GTAW Welding

GTAW
•Also referred to as “TIG” Welding
•Uses a shield gas, a non-consumable tungsten
electrode and a hand fed filler rod
•Excellent for welding thin metals, pipeline
welding and exotic metals
•Highly skilled labor needed for this process
 Gas Tungsten-Arc
Welding The gas tungsten-arc welding process, formerly known
as TIG (for tungsten inert gas) welding.

Equipment for gas tungsten-arc welding

operations. Source: American Welding
Society.
Comparison of Laser-Beam and
Tungsten-Arc Welding
Figure 27.16
Comparison of the
size of weld beads in
(a) electron-beam or
laser-beam welding
to that in (b)
conventional
(tungsten-arc)
welding. Source:
American Welding
Society, Welding
Handbook (8th ed.),
1991.
 General Characteristics of
Fusion Welding Processes
TABLE 27.1
Skill level Welding Current Cost of
Joining process Operation Advantage required position type Distortion* equipment
Shielded metal-arc Manual Portable and High All ac, dc 1 to 2 Low
flexible
Submerged arc Automatic High Low to Flat and ac, dc 1 to 2 Medium
deposition medium horizontal
Gas metal-arc Semiautomatic Most metals Low to All dc 2 to 3 Medium to
or automatic high high
Gas tungsten-arc Manual or Most metals Low to All ac, dc 2 to 3 Medium
automatic high
Flux-cored arc Semiautomatic High Low to All dc 1 to 3 Medium
or automatic deposition high
Oxyfuel Manual Portable and High All — 2 to 4 Low
flexible
Electron-beam, Semiautomatic Most metals Medium All — 3 to 5 High
Laser-beam or automatic to high
* 1, highest; 5, lowest.
 The GTAW (TIG) Process

Temperatures of up to 35,000° F/ 19,426° C.

The torch contributes only heat to the work piece.

Advantages
weld more kinds of metals and metal alloys

stainless steel, nickel alloys such as Monel and Inconel,

titanium, aluminum, magnesium, copper, brass, bronze, and
even gold.

 dissimilar metals
Concentrated Arc
 pin point control of heat input to the work piece resulting in a
narrow heat-affected zone.

advantage when welding metals with high heat conductivity

such as aluminum and copper.

No Slag- welder’s vision of the molten weld pool.

The finished weld will not have slag to remove between

passes.
No Sparks or Spatter
no transfer of metal across the arc.

no sparks produced if the material being welded is free of

contaminants.

GTAW Disadvantages
low filler metal deposition rate.
hand-eye coordination necessary
The arc brighter than those produced by SMAW and GMAW.
Polarity
Direct Current Electrode Negative (DCEN)

practically all metals.

approximately 70% of the heat will be concentrated into the

workpiece.

deep penetration

The electrode receives a smaller portion of the heat energy than

when using Alternating Current (AC) or Direct Current Electrode
Positive polarity (DCEP).

This accounts for the higher current carrying capacity of a given

size tungsten electrode with DCEN than with DCEP or AC.
Direct Current Electrode Positive (DCEP),

Approximately 70% of the heat will be concentrated at the

positive side of the arc.

electrode receives the greatest amount of heat and becomes very

hot, the electrode must be very large even when low amperages are
used, to prevent overheating and possible melting.

shallow penetration.

disadvantage - magnetic forces the arc will sometimes wander

from side to side when making a fillet weld when two pieces of
metal are at a close angle to one another.
DCEP

cleaning done continuously while the welding

oxide can be removed by the welding arc

positively charged gas ions strike the work piece with sufficient
force to break up and chip away the brittle aluminum oxide
Why GMAW uses mostly DCEP
stable arc, smooth metal transfer, relatively low spatter,
good weld bead characteristics and deep penetration for a
wide range of welding currents.

DCEN
The molten droplet size tends to increase and the droplet
transfer becomes irregular, thereby increasing large grain
spatter.

However, some specific wires with unique chemical

composition have been developed specifically for DCEN,
which offers excellent performance on galvanized sheets.

Attempts to use conventional AC have generally been

unsuccessful due to the instable arc in GMAW.
SMAW is the most versatile welding process in terms of polarity

The majority of covered electrodes use either AC or DCEP.

Some electrodes, specifically E6013 (RB-26), E6019 (B-17) and E7024(ZERODE-
43F) offer good performance with AC, DCEP or DCEN.

In contrast, high cellulose type electrodes such as E6010 (KOBE-6010), E7010-P1

(KOBE-7010S), and E8010-P1 (KOBE-8010S) for pipe welding are designed for
use with DCEP only for smoother droplet transfer.

Low carbon type Cr-Mo electrodes such as E7015-B2L (CMB-95) and E8015-B3L
(CMB-105) are also designed for use with DCEP only, for better performance.

Some specific electrodes such as LB-80UL for high strength steels and NB-1S for
low temperature steels are recommended to use AC only in order to guarantee
strict requirements for strength and impact toughness of weld metal in
fabrication.
ELECTRODE
CLASSIFICATIONS