TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 580/1996
S F Rennie and G B Holloway
The metal inert gas (MIG) welding process has been successfully used to produce high integrity welds using the narrow gap process. Most MIG narrow gap processes deform the wire in some manner to ensure sidewall fusion. Unfortunately, the technique is difficult to control, due to its dependence on wire properties. Submerged-arc welding (SAW) with its inherently greater penetration, was seen as a way of overcoming many of the problems associated with the narrow gap MIG process. The main purpose of this project was to investigate suitability of the narrow gap SAW (NGSAW) process for welding C-Mn steel. Productivity of the process was compared with other SAW techniques.