TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 771/2003
S J Mulligan
Background
Welding of thin sheet metal demands tight fit-up and low heat inputs in order to avoid distortion and melt through. Any gaps between components to be welded cannot absorb heat and the risk of melt through is increased. In practice, it is extremely difficult to achieve good fit-up when welding complicated components, and travel speed must often be compromised in industrial applications in order to accommodate part-to-part variations.
Objectives
- To evaluate the characteristics of the AC pulsed MIG welding process for arc welding of thin sheet aluminium alloys.
- To compare the gap tolerance of DC pulsed MIG, AC pulsed MIG, tandem wire pulsed MIG and low frequency modulated pulsed MIG welding processes for thin sheet aluminium applications.