Indian Institute of Welding ANB Refresher Course - Module 06

*Resistance welding and

modern welding processes*
By : Dr. A K Das

**

Resistance Welding
This is a group of welding processes in which coalescence is produced by the heat obtained from the resistance of the work to electric current in a circuit of which the work is a part, and by the application of pressure. The most important resistance welding processes are spot welding, seam welding, projection welding, upset butt welding, and flash butt welding. The circuit used for resistance spot welding is shown in Fig.1. It includes a transformer whose primary turns are divided into sections, and taps are taken from the sections to a built-in tapchanging switch. In this way, the welding voltage and welding current can be adjusted at will on the basis of the following relations : V1/V2 = W1/W2; I2 = V1W2/W1 = const/W1 Where V1 is the primary voltage, V2 is the secondary voltage, W1 is the primary turns, and W2 is the secondary turns.

Resistance Welding
The primary voltage is 415-440 V, and the secondary voltage ranges from 1 to 12 V, depending on the purpose served by the machine. The secondary contains few turns. Power is turned on and off by an automatic interrupter placed in the primary circuit of the machine.

Spot welds can be made on two sides of the work (which is in then clamped between the electrodes) or, though more seldom, no one side.
A spot weld is made in three steps [Fig.1]. During the first step, the parts to be joined are clamped between the electrodes. During the second step, the clamped members are raised to the welding temperature.

Resistance Welding

Resistance Welding
During the third step, the pressure applied to the joint is raised and the work is allowed to cool. It is important to maintain and optimal duration for each step. If the force is removed too early, this might weaken the still hot spot weld, and the result would be a low-quality joint. Present-day spot welding machines can handle steel articles with an overall thickness of up to 60 mm. The cross-sectional area, number, and location of spot welds on the work are found by calculation. Upset butt welding is a resistance welding process in which the parts previously clamped together are heated by the electric current passing through the work to the welding temperature (which is 1200-13000C for low-carbon steel). Then power is turned off, and the clamping (upset) force is increased to complete the weld.

Resistance Welding
In flash butt welding, the abutting surfaces are flashed by an intense, low-voltage arc and then a clamping pressure is applied to upset the joint, so that coalescence occurs at the interface. Flash butt welding does not call for careful preparation of the joint faces which is required in upset butt welding. Resistance welding is widely used in the production of cars, tractors, farm machines, structural members and complete structures. It can be performed manually and automatically. Of late, robots have been developed to carry out resistance welding without any human intervention. In upset butt welding it is difficult to distribute heat uniformly throughout the cross-sectional area of the work. For this reason upset butt welding is limited to parts with a cross-sectional area of not over 200-250 mm2. Bars with a cross-sectional area of 250-100 000 mm2 are joined by flash butt welding.

Fully Automatic Drum Welder

Flash Butt Welder Two Wheeler Rims

Projection Welding Machine

Resistance Welding
Resistance welded joints have shown performance which fully meets present-day requirements. ___________________________________________________________________
TABLE : MECHANICAL STANDARDS FOR SEAM WELDING MACHINES
RATING OF NOMINAL* TRANSFORMER THROAT kVA AT THE DEPTH RATE OF 50 PERCENT DUTY CYCLE (1) (2) mm 50 75 100 150 200 250 400 460 610 760 460 760 1 070 610 920 1220 NOMINAL ELECTRODE FORCE NOMINAL RAM STROKE NOMINAL ELECTRODE SIZE _____________________ THICKNESS DIA MINIMUM LOWER ARM WORK CLEARANCE [DIA] ________________________________ Knurl and Gear Idling Driven Electrode Electrode (7) (8) mm mm

(3) Newton

(4) mm

(5) mm

(6) mm

4 400

100

9.5

178

280

230

9 800

127

12.5

203

380

280

13 200

150

18.7

254

457

355

The normal throat depth shall be measured from the centre-line of point of welding to the nearest point of the interference for flat work or sheet. In the case of machines with universal upper-heads, the above measurements shall be taken with the machine arranged for circumferential welding.
Nominal The

ram strokes shown include vertical adjustments of ram but no vertical adjustments of lower arm.

maximum length of work at the above minimum diameters shall be 150 mm, less than the nominal throat depth. These dimensions do not apply to the universal head type of seam-welding machine. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Resistance Welding
______________________________________________________________
TABLE : THROAT DEPTH AND MINIMUM SHORT-CIRCUIT CURRENT
TRANSFORMER RATING AT 50 PERCENT DUTY CYCLE
50

THROAT DEPTH mm
460 610 760 460 610 760 460 760 1 070 460 760 1 070

SHORT-CIRCUIT CURRENT MINIMUM VALUE AMPERES

16 200 15 300 14 500 19 600 17 900 17 900 23 500 22 100 18 700 28 900 25 500 23 800

75

100

150

200

460 760 1 070

610 920 1 220

32 300 28 000 25 500

32 300 28 000 25 500

250

400

610 920

38 300 34 000

Resistance Welding
3.7.5.2 The transformer shall be capable of operating at not less than 20 percent duty-cycle at the indicated short circuit current without exceeding the temperature-rise specified in IS : 4804 (Part I) 1968*. NOTE For the purpose of compliance with this clause, it shall suffice to compute the duty-cycle in accordance with the formula given in 4.3.1 of IS : 4804 (Part I)-1968*, px being taken as the product of minimum value of short-circuit current in kA and the maximum open circuit secondary voltage.

Electron-beam welding
This is a fusion welding process. The electron beam is produced by an electron gun (Fig.2), a vacuum devise, inside which electrons are emitted by a hot cathode and channeled towards the work acting as anode. The emitted electrons are focused into a dense stream by the magnetic field set up by focusing coils. The electrons bombard the workpiece and heat it to very high temperatures. The impinging beam is scanned along the joint by a deflection system.

So that no arc discharge could occur inside the gun, it is exhausted to a very high vacuum (of the order of 1.33 x 10-2 Pa) maintained by the pumping system of the electron-beam welding machine.
The electron beam may strike the work continuously or in pulses. The temperature to which the beam can heat the work can be adjusted by varying the power density of the beam.
(Figure 2 next slide)

 Electron Beam welding is your solution for joining exotic materials with little or no loss in strength. Joins aluminum, copper, carbon steels, stainless steels, nickel & cobalt alloys, tantalum, titanium, and refractory metals Penetration from 0.001 to 2.000 Lowest total heat input resulting in low thermal distortion High depth-to-width ratios, typically 10:1 Hard vacuum environment of 1x10^4 torr Energy Area: 1x10^7 Watts/cm^2

Electron Beam welding Electron Beam Welding

Electron-beam welding
The beam length is varied with the aid of the focusing system. The beam can be manipulated at a distance of up to 900 mm to the work, which is an obvious advantage when making welded joints in hardto-reach spots. The specific heat power of the electron beam is hundreds or even thousands of times the figure achieved with the usual electric arc. For example, an electric arc with a voltage of 20V, a current of 200A, and a diameter of 10 mm produces a power density of about 4 x 107W m-2. An electron beam operating at a voltage of 100 kV, a current of 8 mA, and a diameter of 0.05 mm produces a power density of 4 x 1011 Wm-2, which is 10 000 times greater. Owing to the higher power density, electron-beam welding can proceed at higher welding [or travel] speeds, make narrow and deep welds, keep to a minimum the heating of the near-weld zone and, as a consequence, to minimize welding stresses and distortion, and to improve the strength of the welded joints. Of late, work has been under way to develop plasma-electron beam and electron-beam welding units in which the beam is coupled out of vacuum into the atmosphere. With this arrangement, electronbeam welding can be used to handle workpieces of an unlimited size.

Electron-beam welding
Electron-beam welding holds out special promise in the fabrication of especially critical structural members (girders, columns etc.), high-pressure reservoirs, assemblies for steam generators and turbines, components for internal-combustion engines, and so on. Electron-beam welding can advantageously be used in outer space for the repair of orbital stations and other jobs.

Plasma-arc welding and cutting

In this welding process, local heating is accomplished by a plasma stream. The plasma refers to a high-temperature ionizing gas. The lowest temperature at which spontaneous ionization can take place is above 55000C. The plasma used for welding purposes has a temperature of 5500-30 0000C. The manner in which a plasma stream is generated is illustrated in Fig.3. Power is supplied by a d.c. source, E. The minus terminal of the source is connected to an electrode, 4, and the plus terminal to a nozzle, 2. The arc, 5, striking between the electrode and nozzle is blown outwards by a gas mixture with the formation of a plasma jet, 1. In torches for plasma-arc welding (Fig.3) one of the electrodes is the workpiece itself. As compared with arc welding, cutting and surfacing, the plasma-arc process offers the following advantages : (1) High productivity (four and more times greater). (2) Low degree of deformability of the work (due to high rates of cutting and/or welding). (Figure next slide)

Fig.3 Plasma arc welding; [a] plasma-jet (non-transferred-arc) type; [b] plasma-arc (transferred-arc) type 1plasma stream; 2plasma constricting nozzle; 3plasma gas; 4electrode; 5arc column; 6workpiece; Epower source

Plasma cutting process

For plasma cutting transferred arc with high gas flow is used Inert gases eg Argon, Nitrogen or Argon-H2 used with tungsten electrode. Used mainly for stainless steel, aluminium, nickel alloys etc.

Air plasma
Oxidising gases eg air or oxygen can be used with a hafnium electrode mounted on a copper holder cutting MS Cut quality is slightly poor due to excessive top edge melt Variants dual gas - water injection/shroud

Plasma-arc welding and cutting

(3) Reduced amount of discard in cutting, because the kerf thus produced is much narrower than in oxygen cutting.

A major disadvantage of the plasma-arc process is noise due to the operation of the plasma source. Because of this, hand-held plasma sources are used on a very limited scale. For the most part, remotely operated plasma sources are employed.

Laser-beam welding and cutting

In this process the necessary heat is obtained from the concentrated coherent light beam produced by a laser. The active body in a laser can be a solid, a gas, a gas mixture, a liquid. Fig.4 shows diagrammatically the arrangement of a ruby laser. The key component of this laser is a pump cavity, 1, which encloses a ruby rod, 2. Installed parallel with the ruby rod is a high voltage flash tube, 5. The radiation emitted by the ruby rod is shaped into a narrow beam and directed onto the workpiece by an optical system made up of a prism, 3, a lense, and an interchangeable objective, 4. There is another optical system consisting of a light source 8, a prism 7, and a lense 6, to tune up the laser.

The beam emitted from the ruby rod is focused to a spot from 0.01 to 0.1 mm in diameter.
Lasers hold out promise to welding practice as they can join heavygauge steel plates. They are also promising in the metal-cutting field.

Laser-beam welding and cutting

Laser-beam welding and cutting

CO2 lasers use pure Helium & CO2 as lasing gases.

Laser cutting

Assist gases are used in laser cutting to eject the molten metal from the cut. Argon/nitrogen used for stainless steel, aluminium, titanium etc. Oxygen can be used for MS and low alloy steels which aids cutting

Lasers give very high cut quality and speeds.

** Thank you ** *** *