09*-14-71 OR" 306041889 unlwu mates fawn: ‘ 1111 3 604 339 9 s (721 Inventor Roderick Rohrberg 2,868,950 1/1959 Gage .......................... .. 219/74 Torrance.Calif- 3,153,133 10/1964 219/121 [21] APP1- N0- 330,565 3,205,338 9/1965 219/I21 gilt‘-<1 d 2/lei)" 3l,4l9l6997l _ 5,270,179 8/1966 219/74 fllcflw P - 1 ,324,278 6/1967 219/121 X 1731 Assignees North Amerim Rwkwell Corporation: 3,336,460 8/1967 Hauck et =11 ................. .. 219/121 P:'0¢-‘lllclg and Cr1:€_II1ti¢fl1$; :10 h 3,484,575 12/1969 Cunningham .............. .. 219/74 en own a. , pa in eres eac . . Continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. Pm,m"-y Emm"_1er'-J‘ V’ Truhe, 693 365 Dem 16 1967_ Assistant Exammer—C. L. Aibntton ' ' ' Attorneys-_—Char1es F. Dischler and Harold H. Card, Jr. [54] PLASMA-GENERATING METHOD AND MEANS Ch‘ 2 D ' ' . M ms" 8 "wing figs ABSTRACT: An inert gas welding torch is used to create [52] U.S.Cl ................................... plasma by directingldone or mgre discret: higlh veloicity jelt gss , . str m to a w arc t t t ' t [51] lnt. Cl ....................................................... .. B23k 9/00 woeriicpiiclg. The PTGSEIIZE streameigzlhtrofiailzcéiiherjgard IE Of S€aI'ch .......................................... .. 75, energy content of location varying the amount or direction 121. 121 P, 137 of the inert gas flow. The plasma stream is insensitive to varia, , tions of are length, and permits abnormally high current densi[561 References cued ties in the electrode. When used with consumable electrodes, UNlTED STATES P-A-TENTS the invention is useful for casting as we11 as for deep weiding 2,587,331 2/1952 Jordan ........................ .. 219/75 heavy plate materials in a single pass.
