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Qiang Zhu , Jiaxiang Xue , Ping Yao , Changwen Dong , Leilei Wang , Gongchun Heng &
a
Zhihui Li
a
School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Guangdong Communication Polytechnic, Guangzhou, China
3
School of Electrical and Mechanical, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou, China
A new welding method, which uses a Gaussian current waveform with a smooth curve and concentrated energy input, was applied
for welding of aluminum alloys of various thickness. Current peak modulation and base modulation models are proposed in the article.
Five welding experiments were carried out using ER4043 1.2 mm aluminum wire, the results showing that the welding process was found
to be stable, and that current and voltage waveforms were regular with no broken arcs or short circuits. Moreover, the arc voice sound was
soft with low splatter. Weld seam surfaces were bright with regular scaly stripes and proper weld height and penetration.
Keywords Alloy; Aluminum; Control; Function; Gas; Gauss; Waveform; Welding.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, aluminum alloys have become a
popular choice in a wide range of manufacturing
applications in the automotive, high-speed railway, and
shipbuilding industries. This increase in demand is a
result of their characteristics of light weight, high
strength, good corrosion resistance, and convenient
recyclability. However, welding of aluminum alloys has
always proven to be difcult, which has restricted its
widespread application. In comparison with traditional
black metal materials, aluminum alloys have higher thermal conductivity and lower heat resistance. In addition,
they are readily oxidized and relatively soft. Moreover,
during welding, their porosity increases, blockage of
wires frequently happens, and they have a tendency to
collapse [1, 2]. In this paper, we focus our research on
improving the quality of aluminum alloy welding in
regard to the difculties associated with this process.
Silva et al. [3] and Murphy et al. [4] described a pulsed
gas metal arc welding method for aluminum. A calibrated droplet transfer mode from globular to spray
transfer for a 4047 aluminum wire (1.2 mm) was
described. The inuence of pulse frequency and duty
cycle of one drop per pulse droplet transfer mode was
also explained. However, the quality of pulsed metal
inert gas welding (MIG) aluminum is hard to control.
To overcome this disadvantage, a double-pulsed MIG
welding procedure was designed by Da Silva et al. [5].
This new welding process improved efciency, reduced
porosity incidence, rened weld grain, and yielded a
Received September 3, 2014; Accepted September 26, 2014
Address correspondence to Jiaxiang Xue, School of Mechanical
and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology,
Guangzhou 510640, China; E-mail: xuejxmmp@163.com
Color versions of one or more of the gures in the article can be
found online at www.tandfonline.com/lmmp.
1124
1125
xb2
c2
f x ae
F x
aexb =c dx
1
Z 1
ey
=c2
dy ac
1
p
2
ez dz ac p
1
2
F(x) is the value of integrated area, which is determined
by the product of a and c. If the horizontal axis represents time and the axis of the ordinates represents current, the area of the Gaussian curve can be considered
as the current integration over a time period. In order
to facilitate calculation, the Gaussian function used in
MIG welding canpbe
simplied as shown in Eq. (3).
Then, the area is a p as shown in Eq. (4). Various welding input currents are specied using different coefcients of a:
gx aex
G x
3
p
2
aex a p
1
1126
Q. ZHU ET AL.
TABLE 1. Experimental welding parameters.
NO.
1
2
3
4
5
Ips. (A)
Ibs(A)
tps. (ms)
tbs.( ms)
Ipw=I0p(A)
Iob=Iob(A)
tpw. (ms)
tbw.(ms)
Iavg. (A)
Flow. (HZ)
Variable
210
Variable
210
Variable
130
Variable
70
Variable
50
210
210
165
144
127
3.1
130
100
70
1.5
12
297
50
1.5
20
67
1.7
p
Es Uas ns I0p tps Ibs tbs a p tps = tps tbs
3.1
Ew Uaw I0p tpw Ibw tbw nw
1127
10
Ew Uaw Ipw tpw Ibw tbw nw
12
13
1128
Q. ZHU ET AL.
1129
1130
with stable arc, regular droplet transfer mode, and stable
welding process.
Figure 6(a)(c) shows detailed current waveforms for
experiments 3, 4, and 5. The GAUSS-MIG model has
broad adaptability in pulsed MIG welding and can be
used to weld aluminum alloy sheet of thickness 2 mm.
All welding processes in experiments 15 were
successfully completed; current and voltage waveforms
were smooth and repeatable; no broken arc or short
circuit occurred; and arc sound was soft with little
spatter. Weld seam surface images are shown in Fig. 7,
showing good weld quality with proper weld height
and penetration, bright surface, and clear and uniform
scaly ripples. Welding process stability for experiments
2 and 4 based on Fig. 2(b) is considered to be inferior
to that of experiments 1, 3, and 5. Based on Fig. 2(a),
more splashes during occurred during the welding
process, which indicates that the base current was
used to maintain arc burning. It is important to maintain the stability of the base current for a stable arc.
CONCLUSIONS
A novel pulsed MIG welding methodology is
proposed in this paper. A mathematical model was
established to enable analysis of the energy input characteristics of the proposed method. Experiments were
performed to demonstrate the GAUSS-MIG welding
model for aluminum alloy plates of varying thickness.
The welding model was used to demonstrate a suitable
current waveform modulation method for a stable
welding process with low spatter, soft arc sound, good
control of energy input, and bright weld surface. The
method was used to weld a thin aluminum alloy sheet
of 2 mm. Gaussian waveform had an innite-order
derivative and the curve was smooth with few parameters adjusted, which provides important reference
values for the establishment of an expert aluminum alloy
welding database.
FUNDING
The research described in this paper was sponsored by
Huangpu District Science and Technology Project
(Project No. 201341), Foshan Science and Technology
Planning Project (Project No. 2011AAl00175),
Guangdong Province Commissioner Workstation
(Project No. 2010B090500008), and the Foundation for Distinguished Young Teachers Training of
Guangdong (Project No. Yq2013106).
Q. ZHU ET AL.
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