Valve Is Huge Welding

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 27, 15 January 1932, Page 22

Valve Is Huge Welding

Project in Miniature "THAT the production of a radio valve parallels a tremendous industrial task, in miniature, was pointed out by George Lewis, vice-president of the Arcturus Radio Tube Company, Newark, New Jersey, at a recent meeting of industrial engineers. Aside from the numerous fine elements used in the construction of a valve which could be termed analagous to minute girders, braces, crossmembers, ete, there are 186 various spot welds in the final assembly of the elements. This is equivalent to the number of welds required in laying a three-quarter-mile pipe-line, with each section of pipe 20 feet Jong. This would be sufficient to weld all steam and water-pipe connections in the average home; or, in the marine field, to weld a mammoth anchor chain 98 feet long for one of the big ocean liners. In aviation, a complete plane, including the frame and fuselage, could be securely welded with this large number of operations. "Tt is hardly believable," says Mr. Lewis, "that this great number of welds are necessary in a small article Hike a radio valve. But fine wire and small parts are used which require a weld no larger than a pin-head."