• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.68-73
• /
• 2009

Recently, as titanium and titanium alloys are being increasingly used in wide areas, there are on-going researches to obtain high quality weld zone. In particular, growing interest is being drawn to laser welding, which involves low heat input and large aspect ratio in various welding processes and can facilitate shield in atmospheric condition compared with electron beam welding. The first report covered the analysis of embrittlement by the bead color of weld zone through quantitative analysis of oxygen and nitrogen and measurement of hardness as basic experiment to apply laser welding to titanium. Results indicated that the element that affect embrittlement the most was nitrogen, and as embrittlement and oxygenation go on, bead color changed to silver, gold, brown, blue and gray. This study performed butt welding of pure titanium and STS304 by using 1kW CW Nd:YAG laser, and to find out basic physical properties, evaluated welding performance by laser output, welding speed, root gap and misalignment etc, and examined mechanical properties through tensile stress and Erichsen test. The reason particles of pure titanium welded metal and HAZ are greater than STS304 is because they are pure metal and do not include many impure elements that work as nuclei in case of resolidification, thus becoming coarse columnar crystals eventually. In addition, the reason STS304 requires more energy during welding than pure titanium is because the particle size of base metal is smaller.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.80-86
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study is to establish the predictive method of the angular distortion caused by the line heating process with high frequency induction heating. In order to do it, the heat input model for the high frequency induction heating system was established through comparing the temperature evaluation results obtained by both FEA and experiment. The critical heating conditions to prevent the degradation of the work piece with various thicknesses were identified by FEA and microstructure test results. Under the critical heating conditions, the extensive line heating tests were performed. According to the test results, it was found that the angular distortion behavior of the heated plates could be defined as the function of heat intensity and the rigidity of heated plate. In addition, it was clarified that the angular distortion strongly depended on the size of test specimen such as the length and the width of the heated plate. Based on these results, the predictive equation for the angular distortion was established with the function of heat intensity, bending rigidity and size of heated plate.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2010.05a
• /
• pp.51-51
• /
• 2010

Recently just as in the automobile industry, shipbuilders also try to reduce material consumption and weight in order to keep operating costs as low as possible and improve the speed of production. Naturally industry is ever searching for welding techniques offering higher power, higher productivity and a better quality. Therefore it is important to have a details research based on the various welding process applied to steel and other materials, and to have the ability both to counsel interested companies and to evaluate the feasibility of implementation of this process. Submerged-arc welding (SAW) process is usually used about 20% of shipbuilding. Similar to gas metal arc welding(GMAW), SAW involves formation of an arc between a continuously-fed bare wire electrode and the work-piece. The process uses a flux to generate protective gases and slag, and to add alloying elements to the weld pool and a shielding gas is not required. Prior to welding, a thin layer of flux powder is placed on the work-piece surface. The arc moves along the joint line and as it does so, excess flux is recycled via a hopper. Remaining fused slag layers can be easily removed after welding. As the arc is completely covered by the flux layer, heat loss is extremely low. This produces a thermal efficiency as high as 60% (compared with 25% for manual metal arc). SAW process offers many advantages compared to conventional CO2 welding process. The main advantages of SAW are higher welding speed, facility of workers, less deformation and better than bead shape & strength of welded joint because there is no visible arc light, welding is spatter-free, fully-mechanized or automatic process, high travel speed, and depth of penetration and chemical composition of the deposited weld metal. However it is difficult to application of thin plate according to high heat input. So this paper has been focused on application of the field according to SAW process for thin plate in ship-structures. For this purpose, It has been decided to optimized welding condition by experiments, relationship between welding parameters and bead shapes, mechanical test such as tensile and bending. Also finite element(FE) based numerical comparison of thermal history and welding residual stress in A-grade 3.2 thickness steel of SAW been made in this study. From the result of this study, It makes substantial saving of time and manufacturing cost and raises the quality of product.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.9-15
• /
• 2017

IMicrostructure evolution and tensile property in the weld heat-affected zone (HAZ) of austenitic Fe-30Mn-9Al-0.9C lightweight steels were investigated. Five alloys with different V and Nb content were prepared by vacuum induction melting and hot rolling process. The HAZ samples were simulated by a Gleeble simulator with welding condition of 300kJ/cm heat input and HAZ peak temperatures of $1150^{\circ}C$ and $1250^{\circ}C$. Microstructures of base steels and HAZ samples were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and their mechanical properties were evaluated by tensile tests. The addition of V and Nb formed fine V and/or Nb-rich carbides, and these carbides increased tensile and yield strength of base steels by grain refinement and precipitation hardening. During thermal cycle for HAZ simulation, the grain growth occurred and the ordered carbide (${\kappa}-carbide$) formed in the HAZs. The yield strength of HAZ samples (HAZ 1) simulated in $1150^{\circ}C$ peak temperature was higher as compared to the base steel due to the formation of ${\kappa}-carbide$, while the yield strength of the HAZ samples (HAZ 2) simulated in $1250^{\circ}C$ decreased as compared to HAZ 1 due to the excessive grain growth.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.980-985
• /
• 2008

Since its invention at TWI in 1991, Friction Stir Welding (FSW) has become a major joining process in the aerospace, railway and ship building industries especially in the fabrication of aluminium alloys. In an attempt to optimize the friction stir welding process of Al alloys for extrusion Aluminium carbody of HEMU-400X (Extrusion Aluminum 6xxx series), effects of joining parameters such as tool rotating speed, plunging depth and dwelling time on the weld joints properties were evaluated. Experimental tests were carried out for butt joined Al plates. A wide range of joining conditions could be applied to join Al alloys for Extrusion Aluminum 6xxx series without defects in the weld zone except for certain welding conditions with an insufficient heat input. The microstructures of welds have dynamic-recrystallized grain similar to stir zone in FSW weld. For sound joints without defects, at the rotation speed of 700 rpm with different welding speeds, the tensile strengths of the Stir Zone(SZ) were almost the same, 80% of those of the base metal. (JIS Z 2201)

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.320-323
• /
• 2002

This paper presents a new generation of system for pressure vessel and shipbuilding. Typical pressure vessel and ship building weld joint preparations are either traditional V, butt, fillet grooves or have narrow or semi narrow gap profiles. The fillet and U groove are prevalently used in heavy industries and shipbuilding to melt and join the parts. Since the wall thickness can be up to 6" or greater, welds must be made in many layers, each layer containing several passes. However, the welding time for the conventional processes such as SAW(Submerged Arc Welding) and FCAW(Flux Cored Arc Welding) can be many hours. Although SAW and FCAW are normally a mechanized process, pressure vessel and ship structures welding up to now have usually been controlled by a full time operator. The operator has typically been responsible for positioning each individual weld run, for setting weld process parameters, for maintaining flux and wire levels, for removing slag and so on. The aim of the system is to develop a high speed welding system with multitorch for increasing the production speed on the line and to remove the need for the operator so that the system can run automatically for the complete multi-torch multi-layer weld. To achieve this, a laser vision sensor, a rotating torch and an image processing algorithm have been made. Also, the multitorch welding system can be applicable for the fine grained steel because of the high welding speed and lower heat input compare to a conventional welding process.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.61-71
• /
• 2015

The effect of welding condition on microstructure and mechanical property of Plasma-MIG Hybrid Weld between Al 5083 plates(thickness : 10mm) was investigated. 1 pass weld without any defects such as puckering, undercut, and lack of fusion was obtained by 150~200A of plasma current and 5~7mm of welding speed. Gas porosities and shrinkage porosities were existed in the weld near fusion line. As welding speed and plasma current were decreasing, the area fraction of porosity was increasing. The hardness of the weld is increasing as welding speed. On the basis of microstructural analysis, Mg segregated region near dendrite boundaries tends to increase with the welding speed. In the result of hardness test, Distribution of hardness in fusion zone showed little change with the plasma current. However, when the welding speed increased, hardness in weld metal markdly increased. It could be considered that effect of heat input to growth of the dendritic solidification structures. Based on tensile test, tensile properties of weld metal was predominated by area fraction of porosities. Consequently, tensile properties can be controlled by formation site and area fraction of porosity.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.193-198
• /
• 2002

In 1his paper, applicability of laser welding to joining process of single crystal nickel base superalloy turbine blades was investigated. Because heat input of laser welding is more precisely controlled 1han TIG welding, it is possible to optimize solidification microstructure of the welds. Since in single crystal nickel base superalloy the crystal orientation have a significant effect on the strength, it is important to control the solidification microstructure in the fusion zone. A single crystal nickel base supera1loy, CMSX-4, plates were bead-on welded and butt welded using a $CO_2$ laser. The effects of microstructure and crystal orientation on properties of the weld joints were investigated. In bead-on weldling, welding directions were deviated from the base metal [100] direction by 0, 5, 15 and 30 degrees. The welds with deviation angles of 15 and 30 degrees showed fusion zone transverse cracks. As the deviation angles became larger, the fusion zone had more cracking. In the cross section microstructure, the fusion zone grains in 0 and 5 degrees welds grew epitaxially from the base metal spins except for the bead neck regions. The grains in the bead neck regions contained stray crystals. As deviation angles increased, number of the stray crystals increased. In butt welding, the declinations of the crystal orientation of the two base metals varied 0, 5 and 10 degrees. All beads had no cracks. In the 5 degrees bead, the cross section and surface microstructures showed that the fusion zone grains grew epitaxially from the base metal grains. However, the 10 degrees bead, the bead cross section and surface contained the stray crystals in the center of the welds. Orientations of the stray crystals accorded with the heat flow directions in the weld pool. When the welding direction was deviated from the base metal [100] direction, cracks appeared in the area including the stray crystals. The cracks developed along the grain boundaries of the stray crystals with high angles in the final solidification regions at the center of the welds. The fracture surfaces were covered with liquid film. The cracks, therefore, found to be solidification cracks due to the presence of low melting eutectic. As the results, in both bead-on welding and butt welding the deviation angles should be control within 5 degrees for preventing the fusion zone cracks. To investigate the mechanical properties of the weld joints, high temperature tensile tests for bead-on welds with deviation angles of 0 and 5 degrees and the butt welds with dec1ination angles of 0, 5 and 10 degrees were conducted at 1123K. The the tensile strength of all weld joints were more 1han 800MPa that is almost 80% of the tensile strength of the base metal. The strength of the laser weld joints were more than twice that of tue TIG weld joints with a filler metal of Inconel 625. The results reveals 1hat laser welding is more effective joining process for single crystal nickelbase superalloy turbine blades 1han TIG welding.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.32-32
• /
• 2009

Electric Resistance Welding (ERW) process is the most efficient process to manufacture the linepipe. To develop the high performance ERW linepipe using the high strength and the high alloy steels, the modulation of input power waveform such as sinusoidal waveform is introduced because the conventional ERW technology is not sufficient enough to produce the high quality linepipe due to its strength and high alloy contents (high Ceq). In this article, the material used for the experiment was API X60 with 8.2mm thickness, and ERW simulator at POSCO was used to develop a waveform control system for the power modulation. The frequency of power modulation was varied from 50Hz to 150Hz with the fixed amplitude of ${\pm}2%$ power. The non-modulated power input and the modulated power input cases are conducted to demonstrate the variation of the narrow gap length and the arcing frequency due to power modulation. From results of the non-modulated power input case, the excessive power causes the longer narrow gap length and the low arcing frequency due to the large heat input and the strong electro magnetic force that increase the weld defect. On the contrary, the small narrow gap length and the high arcing frequency reduce the weld defect. After modulating the power input with 50Hz and 100Hz at the fixed power, the arcing frequency increases, but the narrow gap length does not change much. The high arcing frequency prevents the formation of weld defect because the sweeping frequently cleans the oxides on the narrow gap edges. As a result, the manufacturing window can be expanded by the power modulation that provides the stable ERW process for the quality improvement of the linepipe made from the high strength/high alloy steels.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.98-105
• /
• 2012

The focus of this investigation is to evaluate the effect of joining parameter on the microstructure and mechanical properties of welds produced by friction stir lap welding. The dissimilar Al alloys, KS5J32 and AA6K31, were joined by friction stir lap welding technique under several welding conditions, and KS5J32 alloy was placed on the top of AA6K31 alloy. The tool rotation speeds were 1000, 1250, and 1500rpm, and the welding speeds were 100, 300, 500, 700mm/min, respectively. The results showed that two shapes of nugget, such as onion ring and irregular vortex type, were observed with various revolutionary pitch. In all welding conditions, fracture occurred at the soften region of bottom sheet(AA6K31) and the strengths were 64~78% of those of base metal. Fractured positions were classified into three types : HAZ, triple point, void depending on the revolutionary pitch. The actual thickness of specimen at the fractured location was decreased with decreasing heat input. A linear relationship exists between the effective thickness of fractured position and peak load.