Indian Welding Journal

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Effect of Manual Flux Bounded TIG Welding on Austenitic Stainless Steel AISI 304 and its Comparison with Automated Flux Bounded TIG Welding


Affiliations
1 Manager, Strategic and Advanced Solutions, Ship Repair Operations, Cochin Shipyard Limited, Ernakulum, Kerala, India
2 Professor, Head of Department, Department of Ship Technology, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Ernakulum, Kerala,, India
3 M. Tech, Kunjali Marakkar School of Marine Engineering, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Ernakulum, Kerala, India
     

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Tungsten Inert Gas welding (TIG) is widely used for the welding of marine grade AISI 304 in shipyards. Even though the quality of weldment produced is high using TIG welding, productivity is less. Many studies were conducted to enhance the productivity of TIG welding namely Activated – TIG welding (FB-TIG) and more recently Flux Bounded –TIG welding (FB-TIG). But the studies were restricted to automated welding methods which restricted their application especially in Shipyards focussing on ship repair market. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of Manual Flux Bounded TIG welding on AISI 304, with commonly available industrial single component fluxes like Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2, Fe2O3 and MgCl2 as activated flux. Commercially available distilled water was used as carrier solvent. The experiments were conducted at three different values of current, and its effect on weld penetration, aspect ratio, microstructure and micro-hardness at weldment, heat affected zone and adjacent base metal is carried out. The same experiment is repeated using Automated FB-TIG welding. The results of both Manual FB-TIG and Automated FB-TIG is compared. Automated FB-TIG with single component fluxes TiO2 and FeO2 showed that phenomenon of Reverse Marangoni convection and arc constriction are more effective than manual FB-TIG welding whereas the vice-versa for flux SiO2. Microstructure of both the manual and automatic FB-TIG welded specimen are similar with no noticeable difference. Micro-hardness tests revealed that the microhardness at weld-metal and HAZ for automated FB-TIG is found to be more than manual FB-TIG for all values of weld current for fluxes Al2O3 and Si2.The objective of the experiment is to investigate the effectiveness of manual FB-TIG welding on AISI 304 to implement the process in ship repair industry to improve the productivity of welding as automation is difficult in ship repair industry.

Keywords

Manual FB-TIG, Automated FB-TIG, Distilled Water, Carrier Solvent, Activated Flux, AISI-304, Micro-Hardness.
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  • Effect of Manual Flux Bounded TIG Welding on Austenitic Stainless Steel AISI 304 and its Comparison with Automated Flux Bounded TIG Welding

Abstract Views: 201  |  PDF Views: 5

Authors

Krishna Prasad S.
Manager, Strategic and Advanced Solutions, Ship Repair Operations, Cochin Shipyard Limited, Ernakulum, Kerala, India
A. Mathiazhagan
Professor, Head of Department, Department of Ship Technology, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Ernakulum, Kerala,, India
Krishnadas P. S.
M. Tech, Kunjali Marakkar School of Marine Engineering, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Ernakulum, Kerala, India

Abstract


Tungsten Inert Gas welding (TIG) is widely used for the welding of marine grade AISI 304 in shipyards. Even though the quality of weldment produced is high using TIG welding, productivity is less. Many studies were conducted to enhance the productivity of TIG welding namely Activated – TIG welding (FB-TIG) and more recently Flux Bounded –TIG welding (FB-TIG). But the studies were restricted to automated welding methods which restricted their application especially in Shipyards focussing on ship repair market. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of Manual Flux Bounded TIG welding on AISI 304, with commonly available industrial single component fluxes like Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2, Fe2O3 and MgCl2 as activated flux. Commercially available distilled water was used as carrier solvent. The experiments were conducted at three different values of current, and its effect on weld penetration, aspect ratio, microstructure and micro-hardness at weldment, heat affected zone and adjacent base metal is carried out. The same experiment is repeated using Automated FB-TIG welding. The results of both Manual FB-TIG and Automated FB-TIG is compared. Automated FB-TIG with single component fluxes TiO2 and FeO2 showed that phenomenon of Reverse Marangoni convection and arc constriction are more effective than manual FB-TIG welding whereas the vice-versa for flux SiO2. Microstructure of both the manual and automatic FB-TIG welded specimen are similar with no noticeable difference. Micro-hardness tests revealed that the microhardness at weld-metal and HAZ for automated FB-TIG is found to be more than manual FB-TIG for all values of weld current for fluxes Al2O3 and Si2.The objective of the experiment is to investigate the effectiveness of manual FB-TIG welding on AISI 304 to implement the process in ship repair industry to improve the productivity of welding as automation is difficult in ship repair industry.

Keywords


Manual FB-TIG, Automated FB-TIG, Distilled Water, Carrier Solvent, Activated Flux, AISI-304, Micro-Hardness.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22486/iwj.v54i3.209784