Shielding gas

About: Shielding gas is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6697 publications have been published within this topic receiving 58668 citations.

Study of the Influence of Shielding Gases on Laser Metal Deposition of Inconel 718 Superalloy

Abstract: The use of the Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) technology as a manufacturing and repairing technique in industrial sectors like the die and mold and aerospace is increasing within the last decades. Research carried out in the field of LMD process situates argon as the most usual inert gas, followed by nitrogen. Some leading companies have started to use helium and argon as carrier and shielding gas, respectively. There is therefore a pressing need to know how the use of different gases may affect the LMD process due there being a lack of knowledge with regard to gas mixtures. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the influence of a mixture of argon and helium on the LMD process by analyzing single tracks of deposited material. For this purpose, special attention is paid to the melt pool temperature, as well as to the characterization of the deposited clads. The increment of helium concentration in the gases of the LMD processes based on argon will have three effects. The first one is a slight reduction of the height of the clads. Second, an increase of the temperature of the melt pool. Last, smaller wet angles are obtained for higher helium concentrations.

Understanding the Parameters Controlling Plasma Transferred Arc Hardfacing Using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract: Control of dilution is important in hardfacing, where typically low dilution is desirable. At present, majority of the fabrication industries use shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), and submerged arc welding (SAW) processes for hardfacing purposes. In these processes, the percentage of dilution level is higher, ranging between 10–30%. In plasma transferred arc (PTA) hardfacing, a solidified metallurgical bond between deposit and substrate is obtained with minimum dilution (less than 10%). This article highlights the application of response surface methodology (RSM) to predict and optimize the percentage of dilution of nickel based hardfaced surface produced by PTA process. The experiments were conducted based on five-factor, five levels central composite rotatable design with full replications technique and mathematical model was developed using RSM. Further, the RSM is used to optimize the process parameters that yield the lowest percentage of...

Welding aluminum alloys 6061 with the opposing dual-torch GTAW process

Abstract: Cracking is a major concern in welding aluminum alloys. Although weld solidification cracks can be eliminated through the addition of filler metal, the additives modify the alloy or base metal constituents and may not always be desirable. High-energy beam processes, such as electron beam welding, that result in minimal heat input reduce crack sensitivity, but their high cost limits their applications. In this study, the conventional gas tungsten arc welding process is modified by disconnecting the workpiece form the power supply and placing a second torch on the opposite side of the workpiece. Such a modification changes the direction of the current flow, improves the weld penetration and reduces the heat input. Using this modified process, 6061-T651 alloy was welded without filler metals. Analysis suggested the reduced heat input, the changed direction of the current flow and the symmetric heating were responsible for the observed reduction of the cracking sensitivity.

Effect of high-strength filler metals on the fatigue behaviour of butt joints

Abstract: Welded structures made of high-strength steel offer benefits in fatigue strength for finite life applications. The high-cycle fatigue limit, however, depends mostly on the geometry, and the metallurgy of the notch is of little account. Therefore, an optimised weld process is required to achieve an improvement in the fatigue strength. This paper contributes to the field of fatigue behaviour of thin-walled, high-strength steel butt joints, with regard to an optimisation of the gas metal arc weld process. An existing methodology was extended to manufacture welded specimens with minimised production scatter. The majority of the butt joint samples were dynamically tested, with the root surface ground flush to plate, to study the effect of the weld process on fatigue. The investigated specimen were carefully analysed by metallographic studies along with hardness, distortion, and weld toe topography measurements. This facilitated in finding a relation between experimental fatigue life and the weld parameters. The nominal stress approach, including a benign, nonconservative thinness correction, and the recommended notch stress concept, were applied to assess the fatigue behaviour of the thin-walled, high-strength steel butt joints. The experimental results showed that in case of high-quality welds with negligable geometric notch factor, a small, but distinct influence of the filler metal on fatigue is observable. The highest fatigue strength for the investigated butt joint design was obtained with a high-strength metal-cored wire filler in combination with a three-component shielding gas.

Arc heating hot wire assisted arc welding technique for low resistance welding wire

Abstract: An assistant arc was used to preheat the wire for hot wire tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding which was independent on the resistance of the welding wires and avoided the drawbacks of the traditional hot wire preheating method. The new method is suitable for low resistance wire such as copper and aluminium. The experimental results showed that the wire temperature varied linearly with preheating current and hyperbolically with wire feeding speed. The temperature of wires achieved 60% of their melting points when LF6, H90, HS201 and H08Mn2Si welding wires were used at a current less than 50 A. With arc assisted hot wire, the welding deposition efficiency of the HS201 wire was increased by 96% compared with the traditional TIG welding method, while its microstructure was similar to that of the cold wire welding.