Journal of Physics: Conference Series

PAPER • OPEN ACCESS You may also like

- Understanding the behaviour of pulsed
Influence analysis of anti-spatter spray on welding laser dry and wet micromachining
processes by multi-phase smoothed
process and weld properties particle hydrodynamics (SPH) modelling
N Muhammad, B D Rogers and L Li

- A mesoscopic digital twin that bridges

To cite this article: Ang Ji et al 2023 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2541 012019 length and time scales for control of
additively manufactured metal
microstructures
Tae Wook Heo, Saad A Khairallah,
Rongpei Shi et al.
View the article online for updates and enhancements. - Effect of magnetic field frequency on the
shape of GMAW welding arc and weld
microstructure properties
Zi Qi Guan, Hong Xu Zhang, Xiao Guang
Liu et al.

This content was downloaded from IP address 179.223.219.186 on 29/08/2023 at 19:27

IMSM-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2541 (2023) 012019 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2541/1/012019

Influence analysis of anti-spatter spray on welding process

and weld properties

Ang Ji1*, Liping Zhang1, 2 and Genchen Peng1

1
Jiangsu XCMG Construction Machinery Research Institute Co., Ltd, Xuzhou,
Jiangsu, 221004, China
2
Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Heavy Machinery Fluid Power Transmission
and Control, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei, 066004, China
*
Corresponding author’s e-mail: ja3592@163.com

Abstract. Based on the accumulation situation of anti-spatter spray in actual manufacturing,

butt joints are implemented to analyze the state changes of two types of anti-spatter spray and
their effect on arc stability, molten pool fluidity, and weld performance. The results show that
the fluidity of water-based anti-spatter spray is significantly better than that of oil-based anti-
spatter spray in the welding process, resulting in a large accumulation near the arc suppression
position. This causes strong fluctuations in the arc and molten pool, while the oil-based anti-
spatter spray can reduce the spreadability of the molten pool near the bevel. In terms of weld
performance, oil-based anti-spatter spray reduces the plasticity of the weld, and the average
elongation of the tensile specimens of the corresponding joint is 37% lower than that of the
joint without anti-spatter spray. The rapid evaporation of the water-based anti-spatter spray
leads to faster cooling of the weld, resulting in a narrow range of hardened microstructure in
the heat-affected zone. Therefore, an apparent increase in microhardness at the corresponding
location.

1. Introduction
Welding spatter is a common phenomenon in the arc welding process, which reduces the deposition
efficiency and the actual welding productivity due to post-weld cleaning[1-3]. In recent years, the
types and properties of welding anti-spatter sprays have been constantly updated, and all the common
anti-spatter sprays can be divided into oil-based sprays and water-based sprays[4]. Although these
anti-spatter sprays can effectively avoid post-weld spatter clean-up, their impact on the welding
process and quality has always been of great concern[5].
Ljiljana Pedišić and Akihiro TAKAHASHI et al. [6,7] developed a new anti-spatter spray to cope
with the high cost of existing anti-spatter sprays. They also verified its effect on weld quality by means
of tensile tests and hydrogen content measurement. Agnieszka Kiszka et al.[8] used non-destructive
testing and mechanical property tests to study the effect of anti-spatter spray on weld quality and
found that anti-spatter spray had few effects on butt joints but could cause sidewall lack of fusion in
fillet welds. He Zhengwen et al.[9] tested the anti-spatter effect of two sprays and their effect on weld
quality, and the results showed that the mechanical properties with different anti-spatter sprays have
obvious disparity. Lu Yuan[10] studied the effect of various anti-spatter sprays on defects and found
that the volatilization rate was the key indicator of anti-spatter spray in weld quality.
It can be seen that although domestic and foreign researchers have conducted in-depth research on
welding anti-spatter spray, these studies mainly focus on the application effect of anti-spatter spray

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
IMSM-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2541 (2023) 012019 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2541/1/012019

and its impact on the mechanical properties of the weld, the state changes of anti-spatter spray and its
impact on the physical properties of the arc and the molten pool have not been studied deeply. On the
other hand, these studies are based on the premise of the normal use of anti-spatter spray, ignoring the
serious accumulation of anti-spatter spray in the actual production process due to the intersection of
plates. Therefore, in this paper, two types of welding anti-spatter spray are used to study the state
changes of spray during the welding process and their effect on arc stability, molten pool fluidity, and
weld performance to guide the application of anti-spatter spray in actual production.

2. Experimental System and Procedure

Q550D (TMCP) plates of 12mm×175mm×400mm are selected as the test material, which is treated by
grinding and alcohol wiping before welding. The filler material is selected as SLD-60 (Φ1.2mm). As
shown in Figure 1, spot welds connect both ends of the weld, thus forming a groove-like space. After
completing the first weld, an anti-spatter spray is added to the weld groove before welding the second
and third welds. For quantitative analysis, the anti-spatter spray solution is collected before welding
and injected into the weld surface with a pipette. The welding parameters are shown in Table 1.
To reduce the interference of human factors, automatic gas-shielded welding (MAG) is selected.
The welding system comprises a Fanuc robot workstation and a Fronius TPS5000 welding power
supply. The welding process is recorded by a XIRIS CCD camera to photograph the arc and molten
pool changes and by an HKS welding analyzer to collect the current parameters with an acquisition
frequency of 37Hz during the welding process. The overall test equipment is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1. Schematic of butt weld preparation and application of anti-spatter spray

Table 1. Welding parameters

Welding Welding Welding Anti-spatter spray
Extension
Layer current voltage velocity amount
(mm)
(A) (V) (mm.s-1) (ml)
1 200 26 5 16 /
2 220 27 3 16 3
3 230 27 2.5 16 5

Figure 2. Schematic of anti-spatter spray test device system

2
IMSM-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2541 (2023) 012019 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2541/1/012019

3. Results and discussions

3.1. State change Analysis of anti-spatter spray during the welding process
Figure 3 shows the state change of different anti-spatter sprays at the middle position of the butt weld.
It can be seen from Figure 3 that the water-based anti-spatter spray has better fluidity, and it cannot be
seen in the field of view, while the oil-based anti-spatter spray has poor fluidity. The camera shows
that it is distributed in front and on both sides of the molten pool and directly goes into the molten pool
in the later welding process. Figure 4 shows the state change of the anti-spatter spray at the arc
suppression position of the butt weld. Since the oil-based anti-spatter spray is difficult to flow under
the action of the arc, only a small amount of oil-based anti-spatter spray accumulates in front of the arc
near the arc suppression position. However, it still leads to local unstable arc fluctuations,
accompanied by molten pool bursting and large spatter particles. With higher fluidity, a large amount
of water-based anti-spatter spray liquid is accumulated near the arc suppression position. While the
repulsive force of the arc and high temperature is not enough to squeeze and evaporate anti-spatter
spray, excess anti-spatter spray intermittently falls into the arc column and molten pool under the
action of gravity. When the spray comes into contact with the arc, it evaporates instantly, causing
strong fluctuation of the arc and molten pool.

Figure 3. Status of different anti-spatter sprays in the middle of the weld. (a) oil-based; (b) water-based

Figure 4. Status of different anti-spatter sprays close to the end of the weld. (a) oil-based; (b) water-
based

3.2. Effect of anti-spatter spray on the physical properties of the arc and molten pool fluidity
Since the original current waveform graph contains too much noise, which is not conducive to the
physical characteristics analysis of the arc, the collected current value In is replaced with the
corresponding exponential moving average using Equation (1)[11], thus making the current waveform
graph more smooth. When the factor is taken as 0.9, the result of the corresponding current waveform
graph is shown in Figure 5.
𝐼𝑛 = 𝐼𝑛−1 × 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 + 𝐼𝑛 × (1 − 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟) (1)
As can be seen from Figure 5, the current waveforms corresponding to three conditions are
basically the same during the normal welding process of butt welds (0s~145s), but significantly
different when approaching the arc suppression position. Oil-based anti-spatter spray at the arc

3
IMSM-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2541 (2023) 012019 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2541/1/012019

suppression location causes slight current fluctuations, while the current waveform corresponding to
water-based anti-spatter spray fluctuates sharply, and the fluctuation range has been increased by
100%, which is consistent with the phenomenon of extreme arc instability and would probably lead to
welding defects.

Figure 5. Current fluctuation condition of different anti-spatter sprays

The spreadability of the molten pool is an important factor in weld quality. Therefore, a CCD
camera with pseudo-color processing is used to observe the metal spreading on the sidewall of the
molten pool under different anti-spatter spray conditions. As is shown in Figure 6, when the arc is
burning in basically the same position and state, there is an obvious shadow between the side wall of
the bevel and the molten pool with oil-based anti-spatter spray. At the same time, there is no obvious
shadow when water-based anti-spatter spray or no spray is used. Thus oil-based anti-spatter spray in
the bevel directly reduces the spreadability of molten metal.

Figure 6. Molten metal spreading state of different anti-spatter sprays. (a) oil-based; (b) none anti-
spatter spray; (c) water-based

3.3. Effect of anti-spatter spray on weld properties

3.3.1. Tensile property

Referring to ISO 15614-1, four tensile specimens are taken from the starting and arc suppression
positions of each test plate. Tensile tests are conducted to obtain results shown in Figure 7, in which
the specimen numbers “A,” “B,” and “C” represent “oil-based anti-spatter,” “none anti-spatter,” and
“water-based anti-spatter,” respectively, and the numbers “1”, “2,” and “3”, “4” represent the starting
and arc suppression positions of the arc respectively.

Figure 7. Joint tensile strength and elongation of different anti-spatter sprays

4
IMSM-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2541 (2023) 012019 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2541/1/012019

As seen in Figure 7, the tensile strength of the joints with both anti-spatter sprays does not decrease
significantly, but the addition of two anti-spatter sprays reduces the elongation of the joints. The joint
elongation with oil-based anti-spatter spray has the most obvious reduction, and the joint average
elongation is 37% lower than without anti-spatter spray. As the water-based anti-spatter spray in the
arc suppression position enters the arc and molten pool directly, large-size pore defects happen, and
the elongation declines apparently at the arc suppression position of the joint (C-4 specimen).
Figure 8 shows the fracture morphology of the joints corresponding to different types of anti-
spatters. It can be seen that the joint fracture morphology with water-based anti-spatter spray mainly
consists of tearing dimples which are evident plastic deformation characteristics, and the distribution
and form of dimples are basically the same as those of the joint fracture morphology without anti-
spatter spray. In contrast, in addition to the tearing dimples, the joint fracture morphology with oil-
based anti-spatter spray also contains a certain amount of cleavage steps, and typical brittle fracture
characteristics appear locally. Therefore, adding an oil-based anti-spatter spray reduces the plasticity
of the weld metal, which is also the main reason for the decrease in the average elongation.

Figure 8. Joint fracture morphology of different anti-spatter sprays. (a) oil-based; (b) no anti-spatter
spray; (c) water-based

3.3.2. Microhardness
The hardness test is carried out according to ISO 9015, and only the microhardness results within 2
mm from the upper surface are analyzed, as the first weld is not affected by the anti-spatter spray.
Since the base material is supplied in TMCP condition and the welding wire is matched with low
strength, the hardness of both weld and the heat-affected zone (HAZ) is lower than the hardness of the
base material. As can be seen from Figure 9, the joint corresponding to the water-based anti-spatter
spray has a phenomenon of high hardness near the fusion line. This is mainly due to the rapid
volatilization of anti-spatter spray leading to the acceleration of weld cooling speed and affecting the
base material phase transition that obtains the microstructure with slightly higher hardness. In the weld
zone, the microhardness value of the joint corresponding to the oil-based anti-spatter spray increases
slightly, which is mainly related to the low volatilization rate of the oil-based anti-spatter spray.
Despite the high-temperature heating on the oil-based anti-spatter spray by the arc, the residue still
enters the molten pool and becomes part of the weld.

Figure 9. Joint microhardness of different anti-spatter sprays

5
IMSM-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2541 (2023) 012019 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2541/1/012019

3.3.3. Microstructure
Figure 10 shows the microstructure of the joints corresponding to different types of anti-spatter sprays,
it can be seen from Figure 10 that the weld zone of the joint without anti-spatter spray is composed of
a small amount of proeutectoid ferrite and a large amount of acicular ferrite, and the overall structure
is relatively uniform. In the HAZ, the base material is transformed into an austenitic structure under
the action of the welding thermal cycle, and the granular bainite with a fine and uniform structure is
obtained after air cooling.
Compared with the joint without anti-spatter spray, the microstructure of the heat-affected zone of
the joint corresponding to oil-based anti-spatter spray has no obvious change, but the proeutectoid
ferrite and acicular ferrite near the fusion line in the weld zone reduce significantly, and there is a
phenomenon of uneven microstructure. This is mainly because the oil-based anti-spatter spray
decreases the molten pool fluidity on the groove surface, leading to uneven structure. In addition, it
can be seen from figure 10 b) that there are holes with a diameter of 20~50μm in the root area of the
third weld with oil-based anti-spatter spray. These holes are mainly micro-pores formed by the
continuous decomposition of anti-spatter spray residue after entering the molten pool, and these micro-
pores are also one of the reasons for the plastic decline of joints with oil-based anti-spatter spray.
In contrast, the proeutectoid ferrite in the weld zone of joint with water-based anti-spatter spray
increases obviously. Regarding the HAZ, the structure far from the fusion line is basically the same as
that of the corresponding joint without anti-spatter spray, but a small amount of lath martensite
appears near the fusion line, as shown in Figure 10e). Although the structure is relatively coarse, it is
surrounded by acicular ferrite, and the range is narrow, so it has little influence on joint performance.

Figure 10. Joint micro-structure corresponding to different anti-spatter sprays. (a) fusion line of the
third weld with oil-based anti-spatter; (b) root of the third weld with oil-based anti-spatter; (c) fusion
line of the third weld without anti-spatter; (d) fusion line of the third weld with water-based anti-
spatter; (e) fusion line of the third weld with water-based anti-spatter

4. Conclusion
The fluidity of water-based anti-spatter spray is better than that of oil-based anti-spatter spray in the
welding process, which results in that water-based anti-spatter spray has almost no influence on the
welding process in the early stage of welding. Still, in the arc suppression position, the arc fails to
repulse the anti-spatter spray and causes a strong fluctuation of the arc and molten pool. Oil-based
anti-spatter spray affects the whole welding process continually. At the arc suppression position, the
influence increases slightly, and there is a local unstable fluctuations phenomenon.

6
IMSM-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2541 (2023) 012019 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2541/1/012019

In the early welding process of butt welding, the corresponding current waveforms of two kinds of
anti-spatter spray and none anti-spatter spray are basically the same. However, when approaching the
arc suppression position, the current fluctuations of the oil-based anti-spatter spray enhance slightly. In
contrast, the corresponding current waveforms of the water-based anti-spatter spray fluctuate sharply,
and the fluctuation range has been increased by 100%. In addition, the oil-based anti-spatter spray
reduces the spreadability of the molten pool significantly in the butt groove, which tends to result in
uneven microstructure near the fusion line.
The influence of two types of anti-spatter spray on the tensile strength of the weld is not evident,
but oil-based anti-spatter spray can significantly reduce the weld plasticity, and the average elongation
of butt joint tensile specimens is 37% lower than that without anti-spatter spray. Meanwhile, the
fracture morphology analysis can also explain this phenomenon. The rapid volatilization of water-
based anti-spatter spray results in the acceleration of weld cooling. Then, a narrow range of hardened
structures appears in the HAZ, so the microhardness of the corresponding position increases
significantly. The unevaporated oil-based anti-spatter spray directly enters the weld pool, resulting in
micropores with a diameter of 20~50 μm inside the weld and a high microhardness of the weld.
The above content introduces the research results of the application of anti-spatter spray in ordinary
high-strength steel. With the wider application of ultra-high strength steel, the influence of common
anti-spatter spray on the welding process and quality of ultra-high strength steel can be focused on in
the future to guide the actual production effectively.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(BK20220231).

References
[1] Weisman, C. (2021) Welding handbook. AWS publishing, The Miami.
[2] Maier, C.H., Lüftl, S., Kozeschnik, E. (2014) Study of molten metal droplet adhesion to
organic anti-spatter coatings. Sci. Technol. Weld. Join, 19(8): 638-645.
[3] Sharp, C.M., Mueller, R.E., Murthy, J., et al. (1997) A novel anti-spatter technique for laser
drilling: applications to surface texturing. In: International Congress on Applications of
Lasers & Electro-Optics. Orlando, 41-50.
[4] Li, K., He, G.Z, Yan Z.Q., et al. (2019) Evaluation of Anti-spatter Agent Performance and Its
Effect on Welding Quality. Urban Mass Transit, 22(2):76-78.
[5] Zhang, R., Gong T., Liu C.Y., et al. (2011) Selection and application of anti-spatter spray for
welding. M W Hot Working, 20:40-41.
[6] Pedišić, L., Polenus, I. (2012) Advantages of biodegradable fluids application at
metalworking operations. In: 16th International Research/Expert Conference, Dubai, 10-
12.
[7] Takahashi, A., Yamamoto, N., Toyohiro, T. (2015) Development of New Welding Spatter
Adhesion Preventive Agent made of Water and Foodstuffs. Proceedings of the Japan
Society for Photoelasticity, 15:38-44.
[8] Kiszka, A., Pfeifer, T. (2014) Use of anti-spatter substances in welding processes. Biuletyn
Instytutu Spawalnictwa W Gliwicach, 4:5-13.
[9] He, Z.W., Lv C.J., Li J.X., et al. (2017) Effect of anti-spatter on welding quality of low alloy
high strength steel. MW Metal Forming, 8:14-16.
[10] Lu, Y. (2016) Effect of anti-spatter on welding quality of gas shielded arc welding. MW
Metal Cutting, S1:577-578.
[11] He, Y., Yu, Z., Li, J., et al. (2019) Weld seam profile extraction using top-down visual
attention and fault detection and diagnosis via EWMA for the stable robotic welding
process. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 104(9):
3883-3897.