Experimental Analysis on the Variable Polarity Plasma Arc Pressure

Arc pressure is one of the key factors for variable polarity plasma arc(VPPA) and welding pool formation. In this paper, VPPA pressure is measured by pressure transducer and U-tube barometer methods, and advantages and disadvantages of the two methods are compared. The effects of welding parameters, including with straight polarity(SP) current, reverse polarity(RP) current, time ratio of SP to RP, plasma gas flow rate, on VPPA pressure are investigated by using an orthogonal design. The experimental results indicate that the influencing degree of the welding parameters are in the order of plasma gas flow rate, SP current, time ratio of SP to RP, RP current. These results are important to researches of VPPA welding process and its mechanism. The physics behavior of VPPA is taken into account when the above influence mechanisms are analyzed. Firstly, according to the mechanism of the cooling compression to the arc, the compression to VPPA is enhanced with the increase of plasma gas flow, so the VPPA pressure would increase obviously. Secondly, although the temperature of VPPA is as a function of the welding current, the radius of VPPA is also enhanced. So the effects of SP current on VPPA pressure are inferior to the effects of plasma gas flow. Thirdly, VPPA pressure increases as a function of time ratio of SP to RP because the frequency of welding current influences the arc pressure to the some degree; Finally, the RP intervals are farther less than the SP intervals, so the influence to the pressure is minimal.     

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLASMA OPTIC SIGNAL AND PENETRATION DEPTH FOR PARTIAL-PENETRATION LASER WELDING

Through sampling and analyzing of plasma optic signals of 400-600 nm emitted from partial-penetration laser welding processes, how the penetration depth is related to the welding parameter and the plasma optic signal is studied. Under the experimental conditions, the plasma optic signal has good response to variety of the weld penetration, and the signal's RMS value increases with the penetration in a quadratic curve mode. The inherent relation between the plasma optic signal and the penetration depth is also analyzed. It is also found that, between the two common parameters of laser power and welding speed, laser power has more influence on penetration while welding speed has more influence on weld width. The research results provide theoretic and practical bases for penetration real-time monitoring or predicting in partial-penetration laser welding.     

Electromagnetic Characteristic of Twin-wire Indirect Arc Welding

Traditional welding methods are limited in low heat input to workpiece and high welding wire melting rate. Twin-wire indirect arc(TWIA) welding is a new welding method characterized by high melting rate and low heat input. This method uses two wires: one connected to the negative electrode and another to the positive electrode of a direct-current(DC) power source. The workpiece is an independent, non-connected unit. A three dimensional finite element model of TWIA is devised. Electric and magnetic fields are calculated and their influence upon TWIA behavior and the welding process is discussed. The results show that with a 100 A welding current, the maximum temperature reached is 17 758 K, arc voltage is 14.646 V while maximum current density was 61 A/mm2 with a maximum Lorene force of 84.5 uN. The above mentioned arc parameters near the cathode and anode regions are far higher than those in the arc column region. The Lorene force is the key reason for plasma velocity direction deviated and charged particles flowed in the channel formed by the cathode, anode and upper part of arc column regions. This led to most of the energy being supplied to the polar and upper part of arc column regions. The interaction between electric and magnetic fields is a major determinant in shaping TWIA as well as heat input on the workpiece. This is a first study of electromagnetic characteristics and their influences in the TWIA welding process, and it is significant in both a theoretical and practical sense.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF DROPLET TRANSFER IN CO_2 LASER-MIG HYBRID WELDING WITH SHORTCIRCUITING MODE

LF6 aluminum alloy plates with 4.5 mm thickness are welded in this experiment.Welding is carried out by using the CO2 laser-MIG paraxial hybrid welding in flat position. The experimental results indicate that the inherent droplet transfer cycle time of conventional MIG arc is changed due to the interaction between CO2 laser beam and MIG arc in the short-circuiting mode of laser-MIG hybrid welding. Because of the preheating action of CO2 laser to electrode and base material, the droplet transfer frequency of MIG arc is increased in the hybrid welding process. When laser power is increased to a certain degree, the droplet transfer frequency is decreased due to the effect of laser-induced keyhole. Furthermore, through analyzing the MIG welding current and arc voltage waveforms and the characteristics of droplet transfer in the hybrid welding process, the effect of laser energy and the action point between laser beam and arc on the frequency of droplet transfer and weld appearance is investigated in details.     

BASIC THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF WELDING ARC SPECTRAL INFORMATION

Welding arc spectral information is a rising welding information source.In some occa- sion,it can reflect many physical phenomena of welding process and solve many problems that cannot be done with arc electric information,acoustic information and other arc information.It is of important significance in developing automatic control technique of welding process and other similar process.Many years study work on welding are spectral information of thc anthor are dis- cussed from three aspects of theory,method and application.Basic theory,view and testing methods of welding arc spectral information has been put forward.In application aspects,many applied ex- amples,for example,monitoring of harmful gases in arc(such as hydrogen and nitrogen)with the method of welding arc spectral information;welding arc spectral imaging of the welding pool which is used in automatic seam tracking;controlling of welding droplet transfer with welding arc spectral information and so on,are introduced.Especially,the successful application in real time controlling of welding droplet transfer in pulsed GMAW is introduced too.These application examples show that the welding arc spectral information has great applied significance and development potentiali- ties.These content will play an important role in applying and spreading welding arc spectral infor- mation technology.     

ACQUIRING AND PATTERN RECOGNITION OF SPECTRUM INFORMATION OF WELDING METAL TRANSFER

In order to recognize various metal transfer modes, by the creation of a pattern recognition system for metal transfer mode, five kinds of spectrum signal in gas metal arc welding (MIG, MAG and CO2) are collected and taken as training samples. These samples are pretreated by computer. Several key characteristic parameters of the spectrum signal are creatively extracted, and a corresponding recognition function and a minimum-distance-classifier are constructed. The results show that using this method, the pattern recognition of several kinds of metal transfer mode for the metal gas arc welding can be done successfully. It has good accuracy and recognition precision, basis for controlling the metal gas arc welding metal transfer automatically, and relative important parameters in welding process, such as the frequency of droplet transfer and the approximate diameter of each droplet, can also be obtained.     

Physical characteristics of welding arc ignition process

The existing research of welding arc mainly focuses on the stable combustion state and the research on the mechanism of welding arc ignition process is quite lack.The tungsten inert gas(TIG) touch arc ignition process is observed via a high speed camera and the high time resolution spectral diagnosis system.The changing phenomenon of main ionized element provided the electrons in the arc ignition is found.The metallic element is the main contributor to provide the electrons at the beginning of the discharging,and then the excitated shielding gas element replaces the function of the metallic element.The electron density during the period of the arc ignition is calculated by the Stark-broadened lines of Hα.Through the discussion with the repeatability in relaxation phenomenon,the statistical regularity in the arc ignition process is analyzed.The similar rules as above are observed through the comparison with the laser-assisted arc ignition experiments and the metal inert gas(MIG) arc ignition experiments.This research is helpful to further understanding on the generation mechanism of welding arc ignition and also has a certain academic and practical significance on enriching the welding physical theoretical foundation and improving the precise monitoring on automatic arc welding process.     

Development of Evaluation Technique of GMAW Welding Quality Based on Statistical Analysis

Nondestructive techniques for appraising gas metal arc welding（GMAW） faults plays a very important role in on-line quality controllability and prediction of the GMAW process. On-line welding quality controllability and prediction have several disadvantages such as high cost, low efficiency, complication and greatly being affected by the environment. An enhanced, efficient evaluation technique for evaluating welding faults based on Mahalanobis distance（MD） and normal distribution is presented. In addition, a new piece of equipment, designated the weld quality tester（WQT）, is developed based on the proposed evaluation technique. MD is superior to other multidimensional distances such as Euclidean distance because the covariance matrix used for calculating MD takes into account correlations in the data and scaling. The values of MD obtained from welding current and arc voltage are assumed to follow a normal distribution. The normal distribution has two parameters： the meanm and standard deviations of the data. In the proposed evaluation technique used by the WQT, values of MD located in the range from zero tom＋3s are regarded as “good”. Two experiments which involve changing the flow of shielding gas and smearing paint on the surface of the substrate are conducted in order to verify the sensitivity of the proposed evaluation technique and the feasibility of using WQT. The experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of the WQT for evaluating welding quality. The proposed technique can be applied to implement the on-line welding quality controllability and prediction, which is of great importance to design some novel equipment for weld quality detection.     

Modeling,Simulation and Control of Pulsed DE-GMA Welding Process for Joining of Aluminum to Steel

Joining of aluminum to steel has attracted significant attention from the welding research community,automotive and rail transportation industries.Many current welding methods have been developed and applied,however,they can not precisely control the heat input to work-piece,they are high costs,low efficiency and consist lots of complex welding devices,and the generated intermetallic compound layer in weld bead interface is thicker.A novel pulsed double electrode gas metal arc welding（Pulsed DE-GMAW）method is developed.To achieve a stable welding process for joining of aluminum to steel,a mathematical model of coupled arc is established,and a new control scheme that uses the average feedback arc voltage of main loop to adjust the wire feed speed to control coupled arc length is proposed and developed.Then,the impulse control simulation of coupled arc length,wire feed speed and wire extension is conducted to demonstrate the mathematical model and predict the stability of welding process by changing the distance of contact tip to work-piece（CTWD）.To prove the proposed PSO based PID control scheme’s feasibility,the rapid prototyping experimental system is setup and the bead-on-plate control experiments are conducted to join aluminum to steel.The impulse control simulation shows that the established model can accurately represent the variation of coupled arc length,wire feed speed and the average main arc voltage when the welding process is disturbed,and the developed controller has a faster response and adjustment,only runs about 0.1 s.The captured electric signals show the main arc voltage gradually closes to the supposed arc voltage by adjusting the wire feed speed in 0.8 s.The obtained typical current waveform demonstrates that the main current can be reduced by controlling the bypass current under maintaining a relative large total current.The control experiment proves the accuracy of proposed model and feasibility of new control scheme further.The beautiful and smooth weld beads are also obtained by t     

BASIC THEORY AND METHOD OF WELDING ARC SPECTRAL INFORMATION

Arc spectral information is a rising information source which can solve many problems thatcan not be done with arc electric information and other arc information. It is of important signficanceto develop automatic control technique of welding process. The basic theory and methods on it play animportant role in expounding and applying arc spectral information. Using concemed equation inplasma physics and spectrum theory a system of equations including 12 equations which serve as basictheory of arc spectral information is set up. Through analyzing of the 12 equations, a basic view thatarc spectral information is the reflection of arc state and state variation, and is the most abundant in-formation resource reflecting welding arc process is drawn. Furthermore, based on the basic theory thebasic methods of test and control of arc spectral information and points out some applications of it arediscussesed.     

双钨极间接气体保护焊接电弧的数值模拟

间接电弧焊接是一种新型的焊接方法,具有高效、节能、焊接应力和变形小的优点。为了研究间接电弧的电弧参数的分布特点以及这种焊接方法热输入低的根本原因,利用有限元分析软件,建立双钨极间接电弧的三维有限元数学模型,计算得到双钨极间接电弧的温度、等离子体流速、电弧压力以及热流密度分布等特征参数;通过高速摄像拍摄到的电弧形态照片与计算得到的温度云图对比验证模拟结果的可信性。结果表明双钨极间接电弧面对称且向阳极方向偏转,呈上宽下窄的倒钟罩形态,阳极一侧的各项特征参数大于阴极一侧;与惰性气体钨极保护(Tungsten inert gas arc, TIG)焊接和等离子弧焊接相比,双钨极间接电弧被焊接工件不接电极,主要靠热流密度、等离子体流速、电弧压力等参数都比较低的弧柱区端部加热,造成工件焊接热输入低、熔深浅。     

Numerical analysis for effect of process parameters of low-current micro-PAW on constricted arc

A model was put forward to simulate the electromagnetic phenomena and fluid field in plasma arc occurring during the low-current microplasma arc welding (low-current micro-PAW) process. The effects of the nozzle neck-in and welding current of micro-plasma arc on the arc electromagnetic field distribution were discussed. Finally, under the condition of different welding current, welding voltage, arc length, shield gas flow rate, and plasma flow rate, welding experiments of image sampling were carried out. Three types of microplasma arc, namely, needle plasma arc, columnar plasma arc, and opening model plasma arc, are founded by experiment. Based on the unified model, a thorough investigation of the low-current microplasma arc characteristics during the micro-PAW process was conducted. It was found that the process parameters have significant effects on the microplasma arc and the distributions of current density and electromagnet force distribution.     

低功率脉冲激光-电弧复合热源高效焊接过程中的“匙孔”行为研究

激光-电弧复合热源焊接技术由于具有焊接熔深大、效率高、质量好等优点而受到广泛关注。采用低功率脉冲激光-钨极惰性气体保护(Tungsten inert gas,TIG)焊电弧复合热源技术进行镁合金板材的焊接,研究激光脉冲作用消失之后的等离子体行为和激光"匙孔"行为。在上述试验结果的指导下优化工艺参数,对比研究采用单独激光焊、TIG电弧焊和复合热源焊这三种方法实现镁合金板材对接焊相同效果时焊接效率的差异。研究结果表明,激光"匙孔"和"匙孔"等离子体的形成是实现复合热源高效焊接的前提条件,恰当的工艺参数可以使得激光"匙孔"维持稳定的开口状态,这种状态提高了电弧的稳定性和能量密度,延长了镁等离子体的恢复时间,因此能够提高复合热源的焊接效率。达到相同焊接效果时复合热源的焊接效率分别达到单独激光焊接效率的7.14倍和单独TIG电弧焊接效率的4.29倍。     

铝合金变极性等离子弧焊温度场数值模拟

通过高速摄像对正、负极性等离子弧形态进行分析,并分析变极性等离子电弧正、反极性不同产热机理的基础上,采用“高斯+双椭球”组合热源模型,建立正、反极性期间不同热源模型。采用ANSYS参数化设计语言(ANSYS parametric design language, APDL)编程语言实现与实际变极性焊接参数对应热载荷的循环交替加载,计算出铝合金变极性等离子弧焊接温度场及熔池形状。对比分析不同变极性电流和焊接速度条件下焊接熔池的穿透深度,并通过实际焊接试验验证热源模型的准确性。研究结果为准确掌握铝合金变极性等离子弧热源形态、产热机理和等离子弧力等特性,并合理选择焊接工艺参数提供理论依据。     

受控脉冲穿孔等离子弧焊接控制系统

穿孔等离子弧焊接过程中存在的一些问题制约了该工艺在现代工业中的推广和应用,如焊接工艺合理参数区间窄,可调裕度小,导致焊接过程中小孔的稳定性较差等。熔池的小孔行为是直接影响焊接过程稳定性和接头质量的关键因素,为拓展合理工艺参数范围,提高焊接过程稳定性和焊缝质量,研制出受控脉冲穿孔等离子弧焊接控制系统。基于简易测试装置,实时采集焊接过程中的尾焰电压信号,可靠描述焊缝熔池穿孔与否以及小孔尺寸;采用受控脉冲穿孔的控制策略,适时调整峰值电流和基值电流的作用时间,使得小孔一直处于"准稳态"。实现"一脉一孔",但脉冲时间和基值电流并不固定,取决于每个脉冲过程小孔的建立时间和存在时间;保证穿孔,使小孔尺寸在预定值附近波动,并防止烧穿的发生;大幅拓展穿孔等离子弧焊接合理工艺参数区间。工艺试验结果表明,当工件散热条件和厚度发生变化时,控制系统能够迅速做出调节,运行稳定可靠,控制效果显著。     

Effect of forces on dynamic metal transfer behavior of cable-type welding wire gas metal arc welding

A cable-type welding wire (CWW) gas metal arc welding (GMAW) method was proposed as a novel approach, using CWW for the consumable electrode. Droplet transfer influences the welding process, and the forces on the droplet were analyzed to elucidate the metal transfer phenomenon observed during the welding process. The effects of the arc pressure, rotating force, and welding parameters were analyzed to understand the metal transfer. The special structure of the CWW affected the arc characteristics and forces during metal transfer as part of the welding process. The droplet formed by droplets from each thin wire, the arc, and electromagnetic forces on droplet formation and the coupling process were analyzed. The arc pressure and rotating forces are beneficial to metal transfer and increase the droplet transfer frequency. The droplet size decreases with increasing welding parameters.     

Investigation on droplet momentum in VPPA-GMAW hybrid welding of aluminum alloys

Variable polarity plasma arc-gas metal arc welding (VPPA-GMAW) is a superior technology for welding thick plates of high-strength aluminum alloys. It integrates the advantages of energy focusing and high penetration depth in VPPA welding, and those of high welding efficiency and wide range of technological parameters in GMAW process. In this work, we investigated the droplet momentum in paraxial VPPA-GMAW hybrid welding of 7A52 aluminum alloys, and the technological parameters of welding process was also optimized. The images of droplet transfer were captured by high-speed camera, while the droplet speeds and sizes were statistically analyzed by t tests of independent samples. The results showed that the speeds of droplet arriving at the weld pool were significantly between GMAW and VPPA-GMAW processes, and the droplet speed increases with increasing plasma currents within a certain range. Meanwhile, the droplet momentum in VPPA-GMAW process is larger than that in conventional GMAW process. We also found that as the droplet momentum increased, the depression of weld pool grew more obvious and greatly facilitated the deep-penetration welding. In VPPA-GMAW process, it became more and more easier for the droplet to fall off the wire when the electromagnetic force gradually increased during pulse period. Droplet movement through the arc zone was further accelerated since the central pressure of arc column increased during base period. This research can provide some theoretical support for thick plate welding of high-strength aluminum alloys and help for deeper understanding of the hybrid arc coupling mechanism.     

光谱法水下焊接电弧温度的研究

利用等离子体光谱诊断法对水下焊接电弧温度进行了比较系统的研究，对水下湿法焊接与干法焊接的电弧温度进行了对比分析，讨论了水的冷却作用及水压力对水下电弧温度的影响。探讨了焊接规范、焊条药皮中铁粉和铝热剂的质量分数等因素对水下焊接电弧温度的影响，获得的研究成果对水下焊接电弧物理及焊接冶金的研究有参考价值     

氮氩保护的TIG焊电弧等离子体的数值分析

以TIG焊接电弧为对象，依据磁流体动力学理论构建电弧的数学模型，运用ANSYS有限元分析软件对二维稳态下轴对称的、氩氮混合气体保护的TIG焊接电弧进行了数值分析，得到了30％N2＋70％Ar（体积分数）混合气体保护下焊接电弧的温度场、速度场的形态分布特征。通过与纯氩气保护的TIG焊接电弧温度、压力以及等离子体速度等分布的比较，得出了加入氮气作为保护气体时的TIG焊接电弧能量及形态的分布变化。对比结果表明，加入氮气作为保护气体，提高了TIG焊接电弧的电弧温度、等离子体速度和电弧压力，能得到更高能量密度的焊接电弧。