This pipe is from an air conditioning system on a car. The engine mounts had collapsed & allowed a pulley to contact the pipe & wear it away. When brought to us, only a pinhole was visible in the damaged area, but a poke with a scriber soon revealed how much of the aluminium was worn away & not just dented.
Even if the problem had been just a tiny pinhole, the repair would have been done the same way:-
Cut a little patch from sheet aluminium & TIG weld it in position all around the damaged area.
Trying to weld over the hole just vapourises the fluid remaining in the pipe which then contaminates the weld. Using a patch gives a much better chance of getting a good weld with no pinholes (& leaks). Even so, extraction is needed to suck away the fumes that come out of the end of the pipe & in this case, the rubber hose which is clipped to the aluminium pipe was put into a tub of water to keep it cool while the welding was being done.
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