Evaluation of surface preparation methods on porosity formation in aluminum GMAW

摘要

Various mechanical surface cleaning products, such as wire brushes and abrasive discs, are provided to structural fabricators of aluminum for preparing the base material for welding. Large structural aluminum fabricators produce such things as ships, railroad cars, and pressure vessels. Welding preparation practices vary widely across the range of aluminum fabricators. The fabricators would like to know which products provide the best surface preparation for pre-weld and inter-pass cleaning with respect to the formation of porosity. "Best Practices" knowledge is not available, and "hear-say" information has not been substantiated. For this reason, ten different mechanical surface preparation products were compared and ranked according to their cleaning effectiveness relative to the formation of porosity. All of the products tested are currently being used in the aluminum fabrication industry.