Development of activated TIG welding technology for low alloy steels: A step towards sustainable manufacturing

摘要

The present study is an attempt to investigate the effect of five different single component oxide fluxes such as MoO_3, NiO, SiO_2, TiO_2, and ZnO on Activated TIG (A-TIG) welding of Cr-Mo-V steels, which are widely used low alloy steels. Effects of these fluxes on surface appearance and weld attributes of 6 mm thick Cr-Mo-V steel weldments were studied. A novel melting pool technique was proposed for A-TIG welding in the given study. Different weld morphological features such as depth of penetration (DOP) and bead width (BW) was analyzed by developing the weld macrostructures. Experimental results indicated that activated TIG (A-TIG) process could increase the joint penetration An increase in the penetration was conceived to make the process a sustainable technology as it increases the weld depth penetration and allow high thickness plates to be welded in more economical and environmental friendly way.