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Improving weld penetration by two-TIG arc activated via mixing oxygen into shielding gas

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Abstract

In order to improve welding efficiency of conventional TIG welding process, a new activating TIG (A-TIG) welding process, named activating arc two-TIG (AT-TIG) welding, was developed by using two-TIG arc activated via mixing minor oxygen into the shielding gas of the front welding torch. The effect of the oxygen flow rate, welding current carried by two tungsten electrodes, and welding speed on the weld formation were investigated for the bead-on-plate welding of SUS304 stainless steel. It was found that, compared to conventional TIG welding, this method can successfully obtain a markedly deepened weld penetration, even at a relatively higher welding speed. Mixing of O2 into the argon shielding gas do not have a significant effect on the microstructure of the weld metal. The dramatically improved weld depth can be achieved at a lower oxygen flow rate and the corresponding impact toughness energy of the weld reaches as much as 92.3% of the workpiece. In addition, the modulation of the current proportions for each welding torch plays a prominent role in the weld formation, which was accounted by a numerical model that the current apportionment for each electrode results in the change of the arc plasma flow and thus the oxygen transfer process from the arc plasma to the weld pool. The predominant effect of the oxygen on the formation of the weld pool shape and the weld formation was demonstrated by a weld-bead-shift experiment. Therefore, the oxygen transfer process from the arc plasma to the weld pool and the mechanisms for enhancing the weld penetration in this welding process were clarified.

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Funding

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51705054) and The Scientific and Technological Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (No. KJQN202101135).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, 400054, China

    Jia Zhang, Peize Shao & Xinxin Wang

  2. Chongqing Municipal Engineering Research Center of Higher Education Institutions for Special Welding Materials and Technology, Chongqing, 400054, China

    Jia Zhang, Peize Shao & Xinxin Wang

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, China

    Ding Fan

  4. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Non-ferrous Metals, 730050, Lanzhou, China

    Ding Fan

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Contributions

JZ: investigation, methodology, writing—original draft. PS: investigation, methodology. XW: methodology, funding acquisition, writing and revising, data curation. DF: methodology, supervision.

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Correspondence to Xinxin Wang.

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Zhang, J., Shao, P., Wang, X. et al. Improving weld penetration by two-TIG arc activated via mixing oxygen into shielding gas. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 125, 169–181 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-10703-4

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