, any interruption due to the changing of contact tips is ruled out. Such operations include long seams on large installations. Continuous welding is also often required for vehicle bodies, ships' hulls, and aircraft fuselages – and especially where safety is a priority. In particular, however, weld cladding operations must not be interrupted, and this is exactly the context for which the new material and the high-performance contact tips were developed. These operations can take an extraordinarily long time: a specific case involved the production of turbine blades using WAAM, a wire-based additive manufacturing process. The new high-performance contact tips from CEP Freiberg reliably achieved the required service life of 82 hours.
Does this make CEP's original, long-service life contact tips obsolete? Not at all. It's simply a question of balancing costs and benefits. However, one feature of the new product range is that the new material cannot be processed into contact tips of every conceivable design and dimension. A visit to the trade fair stand will clarify what CEP can offer.
CEP Freiberg develops and manufactures powder-metallurgical copper-based high-temperature materials, and offers them as semi-finished and finished products.
Semi-finished products:
· Bar stock (extruded, e.g., for long-life electrode caps for spot welding)
· On request: voluminous bodies (hot-isostatic pressed)
Finished products:
· Contact tips of composite tube, based on copper-based high-temperature materials, fitting the standards of leading suppliers of MIG, MAG, and submerged arc welding systems
· Special nozzles e.g., for electric arc spraying and laser welding systems
· On request: other finished products
CEP Freiberg is a research-oriented company, best known for its copper-based high-temperature materials, such as CEP DISCUP®. CEP Freiberg is constantly developing these materials further, along with the products based on them. Welding technology benefits from this R&D – in particular in the form of durable contact tips for arc welding. Indeed, the product range has expanded enormously in recent years. CEP Freiberg can now serve almost the entire market for standardized contact tips. Equally important, however, is the ability to react with flexibility to the growing number of new process variants and, thus, to the demand for custom-made products.
Additive manufacturing is a steadily growing market segment, with part of the AM process consisting of modifications to classic welding methods. CEP Freiberg has now developed particularly durable contact tips precisely for this purpose.
It becomes quite challenging when the copper-based high-temperature materials are not just a tool, but become an additive themselves. Surface coatings made from them – for example on steels or other materials – are difficult to apply, with most processes ruled out for technological reasons. Finding a solution to this problem is currently the subject of intensive research at CEP Freiberg.
CEP – Compound Extrusion Products Freiberg GmbH (CEP Freiberg) develops and produces powder-metallurgical copper-based high-temperature materials, and supplies them as semi-finished and finished products. By combining the properties of different materials in one, CEP Freiberg’s products close technological gaps for the most demanding applications. These include applications that require conductivity and temperature resistance at the same time. In welding technology, examples include products such as contact tips, tip holders, or electrode caps. Wear-resistant contact tips that suit the systems of all major welding-technology manufacturers are offered as finished products. Their service lifetimes are up to five times longer than those of products made from conventional materials.
The company is based in Freiberg, a development hub for innovative materials in Germany. Unique materials knowledge, a unique process and unique equipment – these are the three foundations for CEP Freiberg´s operations. Semi-finished products and a wide range of end products made from the company’s own materials are produced entirely in-house. The development of bespoke material modifications is also possible.
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