scholarly journals Effect of positive/negative electrode ratio on cold metal transfer welding of 6061 aluminum alloy

2019 ◽  
Vol 106 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 1453-1464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peilei Zhang ◽  
Guojin Li ◽  
Hua Yan ◽  
Yingtao Tian

AbstractVariable polarity cold metal transfer (VPCMT) is a newly developed welding process and has drawn extensive interests because of its potential in further reducing the heat input, offering greater gap bridging ability, and improving the deposition rate. Using 6061 aluminum alloy as an example, this paper systematically investigated the influences of the key parameter in VPCMT, i.e., “positive/negative electrodes ratio (EP/EN Balance),” on weld formation, microstructure, and mechanical properties. It was found that, with the increase of the EP/EN Balance value, the duty cycle of the negative phase was reduced but the peak current and maximum temperature of the weld pool were both increased resulting in a higher heat input. The positive/negative electrode ratio had little impact on the grain misorientation angle in the fusion zone. Hardness of the joint was higher with larger positive duty cycles because of the precipitate phase and small grain size. An increased negative duty cycle resulted in lower heat input leading to insufficient melting of the material and deterioration of the mechanical strength of the welds.

Author(s):  
HaiYang Lei ◽  
YongBing Li ◽  
Blair E. Carlson ◽  
ZhongQin Lin

In order to meet the upcoming regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, aluminum use in the automotive industry is increasing. However, this increase is now seen as part of a multimaterial strategy. Consequently, dissimilar material joints are a reality, which poses significant challenges to conventional fusion joining processes. To address this issue, cold metal transfer (CMT) spot welding process was developed in the current study to join aluminum alloy AA6061-T6 as the top sheet to hot dip galvanized (HDG) advanced high strength steel (AHSS) DP590 as the bottom sheet. Three different welding modes, i.e., direct welding (DW) mode, plug welding (PW) mode, and edge plug welding (EPW) mode were proposed and investigated. The DW mode, having no predrilled hole in the aluminum top sheet, required concentrated heat input to melt through the Al top sheet and resulted in a severe tearing fracture, shrinkage voids, and uneven intermetallic compounds (IMC) layer along the faying surface, leading to poor joint properties. Welding with the predrilled hole, PW mode, required significantly less heat input and led to greatly reduced, albeit uneven, IMC layer thickness. However, it was found that the EPW mode could homogenize the welding heat input into the hole and thus produce the most stable welding process and best joint quality. This led to joints having an excellent joint morphology characterized by the thinnest IMC layer and consequently, best mechanical performance among the three modes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 927-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Guojin ◽  
Zhang Peilei ◽  
Wu Xi ◽  
Nie Yunpeng ◽  
Yu Zhishui ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Addanki Ramaswamy ◽  
Sudersanan Malarvizhi ◽  
Visvalingam Balasubramanian

AbstractAluminium alloys of 6xxx series are widely used in the fabrication of light weight structures especially, where high strength to weight ratio and excellent weld-ability characteristics are desirable. Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is the most predominantly used welding process in many industries due to the ease of automation. In this investigation, an attempt has been made to identify the best variant of GMAW process to overcome the problems like alloy segregation, precipitate dissolution and heat affected zone (HAZ) softening. Thin sheets of AA6061-T6 alloy were welded by cold metal transfer (CMT) and Pulsed CMT (PCMT). Among the two joints, the joint made by PCMT technique exhibited superior tensile properties due to the mechanical stirring action in the weld pool caused by forward and rearward movement of the wire along with the controllable diffusion rate at the interface caused by shorter solidification time. However, softening still exists in the welded joints. Further to increase the joint efficiency and to minimize HAZ softening, the joints were subjected to post weld heat treatment (PWHT). Approximately 10% improvement in the tensile properties had been observed in the PWHT joints due to the nucleation of strengthening precipitates in the weld metal and HAZ.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (01n03) ◽  
pp. 2040060
Author(s):  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Mingfang Wu ◽  
Yuxin Wang ◽  
Juan Pu

The joining of magnesium alloy to galvanized steel was realized by cold metal transfer method with AZ31 magnesium alloy welding wire. Weld appearance, microstructure and tensile properties of Mg–steel joints under various welding parameters were investigated with different welding heat inputs. The results showed that magnesium alloy-steel brazed joints had good weld appearance. When the welding heat input was 141 J/mm, Zn elements were enriched in the Zn-rich zone (ZRZ), and the interface layer was composed of a large portion of Mg–Zn phases and minor Mg–Al phases. With the increase of welding heat input, Zn elements in the ZRZ gradually decreased, Fe/Al phase appeared in the interface layer, and the strength of welding joint increased. When the welding heat input was 159 J/mm, the tensile strength of welding joint reached the maximum value of 198 MPa. However, when the welding input was increased to 181 J/mm, Zn element in the ZRZ was burnt and volatilized seriously, resulting in poor wetting and spreading properties of liquid phase at the interface zone of the steel.


Author(s):  
R Pramod ◽  
N Siva Shanmugam ◽  
CK Krishnadasan

Aluminium alloy 6061-T6 is utilized in aerospace industry for developing pressure vessel liner. Cold metal transfer is a promising welding process used in fabricating aluminium structures. The present work is focussed to achieve an optimum welding parameter for joining a 3.5-mm thick pressure vessel and to examine the mechanical properties and metallurgical nature of the weldment. The welded joint was evaluated as defect free using radiography test. The joint efficiency (66.61%) and measured microhardness of weldment (59.78 HV) exhibited promising results. The effect of grain coarsening in the heat affected zone (HAZ) and weld zone is attributed to the thermal gradients during welding. Dissipation of small amounts of strengthening elements Si and Mg during welding leads to reduction in mechanical properties. X-ray diffraction peaks revealed the presence of intermetallic Al–Si and Fe–Si in the weld zone. Fractography examination confirms the ductile type of failure in the fractured surface of the tensile samples.


Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaohui Han ◽  
Zhibin Yang ◽  
Yin Ma ◽  
Chunyuan Shi ◽  
Zhibin Xin

The effects of arc modes on laser-arc hybrid welding for AA6082-T6 aluminum alloy were comparatively studied. Two arc modes were employed: pulsed metal inert gas arc and cold metal transfer arc. The results indicated that joints without porosity, undercutting, or other defects were obtained with both laser-pulsed metal inert gas hybrid welding (LPMHW) and laser-cold metal transfer hybrid welding (LCHW). Spatter was reduced, and even disappeared, during the LCHW process. The sizes of equiaxed dendrites and the width of the partially melted zone in the LPMHW joint were larger than those in the LCHW joint. The microhardness in each zone of the LPMHW joint was lower than that of the LCHW joint. The softening region in the heat-affected zone of the LPMHW joint was wider than that of the LCHW joint. The tensile strength of the LCHW joint was higher than that of the LPMHW joint. For the two joints, the fractures all occurred in the softening region in the heat-affected zone, and the fracture morphologies showed ductile fracture features. The dimples in the fractograph of the LCHW joint were deeper than those of the LPMHW joint.


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