Purslow et al Feature November 2009:Layout 1 10/6/09 2:03 PM Page 34

Using Tandem Gas Metal

Arc Welding to Create
Heavy Weldments
For welding thick sections, this process provides increases in deposition
rate and travel speed, plus a decrease in calculated heat input

BY MARC PURSLOW, STEVE MASSEY, AND IAN HARRIS

Fig. 1 — A 2-in.-thick weld made by T- Fig. 2 — A 1-in.-deep groove weld created Fig. 3 — A 1-in.-thick weld accomplished
GMAW in the horizontal (2G) position. using T-GMAW in the vertical (3G) position with T-GMAW in the overhead (4G)
with upward progression. position.

Although tandem gas metal arc weld-
ing (T-GMAW) has been around for many
years, it has not been widely exploited for
heavy structures. Understanding the best
settings for the increased number of weld-
ing parameters compared with single-wire
GMAW is part of the reason.
In a continuing effort to increase pro-
ductivity and reduce welding costs in ship-
building, power generation, heavy equip-
ment, and other markets, the Edison
Welding Institute’s (EWI) arc welding
team is developing new applications for
T-GMAW. The aim is to achieve increases
in welding productivity as compared with
conventional techniques used for struc-
tural or heavy fabrication including pulsed
GMAW (GMAW-P), flux cored arc weld-
ing (FCAW), GMAW constant voltage
(CV) spray transfer, submerged arc weld-
ing (SAW), and hot-wire feed gas tung-
sten arc welding (GTAW-HW).
Defining the T-GMAW
Process
Tandem gas metal arc welding is a vari-
ation of GMAW where two electrodes are
fed through a single welding gun. The pa-
rameters at which each wire operates are
independently controllable by separate
welding power sources. Interactions be-
tween the two welding arcs promote im-
proved process stability and allow in-
creases in deposition rate and travel speed
since both arcs operate in the same weld
pool.
Out-of-Position Welding of
Thick Steels
The fabrication of major structures
often requires joining thick sections in the
horizontal, vertical, and overhead weld-
ing positions as repositioning for welding
can be impractical or prohibitively expen-
sive. While SAW is often used to join such
thick sections in the flat position, it is often
difficult if not impossible to apply the
process out of position. As a result, lower
productivity processes such as single-wire
FCAW or GMAW are often used. The in-
herent productivity limitations of these
welding processes are a major contribu-
tor to the high cost of welding these joints.
EWI has applied T-GMAW to thick sec-
tions in the horizontal, vertical, and over-
head positions. Increases in deposition
rate and travel speed as well as a decrease
in calculated heat input (based on aver-
age instantaneous power) make T-
GMAW an ideal high-productivity alter-
native to GMAW and FCAW.
Welds were produced in the horizon-
tal (2G) position at an average deposition
rate of 25 lb/h and travel speeds averag-

MARC PURSLOW is project engineer, STEVE MASSEY is application engineer, and IAN HARRIS (iharris@ewi.org) is technology leader
for arc welding at the Edison Welding Institute (EWI), Columbus, Ohio.

34 NOVEMBER 2009
Purslow et al Feature November 2009:Layout 1
Fig. 4 — Weld joint of a narrow-groove
T-GMAW.
ing 30 in./min resulting in increases of 195
and 185%, respectively, when compared
to baseline single-wire parameters. In ad-
dition, the calculated heat input was re-
duced by 33%. Excellent sidewall fusion
and weld integrity were obtained, as de-
termined with nondestructive examina-
tion (NDE) methods. A cross section of
a 2-in.-thick joint is provided — Fig. 1.
Mechanical testing has established that
the welds met mechanical property re-
quirements.
Welds were produced in the vertical
(3G) position, with upward progression,
at deposition rates of more than 8 lb/h.
When compared to common practice with
solid wire using GMAW-P, this is a 75%
increase in productivity. The cross section
in Fig. 2 indicates that using T-GMAW for
uphill welding is feasible; however, the ef-
fects of process variables on weld quality
have not fully been characterized. Exami-
nation of the cross section indicates that
by using T-GMAW for uphill welding,
there may also be a benefit to impact
toughness due to the presence of thin lay-
ers of refined grain structure.
Welds were produced in the overhead
(4G) position at an average deposition
rate of 15 lb/h and travel speeds averag-
ing 35 in./min resulting in increases of 235
and 535%, respectively, when compared
to baseline single-wire parameters. In ad-
dition, the calculated heat input was re-
duced by 33%. Excellent sidewall fusion
10/6/09 2:03 PM Page 35
Fig. 5 — The narrow-groove T-GMAW
process was used to join nickel Alloy 690
with Alloy 82 filler metal.
and weld integrity were obtained, as de-
termined by NDE methods. A cross sec-
tion of a 1-in.-thick joint is provided —
Fig. 3.
Narrow-Groove T-GMAW
for Additional Productivity
Thick-section components are often
joined using high-deposition-rate welding
processes such as GMAW and SAW with
conventional open-groove designs. Al-
though these are considered high-deposi-
tion-rate processes, they are not necessar-
ily high-productivity processes due to the
large number of weld beads that are re-
quired to fill a conventional single- or dou-
ble-V-groove joint. Narrow-groove joint
configurations are advantageous as they
reduce the overall volume of the weld
joint; however, incomplete fusion into the
sidewall is a common concern. This can
prevent the successful application of many
conventional high-deposition-rate arc
welding processes. While mechanized
GTAW is used in narrow grooves, its rela-
tively low deposition rate limits overall
productivity. By developing narrow-
groove tandem GMAW (NG T-GMAW),
EWI has succeeded in applying a high-
productivity process to narrow-groove
joint design, resulting in productivity in-
creases.
Edison Welding Institute designed and
constructed a prototype NG T-GMAW
gun. The gun was designed with adjusta-
bility of the spacing of the electrodes, the
relative height of the electrodes, and the
included angle between the two. Excel-
lent sidewall fusion and weld integrity
were achieved.
Deposition rates surpassing 20 lb/h
were achieved on HSLA-100 base mate-
rials at a travel speed of 15 in./min. This
is more than a 900% increase over the
Fig. 6 — A 3⁄16-in. fillet weld made at
2 m/min.
deposition rate of the baseline, narrow-
groove cold-wire GTAW process typically
used with these joint configurations and
materials. In addition, the narrow-groove
joint configuration resulted in a reduction
in the required volume of weld metal and
in the number of passes needed to fill the
joint. A cross section of a 5.25-in.-thick
weldment is provided — Fig. 4. The joint
was prepared with a ½-in. root opening
and a 2-deg included angle. A total of 27
passes filled 4.5 in. of the joint.
The feasibility of applying NG T-
GMAW to the welding of Ni Alloy 690 was
also investigated. Edison Welding Insti-
tute has demonstrated the feasibility of
welding nickel alloys with this process;
however, the effect of process parameters
on weld quality and process tolerance has
not been fully characterized. An average
deposition rate of 9.5 lb/h was achieved at
a travel speed of 15 in./min. A cross sec-
tion of a narrow-groove weld made with
Alloy 82 (ERNiCrMo-3) filler metal is
provided — Fig. 5.
High-Speed Fillet Welding
for Structural Applications
Welding at increased travel speeds may
yield a number of benefits. In addition to
productivity increases, travel speed in-
creases have been shown to reduce resid-
ual stresses and resultant distortion. In an
effort to evaluate the ability of the T-
GMAW process to produce welds at ele-
vated travel speeds, weld trials were com-
pleted on T-joints of ¼-in.-thick material
in the 2F position. Parameters were de-
veloped to produce 3⁄16-in. fillet welds at a
travel speed of 2 m/min (78.7 in./min) and
a deposition rate of 22 lb/h — Fig. 6.
The use of T-GMAW for conventional
bevel groove joints, narrow root opening
joints, and high-productivity, high-speed
fillet welds illustrates the effectiveness
and flexibility of this variant of the widely
deployed GMAW process.◆
WELDING JOURNAL 35