An initial study on welding procedure using tandem MIG welding of high strength aluminum alloy

The high-speed camera system and data acquisition system of welding parameters were created in tandem MIG welding of high strength aluminum alloy. The experiments were carried out in order to obtain the photos of droplet transfer under different welding parameters in pulsed mode. The droplet transfer mode of “one pulse one droplet” becomes the preferred selection during welding process because of its stable procedure and sound weld form. The parameter ranges for corresponding transfer mode were experimentally achieved, among which the stable droplet transfer mode of “one pulse one droplet” can be realized. These efforts brave the way for control weld heat input and weld formation in the future.

The characteristics of welding currents in a rotating arc leadtandem GMAW process and the weld-seam tracking

Tandem gas metal arc welding （ T-GMAW） process shows a high deposition rate that up to three times o f the single electrode GMAW, so the welding speed could be significantly increased in this process. However, the majority o f this process applications are based on the pre-programmed robotic welding, which does not allow them to track the seam real-time during welding. Rotating arc sensor, sensing the seam position by detecting the changing of welding currents, has been widely adopted in the automatic robot welding process. It is proposed in this paper to integrate the rotating arc sensor with a trailing torch to develop a new approach of rotating arc lead tandem gas metal arc welding （RLT-GMAW） process. The characteristics of the welding currents in the proposed new welding process were firstly studied, and then a self-turning fuzzy control seam tracking strategy was developed for the mobile robot automatic welding. The experimental results showed that the proposed RLT-GMAW process had an excellent seam tracking performance and high welding deposition rate. Even if there were some electromagnetic interactions between the two arcs, the deviation of the welding seam could also be reflected by the fluctuation of the welding currents on the leading arc once the correct welding parameters were selected. Based on the detected deviation, the welding tracking experiments showed that the proposed self-turning fuzzy controller had a good performance for the RLT-GMAW process seam tracking.

High speed tandem TIG welding of ferritic stainless steel plate

Weld humping and undercut are the most common appearance defects in high speed welding. A high speed tandem TIG welding process was developed to suppress the formation of these appearance defects and to improve the productivity of TIG welding. In this paper, the mechanical properties and microstructure of joints obtained front tandem and single 77G welding were tested and compared. The results show that the sound weld appearance can be obtained by tandem TIG welding at the welding speed of 3 m/min for 1.5 mm thick 409L stainless steel plate. The mechanical properties of the tandem T1G welded joint are in the similar level with single TIG welded joint. The analysis of the tandem TIG welding process indicates that the assistant arc with a push angle can prevent the liquid metal flowing backward to the trailing region of weld pool and the premature solidification of thin liquid layer in the gouging region.

TANDEM and GMAW Twin Wire Welding of Q690 Steel Used in Hydraulic Support

Compared with using semi-automatic gas shielded arc welding, using automatic TANDEM twin wire welding and twin wire gas metal arc welding （GMAW） to weld Q690 steel, a low-alloy high-strength structural steel used in the hydraulic support in the fully-mechanized mining face, the welding speed, deposition rate, production environment and welding quality can be obviously improved. Compared with GMAW twin wire welding, a refined micro- structure in the weld and heat-affected zone （HAZ）, narrow HAZ and improved joint strength were achieved with TANDEM on Q690. Also, due to the push-pull pulsed way in TANDEM welding, the droplet transfer, distribution on heat flow and interaction between two arcs were completely different from those in GMAW twin wire system. The heat input of TANDEM is only about 76.6% of GMAW, and correspondingly, the welding speed and welding seam can be obviously improved. The complete oscillation caused by TANDEM pulsed current occurred in the welding pool, which refined the grains in the microstructure. The results show that TANDEM twin wire welding is very suitable in the welding of Q690 used in the hydraulic support.

High Efficiency and Quality of Multi-Pass Tandem Gas Metal Arc Welding for Thick Al 5083 Alloy Plates

Multi-pass tandem gas metal arc welding(TGMAW) for Al 5083 alloy plates with 30 mm thickness is carried out to study its high efficiency and high quality. The welding process is evaluated by high-speed photographs and electrical signals. The deposition rate and welding time are calculated to characterize the welding efficiency. The bead formation, porosity, microstructure and mechanical properties are tested and analyzed. The results indicate that though arc deflection occurs due to the electromagnetic interference between two arcs during TGMAW process, it does not affect the welding process stability significantly. The deposition rate and welding time of TGMAW process are about 15 g/min larger and about 16.7% less than those of gas metal arc welding(GMAW)process respectively, accompanied by the reduction of heat input. The TGMAW welded joint has less porosity and more refined microstructure to contribute to the improvement of mechanical properties(micro-hardness, tensile strength and ductility). It can be concluded that TGMAW process yields excellent performance of welded joint with improved welding efficiency, which makes it extremely practical during welding of thick plates.