TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 1/1976
By S B Jones
Background
Industrial submerged arc welding equipment was used to produce quantitative data linking welding conditions with weld quality for two-pass square edge butt welding of mild steel plate in the flat position. By applying weld quality criteria to the basic data, it was possible to locate process fields containing combinations of welding current, voltage and travel speed which gave welds of satisfactory quality. The effects of wire diameter, flux type, joint gap and a change in plate thickness on process field size and location were assessed. Nominal welding conditions have been generated from these fields, indicating the dependence of production rate on the level of process control applied.