Arc and Droplet Behaviors in Horizontal Short-Arc Pulsed Gas Metal Arc Welding of 9%Ni Steel with ERNiCrMo-3 Welding Wire

Short-arc pulsed gas metal arc welding(P-GMAW)was used to solve the dificulties of molten pool spreading and droplet transfer of Ni-based welding wire.Suppression of short-circuit current was used to reduce spatter.Arc length stabilizer was used to acquire a proper and stable arc length maintained at the critical position where short circuit starts to occur.Short-arc P-GMAW with or without arc length stabilizer was compared.The droplet transfer,arc behaviors and weld bead profiles were investigated and compared based on the high-speed photography and observation of weld cross-section.When the arc length stabilizer was deactivated,the arc length was unstable and too short.The droplet transfer mode was mainly short circuit partial transfer,with only a small part of the droplet transferred into the molten pool,with the characteristics of no obvious necking,a few spatters,small droplet impact,long short circuit duration and high short-circuit current.There was also a small proportion of short circuit complete transfer with obvious necking,larger droplet impact,shorter short-circuit duration and lower short-circuit current.With arc length stabilizer,droplet transfer modes were short circuit complete transfer and spray transfer.The spray transfer had the largest droplet impact,no short circuit and no spatter.With the arc length stabilizer activated,a deep penetration,a high penetration ratio,a small reinforcement and a large reinforcement factor were acquired.This provides an innovative method to solve the difficulties of droplet transfer and molten pool spreading and eliminate the incomplete fusion in the GMAW of 9%Ni steel with nickel-based alloy welding wire.