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THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO

MENG 3209/339
Fundamentals of Manufacturing Processes

Lab Report 7: Welding

Submitted by: Cherif Youssef Chokeir

SID: 900140712

Date of Submission: 5/4/2017

Dr. AbdAllah Wifi

Ta. Kirolos Bastawros

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Abstract:
The purpose of this report is to study different metal welding processes: Oxyacetylene welding

and cutting, Plasma cutting, Brazing, soldering, friction welding, spot welding, SMAW, TIG

welding and their advantages. Each type of these operations is being studied after discussing the

overview of the metal welding processes.

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Table of Contents:
List of figures4
Introduction And Background.5
Objective6
Experiment Description and Analysis7
Conclusions and Recommendations...........15
References16
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List of figures
Figure 1 Oxyacetylene Welding (Essawy and Ashaby) .................................................................................. 7
Figure 2 Types of flames ............................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 3 Types of torches in oxyacetylene welding ...................................................................................... 9
Figure 4 Oxyacetylene welding operation .................................................................................................... 9
Figure 5 Oxyacetylene Cutting Torch (After The Welding Institute (http://www.twi.co.uk)) .................... 10
Figure 6 Oxyacetylene cutting operation.................................................................................................... 10
Figure 7 Plasma Cutting Operation (principles of plasma cutting) .......................................................... 11
Figure 8 Brazing and soldering operation. (Ashby and A. Esawi) ............................................................... 12
Figure 9 Friction welding (M. Ashby and A. Esawi) ..................................................................................... 12
Figure 10 SMAW operation......................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 11 TIG welding operation.(Ashby and Essawi) ................................................................................. 13
Figure 12 Spot welding (Ashby and Essawi) ................................................................................................ 14
Figure 13 Spot welding................................................................................................................................ 14
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Introduction and Background:

Welding could be defined as a material joining process by which two or more
parts could be coalesced at their surface of contact using a suitable heat or
pressure source. Some welding processes are done using only a heat source,
others are done using pressure only, others using a combination of the two.
In some of the welding processes, the addition of a filler material facilitate the
coalescence of these parts.

Parts that are joined by welding are called weldment. Most frequently, welding
is associated with metals. However, it could also be used for plastic joining.
Although welding is considered to be a new process, it has a lot of technological
importance in manufacturing due to the following reasons:
Welding permits to obtain a permanent joint. Welded parts become a
single entity.
In case of appropriate welding techniques, and the use of a filler metal
that has higher strength than the parent metals, the welded joint can
become even stronger than the initial parts.
In terms of material use and cost, welding is the most economical way of
joining metals. It is also the lightest one.
It is not restricted to a certain manufacturing facility: it could be done in
the factory or the filed.

However, welding has also some disadvantages:

Most welding operations are manually performed, so are expensive in
terms of labor cost. Some of them are skilled trades
The use of high thermal energy in the process makes it a relatively
dangerous operation
It is a permanent joint so it does not allow for disassembly for repair for
example
The strength of the joint could be greatly reduced by a number of quality
defects.

(Groover)
In this experiment, we studied a number of welding processes
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Objectives:
- Understand and get an overview of welding processes

- Understand and study the process of oxyacetylene welding

- Understand and study the process of Brazing

- Perform the forging and rolling operations

- Understand and study oxyacetylene cutting.

- Understand and study the process of plasma cutting

- Understand and study the process of spot welding

- Understand and study the process of SMAW

- Understand and study the process of TIG

- Understand and study the process of friction welding

- Compare between different welding processes in terms of advantages and

disadvantages.
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Experiment Description and Analysis

1. Oxyacetylene Welding
The torch welding with oxyacetylene (OAW) is, historically speaking the oldest process
of fusion welding.
In this process the weld is obtained by locally melting the parts using a hot flame (of
3300C) which is produced using the combustion of an oxygen-oxyacetylene mixture.
These gases are usually stored into pressurized vessels or bottles. Mixed in various
proportions, the torch obtained could be used to obtain a flame that could be either oxidizing,
neutral or reducing.
The use of filler material depends on the application, but it is generally used as it enhances
the coalescence. It is important that the maximum temperature point in the flame be in
contact with the metal parts.
The main advantage of this process is the cheapness of the equipment used.

Figure 1 Oxyacetylene Welding (Essawy and Ashaby)

There are different types of flames depending on the relative proportion of the two gases in the
mixture. These are summarized in figure 2
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Figure 2 Types of flames

This operation could also be used to cut metals, in this case it is named oxyacetylene cutting
operation.
There is also a classification of the torch types which depends on the purpose, whether it is a
torch for welding or cutting process.
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Figure 3 Types of torches in oxyacetylene welding

Figure 4 Oxyacetylene welding operation

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2. Oxyacetylene cutting
Using oxyfuel torches to cut sheet metals or plates is common these days. When the cutting operation
involves nonferrous metals, it is melted using the flame of oxyfuel gas torch which is blown away to
cause gap formation in the metal. On the other hand, cutting ferrous metals is done by using the
flame in order to raise the temperature of the metal to the one at which burning will start (870C) in
case of steel). Then a pure stream of oxygen is added to the torch in order to cause oxidation of the
iron. Liquid iron oxide could then be expelled from the joint using the kinetic energy of the oxygen
gas stream.

Figure 5 Oxyacetylene Cutting Torch (After The Welding Institute (http://www.twi.co.uk))

Figure 6 Oxyacetylene cutting operation

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3. Plasma Cutting Operation

The plasma cutting operation uses the heat that is generated by the arc discharge between the
metal part and the electrode that is present inside the torch. The heat of arc discharge forms gas
in the plasma state at very high temperature, this jet of plasma at high temperatures and speeds
goes out of the nozzle and causes fusion of the object. (Principles of plasma cutting)

Figure 7 Plasma Cutting Operation (principles of plasma cutting)

4. Brazing and Soldering

Both are metal joining processes that employ filler materials having melting temperature

below that of the parent metals. For Brazing, the filler alloys must have a melting

temperature above 427C like copper, on the other hand soldering is performed using

fillers having less than 427C as melting point like lead.

Their main advantage lies in the fact that they can be used to join dissimilar metals of

different thickness. Furthermore, the low temperatures involved in these operations make

them suitable for electric components. The heat source used could either be a torch, hot

dipping or furnace induction.

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Figure 8 Brazing and soldering operation. (Ashby and A. Esawi)

5. Friction Welding:

This welding operation is a solid state process as the heat source in this operation is the
mechanical friction between two parts of metal, hold together while one is rotated and the
other is held stationary. It is the ideal operation of joining forgings to shafts and bars.
Used in automobile component industry, but also machinery industries.

Figure 9 Friction welding (M. Ashby and A. Esawi)

6. SMAW

Shielded Metal Arc Welding operation is one of the most important welding processes
and has the advantage of using low cost equipment. In this operation, the coalescence is
generally obtained by the heat produced from the electric arc.
The filler is then heated to fusion and introduced into joint to allow formation of the
weld. The electrode has a line of flux in its middle portion which react with impurities
present in the region to form a flux that would help to protect the weld itself. The contact
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is obtained at first by contact between the electrode and the parts to be joined to form an
electric circuit, and then by dissociating these conductors, the arc is formed.
This electric energy could then be converted into intense heat in the arc that attains a
temperature around 5500C

Figure 10 SMAW operation

7. TIG Operation

The TIG welding process is based on an arc that is normally struck between a non-
consumable tungsten electrode and the workpart to be welded. The shielding gas to be
used is Argon and its purpose is to protect the molten metal from contamination. The
reason the tungsten electrode is not consumed is of its extremely elevated melting
temperature. The operator should normally ensure a constant arc length in order for it to
be stable. The filler material is supplied as a wire or rod. TIG welding process could be
applied to thin sheets

Figure 11 TIG welding operation.(Ashby and Essawi)

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8. Spot welding

This type of resistance welding is the most widely used. The heat is obtained by the
resistance of the material to a high electric current combined with a pressure during a
short period of time.

Figure 12 Spot welding (Ashby and Essawi)

Figure 13 Spot welding

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Conclusion and Recommendations:

To sum up, in this experiment, the purpose was to study different welding processes for metals:

Oxyacetylene welding and cutting, Plasma cutting, Brazing, soldering, friction welding, spot

welding, SMAW , TIG welding and their advantages. After understanding the main principle

behind welding of metals, it had been possible to understand the different types of welding

operations and to perform these welding operation using the lab equipments

It is further recommended that the lab responsible would possibly in the future offer other

types of metal welding processes to compare different processes and their relative advantages

and disadvantages.
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References

Groover Funfamentals of Modern Manufacturing. John Wiley and Sons 2010

Lab notes AUC

Principles of plasma cutting Retrieved 5 Apr. 2017 from

http://nissantanaka.com/e/catalog/02d_plasma.html