Welding machine Power wave 455M/SST Lincoln Electric, USA

Base material HSLA SA516 grade steel

Plate thickness (mm) 5
Electrode (filler wire) AWS A5.29, Class E 110 T5-K4
Electrode diameter (mm) 1.2
Shielding gas and flow rate CO2, 10 L/min
Wire feed rate (m/min) 5.00, 6.24, 7.51, 8.76, 10.00
Voltage (V) 17, 20, 23, 26, 29
Peak current for STT mode (A) 250
Background current (A) 100 (40%), 125 (50%), 150 (60%), 175 (70%), 200 (80%)

Table 1 Welding condition and

process parameters
2 Experimental work

In order to study the influence of welding parameters of FCAW process on the fumes
produced, bead-on-plate welds were made with a range of wire feed speed from 5 to 10 m/min. The
test conditions were identical to the ones shown in Table 1.

The arc voltage waveforms (Fig. 4b) obtained by FCAW with STT mode using a wire feed speed of
6.24 m/min indicate that higher rate of short-circuiting metal transfer occurred when the lowest
voltage of 17 V was applied. The short-circuiting tendency decreased when the voltage increased
from 20 to 29 V. This short-circuit decreasing tendency indicates possibility of other mode of metal
transfer in addition with short circuiting and causes significant increase in fume formation rate at
higher voltage.
The short-circuiting tendency decreased when the arc voltage increased from 25 to 29 V and spray
metal transfer free of short circuiting was observed when an arc voltage of 31 V was applied. Similar
voltage wave forms have been obtained, and changes of metal transfer mode with increasing
voltage were confirmed (Fig. 4).

3.3 Heat input

The overall heat input during welding of FCAW with steady current and STT mode was presented in
Fig. 7. In FCAW with steady current, the heat input level ranges from 0.316 to 0.986 kJ/mm, and the
maximum heat input (0.986 kJ/mm) was obtained when high voltage and high wire feed speed were
applied. At lower voltage (17 V), the wire feed speed did not have influence on heat input when
compared with high voltage (29 V). Heat input can also be affected by wire feed speed, for the
higher the wire feed speed, the higher the heat input. In FCAW with STT, the heat input level ranges
from 0.295 to 0.587 kJ/mm. When compared with maximum heat input level of FCAW with STT,
FCAW with steady current mode generates 68% more heat. The average voltage observed during
welding with STT ranged from 16 to 29 V, and these are closely related with the voltage (17 to 29 V)
fixed in FCAW with steady current mode. The 68% of more heat in FCAW with steady current mode
generated 76.5% more FFR when compared with FCAW with STT.

3.4 Weld bead characteristics

To evaluate the characteristics of welds obtained by both the modes of process, macrostructure
analysis and microhardness measurement were made. Figure 8 shows the macrographs of the
welded specimen obtained from steady current mode to STT mode of welding. The macrographs of
both the methods show similar penetration into the base material. Higher voltage yield good
penetration than low voltage for both the methods. The STT mode yielded good penetration and low
reinforcement with moderate bead width, but steady current method produced poor bead surface
and undercut at higher voltage. At lower voltage, the reinforcement of STT mode is heavier and
produced narrow bead width.
Microhardness profile (Fig. 9) was constructed for three specimens of 17, 23, and 29 V for both the
modes and did not show much difference in the weld fusion zone hardness level. For both the
processes, the peak hardness values were obtained at the fusion zone invariably in three levels of
voltage and two processes. This may be due to the usage of over matching filler wire in this
investigation.
Productivity Weld WFS Voltage Travel Speed
Condition Sample [cm/min (ipm)] [V] [cm/min]
A 305 (120) 13.0 27
Low B 305 (120) 19.0 30
C 305 (120) 28.0 47
D 635 (250) 15.5 30
High E 635 (250) 18.5 32
F 635 (250) 31.0 49