Welding process

Joining methods
• Mechanical joining by means of bolts, screws and rivets.
• Adhesive bonding by employing synthetic glues such as epoxy resins.
• Welding, brazing and soldering.
Definitions
• Backing: It is the material support provided at the root side of a weld to aid in the
control of penetration.
• Base metal: The metal to be joined or cut is termed as the base metal.
• Bead or weld bead: Bead is the metal added during a single pass of welding. The
bead appears as a separate material from the base metal.
• Crater: In arc welding, a crater is the depression in the weld metal pool at the
point where the arc strikes the base metal plate.
• Penetration: It is the depth upto which the weld metal combines with the base
metal as measured from the top surface of the joint.
 Electric Arc Welding
• An arc is generated between two conductors of electricity, cathode and anode, when they
are touched to establish the flow of current and then separated by a small distance.
• An arc is a sustained electric discharge through the ionised gas column called plasma
between the two electrodes.
• The manual metal arc welding also called the shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) is the
most extensively used manual welding process, which is done with stick (coated)
electrodes.
 Electrodes
• Consumable
• Nonconsumable
• A consumable electrode, used in welding, can be either bare or coated.
• The coated electrode also called stick electrode, is used for the manual
arc welding process.
Coated Electrode
• The coatings give off inert gases such as carbon dioxide under the arc
heat, which shields the molten metal pool.
• The coatings provide flux to the molten metal pool, which mixed with
the oxides and other impurities present in the puddle, forms a slag.
• Some elements that are required for stabilisation of the arc are also
added in these coatings.
• Special alloying elements can be introduced through these coatings to
improve the strength and physical properties of the weld metal.
 Inert Gas Shielded Arc Welding
• In inert gas shielded arc welding processes, a high pressure inert gas flowing
around the electrode while welding, would physically displace all the atmospheric
gases around the weld metal to fully protect it.
• The shielding gases most commonly used are argon, helium, carbon dioxide and
mixtures of them.
• Argon requires a lower arc voltage, allows for easier arc starting and provides a
smooth arc action.
 Tungsten Inert Gas Welding (TIG)
• Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding or gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) is an inert gas
shielded arc welding process using non consumable electrode.
• It consists of a welding torch at the centre of which is the tungsten electrode.
• The inert gas is supplied to the welding zone through the annular path surrounding the
tungsten electrode to effectively displace the atmosphere around the weld puddle.
 Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW)
• Metal inert gas arc welding (MIG) or more appropriately called as gas metal arc
welding (GMAW) utilises a consumable electrode.
• When thicker sheets are to be welded, the filler metal requirement makes GTAW
difficult to use. In this situation, the GMAW comes handy.
 Submerged Arc Welding (SAW)
• The welding zone is completely covered by means of a large amount of granulated flux,
which is delivered ahead of the welding electrode by means of a welding flux feed tube.
• The arc is produced while the consumable electrode wire which is continuously fed into
the weld zone as in GMAW.
• The arc occurring between the electrode and the workpiece is completely submerged
under the flux and not visible from outside.
 Resistance Welding
• The heat necessary for the melting of the joint is obtained by the heating effect of the
electrical resistance of the joint.
• In resistance welding (RW), a low voltage (typically 10 V) and very high current (typically
10 000 A) is passed through the joint for a very short time (typically 0.25 s).
• Total heat used, H = k I2 R t
Welding Schedule
• Squeeze time: time required for the electrodes to align and clamp the two
workpieces together and provide the necessary electrical contact.
• Weld time: time of the current flow through the workpieces to the melting
temperature.
• Hold time: time when the pressure is the maintained on the molten metal with
out the electric current.
• Off time: time during which, the pressure on the electrode is taken off so that the
plates can be positioned for the next spot.
Two steel sheets 1mm thick needs to be welded through resistance welding with a current of 5,000 A for 0.1 second.
The effective resistance of the joint can be taken as a 100 micro ohms. The nugget formed at joint has cylindrical shape
of 5mm diameter and 1.5 mm height. The density of steel is 0.0078 gm/mm 3 and the heat required to melt the steel to
be taken as 800 J/gm. Determine the heat transfer efficiency.

P183.768 V29.45
 Resistance Seam Welding
• Cylindrical electrodes are replaced by disc electrodes.
• The disc electrodes are continuously rotated so that the workpieces gets advanced
underneath them while at the same time the pressure on the joint is maintained.
• The current is applied through the heavy copper electrodes in a series of pulses.
• The timing is adjusted so that the pulses overlap each other to form a continuous
seam joint.
Thermit Welding
• The heat source utilised for fusion in thermit welding is the
exothermic reaction of the thermit mixtures.
• A typical thermit mixture for welding steels is aluminium and iron
oxide.
• When the intimately mixed thermit powder is brought to its ignition
temperature of 1200C, the thermit reaction starts.
• Aluminium has greater affinity towards oxygen, and as a result, it
reduces the ferric oxide to liberate iron and in the process, releases
heat.

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Thermit Welding
• 3 Fe3O4 + 8 Al  9 Fe + 4 Al2O3 + 3.01 MJ/mol

• The temperature reached is of the order of 3000ºC.

• The enormous amount of heat liberated, melts both the iron and
aluminium oxide to a very fluid state.
• Because of the large differential in the densities, aluminium oxide
would be floating on the top with the molten steel settling below.
• Once started, the reaction continues till all the thermit mixture in the
reaction vessel or ladle is completely reduced.
 Friction Welding
• The heat required for welding in this process is obtained by the friction between the ends
of the two parts to be joined.
• One of the parts to be joined is rotated at a high speed around 3000 revolutions per minute
and the other part is axially aligned with the second one and pressed tightly against it as
shown in Fig 10-6.
• The friction between the two parts raises the temperature of both the ends. Then the
rotation of the part is stopped abruptly and the pressure on the fixed part is increased so
that the joining takes place.
 Explosion Welding
• In explosion welding (EXW), detonation of explosives is used to accelerate a part to move towards
the other plate at a fast rate, so that the impact creates the joint.

• As the plate moves at high velocity and meets the other plate with a massive impact, very high
stress waves (the order of thousands of MPa) created between the plates, which clear all the oxide
and scales present in the interface and make a clean joint.
Gas Welding
 Gas Welding
• Also called as oxy‑fuel gas welding (OFW), derives the heat from the combustion of a fuel
gas such as acetylene in combination with oxygen.
• It is a fusion welding process wherein the joint is completely melted to obtain the fusion.
• The heat produced by the combustion of gas is sufficient to melt any metal and as such is
universally applicable.
 Brazing
• In brazing the base metal is not melted, but the joint is obtained by means of a filler
metal.
• Brazing is the process of a joining with the help of a filler metal whose liquidus
temperature is above 450C and is below the solidus temperature of the base metal.
• The filler metal is drawn into the joint by means of capillary action (entering of fluid into
tightly fitted surfaces).
• Because the filler metal reaches the joint by capillary action, it is essential that the joint is
designed properly.
• The clearance between the two parts to be joined should be critically controlled.
• While designing a brazed joint, care is to be taken to see that the differences in the
coefficients of thermal expansion of the two pieces to be joined are properly accounted
for.
Soldering
• Soldering is a method of joining similar or dissimilar metals by means
of a filler metal whose liquidus temperature is below 450C.
• Soldering is normally used for obtaining a neat leak proof joint or a
low resistance electrical joint.
• The joint design used for soldering is similar to that of brazing since
the filler metal enters the soldered joint by capillary action.