Journal of Welding Science

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In this research, the effect of different welding parameters on residual stress and microstructure of the weld region, as well as the comparison of two methods of measuring residual stress using critical fracture longitudinal wave method and preformation method have been investigated. For this purpose, the taguchi DOE methodology is used as a statistical method to optimize four parameters of pulse current, base current, and pulse on time% and pulse frequency to minimize longitudinal residual stresses in austenite 304 AISI stainless steel. After welding, stress measurements were performed using two methods critical fracture longitudinal and perforation, and hardness, tensile and OM tests were performed on the specimens. The tests results show that at all levels of the pulse parameters arranged with the standard L9 Taguchi array, the incident heat input is irrefutable and the effect of this parameter is move then 50%. The optimum conditions obtained while the highest frequency level should be considered. The general trend is achieved from the residual stress measurement charts is consistent with the logic of stress distribution in both methods. Sample number 1 with stress equivalent to 232 MPa and sample number 9 with stress of MPa 126 in ultrasonic method with frequency 4 MHz have the highest and lowest stress among different samples, respectively. The size of the coaxial grains weld was directly related to the incoming heat, so that the least amount of coaxial grains in the welding center was related to specimens NO. 3 and 9 with grain size of 8 µm and 9 µm, which in these samples had the lowest amount of welding heat is measured. The samples 1 and 4 with HV 128 and HV 144 hardness and MPa 633 and MPa 639 have the least hardness and tensile strength and the highest strength and hardness of sampled 3 and 9 with 166 and 161 hardness and tensile strength MPa 703 and MPa 695.
 

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In the TIG-MIG hybrid welding, higher weld efficiency and better weld quality are obtained with respect to each individual TIG and MIG welding methods. Moreover, in this method, the MIG arc is more stable in pure argon shielding gas. Therefore, in this study, the influence of TIG-MIG hybrid welding parameters on the welds appearance quality and welds depth to width ratio of a 316L austenitic stainless steel was investigated using optimum parameters of Taguchi design of experiments (DOE). Microstructure of the heat affected zone (HAZ) obtained from the hybrid welding was compared with those of each individual MIG and TIG welding techniques under equal heat-input condition. The results indicated that the most important parameter in the hybrid method to obtain the best appearance quality and the highest depth to width ratio is the distance between the two arcs. The MIG and TIG currents are the next influencing parameters. The width of HAZ and the size of constituent grains in hybrid welding with optimum parameter, were smaller than those of each individual TIG and MIG processes due to the higher associated cooling rate in the hybrid welding technique.

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In this investigation, the AISI 2205 duplex stainless steel was welded in the form of bead on plate by A-TIG process with different amount of the ZrO2 and TiO2 activated fluxes. The results of the visual inspection showed that the specimen with 50% ZrO2 and 50% TiO2 activated flux, had the lowest face width and the specimen with contains 90% ZrO2 activated flux, had the highest penetration depth. Also, the results showed that the angular distortion of the specimens with mix of the ZrO2 and TiO2 activated flux were 225% less than the specimen without activated flux. The results of macroscopic examination of different samples showed that the maximum length and width of the macroscopic grains were related to the sample with 90% ZrO2 activated flux and the smallest length and width of the macroscopic grains were related to the sample with 90% TiO2 activated flux. The hardness test results showed that the highest hardness of the samples was gained to 90% TiO2 activated flux specimen with 950 HV and the lowest hardness value for the sample with 90% ZrO2 activated flux with 410 HV. The results of all tests showed that surface activated fluxes (ZrO2 and TiO2) affected to the depth of penetration, face width, angular distortion, length and width of macroscopic grains and the hardness of weld metal by changing the longitudinal and transverse melt flow in the weld pool.