The Paton Welding Journal, 2017, №07



2017 №07 (04)

DOI of Article 10.15407/tpwj2017.07.05

2017 №07 (06)

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The Paton Welding Journal, 2017, #7, 23-27 pages
 

Hybrid plasma-arc welding of thin-walled panels from aluminium alloy

V.N. Korzhik

E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute, NASU 11 Kazimir Malevich Str., 03680, Kiev, Ukraine. E-mail: office@paton.kiev.ua
 
Abstract
The urgency of this work is associated with the need to develop accessible highly efficient technology of welding thin-walled ship panels from Al–Mg system alloys, which will allow minimizing the effect of deterioration of strength characteristics of the produced joints, characteristic for traditional arc welding methods, as well as reducing weld width and welding heat input without any essential increase of welding equipment cost. Research performed by the author was the base to propose the technology of hybrid plasma-MIG welding with axial feed of wire through hollow circular electrode, allowing production of joints of thin-walled (5–8 mm) ship panels from aluminium alloys of Al–Mg system, with strength higher than 80 % of that of base metal and by 3–6 % higher than strength provided by consumable electrode pulsed-arc welding. Developed technology allows improvement of the efficiency of manufacturing ship panels 5–8 mm thick, compared to currently applied consumable electrode pulsed-arc welding due to improvement of welding speed by 25–40 % and elimination of the need for edge preparation. It is shown that application of hybrid plasma-arc welding, compared to traditional consumable electrode arc welding allows reducing weld width by approximately 20 % and decreasing by 10–15 % the quantity of wire used for weld formation of the same process speed. Here, welding heat input is reduced by 20–30 % that promotes an improvement of strength characteristics and reduction of the width of base metal softening zone under the impact of welding arc heat. 10 Ref., 3 Tables, 5 Figures.
 
Keywords: aluminium alloys, direct action plasma, consumable electrode arc, hybrid welding, welding mode, weld hardness, joint strength
 
 
Received:                06.04.17
Published:               01.09.17
 
 
References

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Suggested Citation

V.N. Korzhik (2017) Hybrid plasma-arc welding of thin-walled panels from aluminium alloy. The Paton Welding J., 07, 23-27.

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