Arc welding

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

A sensing torch for on-line monitoring of the gas tungsten arc welding process of steel pipes

Abstract: Non-intrusive and real-time monitoring techniques are increasingly required by manufacturing industry in order to detect flaws in arc welding processes. In this work the development of an optical inspection system, for monitoring the manual gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process of steel pipes, is described. The arc plasma visible emission produced during the process was acquired and spectroscopically analysed. Measuring the intensities of selected argon emission lines allowed real time calculation and recording of the axial electron temperature of the plasma. Experimental results showed that the temperature signal varies greatly in the case of instabilities of the weld pool that cause weld defects. A suitable algorithm, based on a statistical analysis of the signal, was developed in order to real time flag defective joints. It is shown that several weld defects such as porosity, dropout, lack of fusion, solid inclusions and craters were successfully detected in a production environment. The performances of the optical sensor were compared with the results of state-of-the-art post-weld controls such as x-rays and penetrating dyes, showing good agreement and thus demonstrating the validity of this quality monitoring system.

Image Processing and Visual Control Method for Arc Welding Robot

Abstract: The methods to improve the robustness and adaptability of arc welding robots are presented. Image processing algorithm for feature extraction from structured light images of weld seam is discussed in the case of a large amount of strong reflection, arc light and splash disturbance. The processes consist of defining target region, selecting adaptive threshold and extracting feature points. Then a novel hybrid visual servo control method for arc welding robot is provided, in which the position-based and image-based visual servo method are integrated to increase the robustness of weld seam tracking. The welding experiment is well conducted to verify the methods

Effect of Welding Heat Input on Simulated HAZ Areas in S960QL High Strength Steel

Abstract: When the weldability of high strength steels is analyzed, it is the softening in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) that is mostly investigated, and the reduction of toughness properties is generally less considered. The outstanding toughness properties of quenched and tempered high strength steels cannot be adequately preserved during the welding due to the unfavorable microstructural changes in the HAZ. Relevant technological variants (t8/5 = 2.5–100 s) for arc welding technologies were applied during the HAZ simulation of S960QL steel (EN 10025-6) in a Gleeble 3500 physical simulator, and the effect of cooling time on the critical HAZ areas of single and multipass welded joints was analyzed. Thermal cycles were determined according to the Rykalin 3D model. The properties of the selected coarse-grained (CGHAZ), intercritical (ICHAZ) and intercritically reheated coarse-grained (ICCGHAZ) zones were investigated by scanning electron microscope, macro and micro hardness tests and instrumented Charpy V-notch pendulum impact tests. The examined HAZ subzones indicated higher sensitivity to the welding heat input compared to conventional structural steels. Due to the observed brittle behavior of all subzones in the whole t8/5 range, the possible lowest welding heat input should be applied in order to minimize the volume of HAZ that does not put fulfillment of the allowed maximal (450 HV10) hardness at risk and does not lead to the formation of cold cracks.

Environmental Behavior of Low Carbon Steel Produced by a Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Process

Abstract: Current additive manufacturing (AM) processes are mainly focused on powder bed technologies, such as electron beam melting (EBM) and selective laser melting (SLM). However, the main disadvantages of such techniques are related to the high cost of metal powder, the degree of energy consumption, and the sizes of the components, that are limited by the size of the printing cell. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the environmental behavior of low carbon steel (ER70S-6) produced by a relatively inexpensive AM process using wire feed arc welding. The mechanical properties were examined by tension testing and hardness measurements, while microstructure was assessed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. General corrosion performance was evaluated by salt spray testing, immersion testing, potentiodynamic polarization analysis, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Stress corrosion performance was characterized in terms of slow strain rate testing (SSRT). All corrosion tests were carried out in 3.5% NaCl solution at room temperature. The results indicated that the general corrosion resistance of wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) samples were quite similar to those of the counterpart ST-37 steel and the stress corrosion resistance of both alloys was adequate. Altogether, it was clearly evident that the WAAM process did not encounter any deterioration in corrosion performance compared to its conventional wrought alloy counterpart.