Showing papers on "Arc welding published in 2018"

Revealing internal flow behaviour in arc welding and additive manufacturing of metals

Abstract: Internal flow behaviour during melt-pool-based metal manufacturing remains unclear and hinders progression to process optimisation. In this contribution, we present direct time-resolved imaging of melt pool flow dynamics from a high-energy synchrotron radiation experiment. We track internal flow streams during arc welding of steel and measure instantaneous flow velocities ranging from 0.1 m s−1 to 0.5 m s−1. When the temperature-dependent surface tension coefficient is negative, bulk turbulence is the main flow mechanism and the critical velocity for surface turbulence is below the limits identified in previous theoretical studies. When the alloy exhibits a positive temperature-dependent surface tension coefficient, surface turbulence occurs and derisory oxides can be entrapped within the subsequent solid as result of higher flow velocities. The widely used arc welding and the emerging arc additive manufacturing routes can be optimised by controlling internal melt flow through adjusting surface active elements. Understanding what happens to the liquid in melt pools during welding and metal-based additive manufacturing remains a challenge. Here, the authors directly image internal melt pool dynamics using synchrotron radiation to show surface tension affects flow speed, orientation and surface turbulence.

Hybrid laser arc welding: State-of-art review

Abstract: Hybrid laser arc welding simultaneously utilizes the arc welding and the laser welding, in a common interaction zone. The synergic effects of laser beam and eclectic arc in the same weld pool results in an increase of welding speed and penetration depth along with the enhancement of gap bridging capability and process stability. This paper presents the current status of this hybrid technique in terms of research, developments and applications. Effort is made to present a comprehensive technical know-how about this process through a systematic review of research articles, industrial catalogues, technical notes, etc. In the introductory part of the review, an overview of the hybrid laser arc welding is presented, including operation principle, process requirements, historical developments, benefits and drawbacks of the process. This is followed by a detailed discussion on control parameters those govern the performance of hybrid laser arc welding process. Thereafter, a report of improvements of performance and weld qualities achieved by using hybrid welding process is presented based on review of several research papers. The succeeding sections furnish the examples of industrial applications and the concluding remarks.

Wire and arc additive manufacturing: a comparison between CMT and TopTIG processes applied to stainless steel

Abstract: Wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) enables the building of near net-shape components layer by layer by using arc welding technologies and wire filler metal as feedstock. The study aims at comparing the applicability of two innovative robotic arc welding technologies (cold metal transfer (CMT) and TopTIG) for additive manufacturing (AM) of stainless steel parts. Initially, a process development has been completed with the goal of optimizing material deposition rate during arc time. Both continuous and pulsed current programs were implemented. Then, different thick-walled samples composed of more than one overlapped weld bead per layer were manufactured in 316L stainless steel grade by CMT and TopTIG. Mechanical properties have been determined in as-build samples in different building orientations. WAAM applying CMT and TopTIG welding technologies is analyzed in terms of part quality (defined as the absence of defects such as pores, cracks, and/or lack of fusion defects); surface finishing; part accuracy; productivity; microstructural characteristics; and mechanical properties. Achieved mechanical properties and deposition rates are compared with the state of the art. Findings and conclusions of this work are applicable to the industrial manufacturing of stainless steel parts and requirements to apply these technologies to other expensive materials are finally discussed.

Numerical simulation and experimental validation of residual stress and welding distortion induced by laser-based welding processes of thin structural steel plates in butt joint configuration

Abstract: Thin plates are extensively used in automotive, shipbuilding, and railway industries. Welding technology is the main assembling method to manufacture thin plate structures because of its high productivity and ease of use. Consequently, residual stress and distortion induced by welding are an inevitable part of the manufacturing process in welding thin plate structures. Relatively low stiffness, and a high amount of heat input are the main reasons for distortion of the welded structures. In order to decrease the heat input, laser-based welding processes that generate highly localized heat with a very high intensity can be a good choice as an alternative to traditional fusion welding. To predict residual stress and distortion in welding thin plate structures, a three dimensional, thermo-metallurgical-mechanical finite element method was developed. The results of three different laser-based welding processes including aspects of Autogenous Laser Welding (ALW), Cold Wire Assisted Laser Welding (CWLAW), and Hybrid Laser-Arc Welding were compared with traditional Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) from both predicted and experimental perspectives. SYSWELD commercial code was used for the simulations in which both large and small deformation theories were employed to predict the residual stress and the final deformation. Experiments were executed to verify the simulation results. A digital high-resolution microscope was used to visualize and measure the weld cross- sectional shape and bead geometry. To measure the residual stress, an X-ray diffractometer was employed. A digital Vernier Caliper and a 3D laser-handheld scanner were used to measure displacement in the z-direction. Moreover, the mechanical properties of welds obtained by different welding processes were also verified by tensile and micro-hardness tests. It was concluded that lower heat input can markedly influence the final distortion of the welded structure. This conclusion can strongly support the idea of replacing traditional arc welding method with a laser-based one. Simulation and experimental results were matched fairly.

Effect of process parameters on the quality of aluminium alloy Al5Si deposits in wire and arc additive manufacturing using a cold metal transfer process

Abstract: A 3D print device using a cold metal transfer arc welding station to melt a metallic filler wire is developed to build aluminium part by optimising the process parameters. First tests achieved using standard pre-recorded process parameters allow to study the effect of the travel speed and the average welding power on the geometrical characteristics of mono-layer deposits and on walls built by layers superposition. Finally, a parametric study of the effect of each process parameter controlling the shape of the arc current or voltage and the filler wire feeding is carried out in order to try to improve the geometrical regularity of the deposits, and to better understand the effect of each parameter on the melting of the filler wire, its transfer on the support plate, and the geometry of the formed bead.

Comparative study of autogenous tungsten inert gas welding and tungsten arc welding with filler wire for dissimilar P91 and P92 steel weld joint

Abstract: Creep strength enhanced ferritic/martensitic 9Cr-1Mo-V-Nb (P91) steel is also designated as ASTM A335 used for out-of-core and in-core (piping, cladding, ducts, wrappers, and pressure vessel) of Gen IV reactors. In present investigation, the dissimilar weld joint of P91 and P92 steel were made using the autogenous tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding with single pass, double side pass and multi-pass gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding with filler wire. Microstructure evolution in sub-zones and mechanical properties of dissimilar welded joints were studied in as-welded and post weld heat treatment (PWHT) condition. Formation of δ-ferrite patches in weld fusion zone and heat affected zones (HAZs) and their influence on the mechanical behaviour of the welded joints were also studied. Presence of higher content of ferrite stabilizer in P92 steel have resulted the formation of δ-ferrite patches in weld fusion zone as well as HAZs. The δ-ferrite was observed in autogenous TIG welds joints. The δ-ferrite patches were formed in as-welded condition and remained in the microstructure after the PWHT. The δ-ferrite patches leads to reduction in Charpy toughness of autogenous TIG welds joint and also lower down the average hardness of weld fusion zone. Peak hardness and poor impact toughness were observed for autogenous TIG welds joint as compared to GTA welds. For microstructure characterization, field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and optical microscope were utilized.

A welding quality detection method for arc welding robot based on 3D reconstruction with SFS algorithm

Abstract: In the modern manufacturing industry, the welding quality is one of the key factors which affect the structural strength and the comprehensive quality of the products. It is an important part to establish the standard of welding quality detection and evaluation in the process of production management. At present, the detection technologies of welding quality are mainly performed based on the 2D image features. However, due to the influence of environmental factors and illumination conditions, the welding quality detection results based on grey images are not robust. In this paper, a novel welding detection system is established based on the 3D reconstruct technology for the arc welding robot. The shape from shading (SFS) algorithm is used to reconstruct the 3D shapes of the welding seam and the curvature information is extracted as the feature vector of the welds. Furthermore, the SVM classification method is adopted to perform the evaluation task of welding quality. The experimental results show that the system can quickly and efficiently fulfill the detection task of welding quality, especially with good robustness for environmental influence cases. Meanwhile, the method proposed in this paper can well solve the weakness issues of conventional welding quality detection technologies.

Real-time seam tracking control system based on line laser visions

Abstract: A set of six-degree-of-freedom robotic welding automatic tracking platform was designed in this study to realize the real-time tracking of weld seams. Moreover, the feature point tracking method and the adaptive fuzzy control algorithm in the welding process were studied and analyzed. A laser vision sensor and its measuring principle were designed and studied, respectively. Before welding, the initial coordinate values of the feature points were obtained using morphological methods. After welding, the target tracking method based on Gaussian kernel was used to extract the real-time feature points of the weld. An adaptive fuzzy controller was designed to input the deviation value of the feature points and the change rate of the deviation into the controller. The quantization factors, scale factor, and weight function were adjusted in real time. The input and output domains, fuzzy rules, and membership functions were constantly updated to generate a series of smooth bias robot voltage. Three groups of experiments were conducted on different types of curve welds in a strong arc and splash noise environment using the welding current of 120 A short-circuit Metal Active Gas (MAG) Arc Welding. The tracking error was less than 0.32 mm and the sensor’s metrical frequency can be up to 20 Hz. The end of the torch run smooth during welding. Weld trajectory can be tracked accurately, thereby satisfying the requirements of welding applications.

Hot wire-assisted gas metal arc welding of hypereutectic FeCrC hardfacing alloys: Microstructure and wear properties

Abstract: The deposition welding of hypereutectic FeCrC hardfacing alloys requires low dilution rates in order to ensure the specified chemical composition and thus the precipitation of primary M7C3 (M = Fe, Cr) carbides, which affect the abrasive wear resistance of the hardfacing. Because dilution is critical in determining the above mentioned criteria during surfacing, the development of deposition welding processes with reduced thermal impact and hence reduced dilution of the base material is a main focus of current research. For the purpose of improving the processing properties of gas metal arc welding (GMAW) in hardfacing applications, the potential of an additional hot wire (HW-GMAW) was investigated. The application of a hot wire enabled the independent adjustment of the deposition and dilution rates. Furthermore, the dilution and microstructural properties could be adjusted independently of the deposition rate. HW-GMAW enabled hypereutectic solidification in the first layer, even at very high deposition rates of 9 kg/h. In this manner, a primary M7C3 carbide content reaching 17% by area (A%) was achieved in the first layer. In comparison to single-layer GMAW overlays the wear properties were improved.

Aluminium to steel resistance spot welding with cold sprayed interlayer

Abstract: Studies on bonding of aluminium alloys to steels are popular because these are structural materials widely used in a variety of industries. However, joining these dissimilar materials is difficult mainly because of the formation of brittle intermetallic compounds. This paper presents a study on welding aluminium to steel by resistance spot welding. Before the welding, steel surface was covered by cold spraying with the layer of aluminium, nickel and nickel–aluminium. This way, instead of the welding of dissimilar materials, the welding of aluminium to aluminium (or nickel) layer pre-deposited on the steel sample was performed. The feasibility of using interlayers for improving the welding of dissimilar materials was tested using SEM, EDX and XRD. Mechanical properties of welds were investigated by microhardness and shear strength tests. The results showed that the coating allowed to decrease hardness in the welding zone and to increase the shear strength of the weld.

Optimization of FCAW Parameters for Ferrite Content in 2205 DSS Welds Based on the Taguchi Design Method

Abstract: This study presents the Taguchi design method with L9 orthogonal array which was carried out to optimize the flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) process parameters such as welding current, welding voltage, welding speed, and torch angle with reference to vertical for the ferrite content of duplex stainless steel (DSS, UNS S32205) welds. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied, and a mathematical model was developed to predict the effect of process parameters on the responses. The results indicate that welding current, welding voltage, welding speed, torch angle with reference to vertical, and the interaction of welding voltage and welding speed are the significant model terms connected with the ferrite content. The ferrite content increases with the increase of welding speed and torch angle with reference to vertical, but decreases with the increase of welding current and welding voltage. Through the developed mathematical model, the target of 50% ferrite content in weld metal can be obtained when all the welding parameters are set at the optimum values. Finally, in order to validate experimental results, confirmation tests were implemented at optimum working conditions. Under these conditions, there was good accordance between the predicted and the experimental results for the ferrite content.

Feature based three axes computer aided manufacturing software for wire arc additive manufacturing dedicated to thin walled components

Abstract: WAAM (Wire-Arc-Additive-Manufacturing) is a metal additive manufacturing process using arc welding to create large components with high deposition rate. The workpiece quality and the process productivity are strongly dependent both on the process parameters (wire feed speed, voltage and current) and on the selected deposition path. Currently, the CAM (Computer-Aided-Manufacturing) software dedicated to WAAM rely on a multi-pass strategy to create the component layers, i.e. each layer is built overlapping multiple welding passes. However, since WAAM can create wide layers, a single pass strategy can improve the process efficiency when dealing with thin walled components. This paper proposes CAM software dedicated to WAAM, using a single pass strategy. The proposed solution uses a midsurface representation of the workpiece as input, to generate the deposition toolpath. A feature recognition module is proposed, to identify the critical features of the part, such as free end walls, t-crossings, direct-crossings and isolated tubulars. A specific strategy is developed and proposed for each one of the selected features, with the aim of minimizing the geometrical errors and to ensure the required machining allowances for the subsequent finishing operations. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified manufacturing a test case.

Influence of beam oscillation in electron beam welding of Ti-6AL-4V

Abstract: Effect of beam oscillation on the evolution of microstructure and its correlation to mechanical properties for butt-welded Ti-6Al-4V plates has been studied using electron beam welding. Joints made with oscillating beam demonstrated higher ductility (by 10 to 15%) and notch toughness (by 20 to 30%) compared to those produced by non-oscillating beam. Evolution of such improved mechanical properties with beam oscillation has been corroborated with more uniform and fine microstructure, which has been attributed to the intense heat mixing, reduced temperature gradient, and more uniform cooling in the weld track. Narrow heat-affected zone and fusion zone with considerably reduced undercut depth were also obtained for oscillating beam joints. Interestingly, residual stress was found to be more in welds prepared with beam oscillation than its non-oscillating counterparts, although the magnitude of such stress irrespective of the welding condition was found to be much lower than those reported for arc welding.

A High-Speed Seam Extraction Method Based on the Novel Structured-Light Sensor for Arc Welding Robot: A Review

Abstract: In the modern manufacturing, the teaching-playback mode and the off-line programming mode of the welding robots still play the important roles However, these modes cannot meet the autonomous and adaptive capabilities of the welding robots To improve the flexibility of the welding robots, fast and accurate seam extraction is the key link to realize the intelligent welding robots A fast and accurate seam extraction algorithm based on the novel structured light vision system is proposed in this paper First, the digital light processing projector is used to construct the multi-function structured light vision sensor in this paper It could generate different pattern images to adapt different welding tasks Second, during the current research work about seam extraction, the seam extraction algorithm based on morphological image processing has been widely used and improved However, these algorithms include much machine vision algorithms and the speed of these algorithms is too slow to meet real-time requirements Meanwhile, these algorithms are difficult to adapt to different types of weld seam In order to achieve fast and accurate extraction of various types of weld seams, the target tracking algorithm based on the kernelized correlation filters algorithm is applied into this paper Experimental results show that the proposed method could well realize fast and accurate seam extraction of various types of weld seams