Arc welding

About: Arc welding is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25393 publications have been published within this topic receiving 168182 citations.

Effects of wire feed conditions on in situ alloying and additive layer manufacturing of titanium aluminides using gas tungsten arc welding

Abstract: An additive layer manufacturing (ALM) process based on gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) was used to produce simple 3-dimensional titanium aluminide components, which were successfully in situ alloyed by separately delivering elemental Al and Ti wires to the weld pool. The difference in microstructure, chemical composition, and microhardness of four wall components built with four different wire-feeding conditions has been evaluated. There was no significant change in the microstructure of the four walls. The composition and microhardness values were comparatively homogeneous throughout each wall except the near-substrate zone. However, with increasing the ratio of Al to Ti wire feed rates from 0.80 to 1.30, an increase of Al concentration and γ phases were observed. The situation was reversed for the effect of the Al:Ti ratio on microhardness. Additionally, an unexpected increase in the α2 phase was produced when the ratio was increased to 1.30.

Metal Transfer in Gas Metal Arc Welding: Droplet Rate A study of droplet rates for various transfer modes verifies optimum operating parameters

Abstract: This study reports the changes in droplet-trans fer mode and rate during gas metal arc welding as the voltage is varied at a series of current levels. The droplet-transfer rate was found to be maximum (approximately 100 s_1) for the voltage/current combi­ nations that are normally suggested by the electrode manufacturers and are con­ sidered optimum in the judgment of experienced welders. At voltages above or below the TV-wide optimum range, the transfer rate decreased by about 10 s_1 per V in the vicinity of the optimum condition. Furthermore, statistical analysis of the arc current and voltage data showed that during operation outside the optimum range, the welding arc was unstable and the current output was very irregular with varying cycle time between each droplet transfer. At the maximum droplet-transfer rate, the droplet-transfer cycle time was very consistent and revealed a narrow rate range, which correlated with the high stability and lower spatter at these optimum operating conditions. The possibility of using the concept of maximum droplet-transfer rate range with minimum rate fluctuation and corresponding arc current-voltage signals as a means of short-circuiting welding process control and automation is being considered. At voltages below the optimum range, high-speed video recording confirmed that the short- circuiting transfer was very unstable and the arc reignited explosively. Above the optimum voltage, the arc became longer and the droplets became visibly larger, with mixed globular and short-circuiting transfer. The droplets, however, were no longer directed uniformly to the weld pool, resulting in increased spatter. arc (FCA), submerged arc (SA) and gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding. With the exception of GTA welding, all these pro­ cesses require a consumable electrode, which has the dual function of carrying the current that heats the weld pool and providing filler metal to complete the weld joint. This dual function has long been a topic of research. Spraragen and Lengyel (Ref. 1) reviewed the basic princi­ ples of an electric arc and summarized the development of the field of welding arc physics. In particular, they concluded that in the area of liquid metal transfer from the electrode to the weld pool, the electromagnetic pinch force, gravity, shielding gas drag force and surface ten­ sion are the major forces that act on the electrode tip. Using high-speed cinemat­ ographic techniques, Muller, Greene, and Rothschild (Ref. 2) found that large spher­ ical liquid-metal droplets in a GMA arc decreased in size with increasing current. As the electrode feed rate was continu­ ously increased, however, a sudden decrease in droplet size occurred at what was termed the transition current. In addition, they determined that with inert gas shielding, the droplet composition remained constant during the metal trans­ fer. Lesnewich (Refs. 3-5) investigated the physics of arc welding using SMA and CMA welding. Particularly, he studied the effects of welding process parameters such as current, voltage, electrode polar-

Spectroscopic analysis of the plasma continuum radiation for on-line arc-welding defect detection

Abstract: When plasma optical spectroscopy is applied to on-line welding quality monitoring, the plasma electronic temperature is commonly selected as the spectroscopic parameter to determine. However, several processing stages have to be considered in this case, including plasma emission line identification, which is significantly costly in terms of computational performance. In this paper, the wavelength associated with the maximum intensity of the plasma background emission is proposed as the new monitoring signal, as it will be demonstrated that there is a clear correlation between this parameter and the welding quality. The resulting processing scheme is clearly simpler, and experimental and field tests will prove the feasibility of the proposed technique.

Short circuit pipe welding

Abstract: An apparatus and method of short circuiting arc welding two spaced ends of two pipe sections at a groove between the two pipe sections. The method and apparatus include the use of a cored metal electrode and moving the electrode toward the groove as the electrode is moved along the groove and about the outer peripheral surface of the pipe sections during the welding operation. The cored electrode is melted by an electric wave which comprises a transfer portion and a controlled melting portion. The melting portion is controlled to bridge the gap between the pipe sections for laying a root bead along the groove. The cored electrode is preferably a self-shielding electrode and includes alloying components in the core to form a root bead having a substantially similar composition as the composition of the two pipe sections.