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212-1074-05

Formation and detection of weld toe imperfections in tandem gas metal arc welding
Majid Farajian-Sohi, Niklas Jrvstrt University of Trollhttan/Uddevalla, Trollhttan, Sweden

Abstract
Prediction and control of flaws in welds play an important role in design of complex structures against fatigue and fracture failure. Cold laps - outer lack of fusion - are small imperfections at the weld toe which appear under improper welding parameters and act as fatigue crack initiation sites and reduce the life of welded structure. The goal of this study is to investigate the influence of welding parameters and their variations on weld quality concerning formation of toe imperfections termed Cold Laps in tandem gas metal arc (GMA) welding. A statistic-based design of experiment for quality assessment in robotic tandem GMA welding was implemented. The experimental set up and selection of welding parameters and their variations are based on the Arc wise [1] method. To facilitate evaluation of weld quality a rapid destructive method was implemented. In this method weld toes could be opened and investigated longitudinally. Observation of the fracture surface of the weld toe and base material was made and two types of cold laps were observed at weld toes, namely overlap and spatter. Measurements showed that these imperfections are in the form of semi elliptical micro cracks with depth between 0.1 to 1.5mm and length between 0.1 to 4 mm. The statistical software Modde 5.0 was used to handle welding parameters, variations and quality assessment.

Background Cold laps

Fatigue calculation based on the measured weld geometry data i.e. toe radius and toe angle showed poor correlation with test results according to Blom et al [2]. To find the source of this poor correlation Lopez Martinez et al [3] studied the cross sections of cruciform joints. It showed that the most common imperfection associated with the single run MAG was microscopic crack like flaws at weld toe. Another investigation was done by Lopez Martinez et al [4] by studying fracture surfaces of fatigue tested specimens, which were produced by high speed single arc welding processes. It showed that, crack propagation had started from an already existing micro crack at weld toes termed cold laps. These imperfections showed to be detrimental for fatigue strength of weldments. Welding process has significant influence on toe cracking behavior and thus fatigue life of weldments. Balasubramanian [5] reported that cruciform joints produced by Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) endure more cycles as compared to their Fluxed Cored Arc Welded (FCAW) counterparts. It is due to the fact that crack initiation is delayed in SMAW joints and fatigue crack growth rate is lower. Beside the metallurgical differences in weld and heat affected zone due to different heat input in two processes, different geometrical features are introduced on the surface and toe of welds. Formation of different microstructure and surface features is also a matter of welding parameters and consumables. The issue of weld defects at the weld toe of automatic welds along with their influence on fatigue has been studied by many authors [2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10]. An estimation of fatigue strength can be made more accurately, by considering the existence of initial imperfections, their distribution, their evolution to fatigue cracks and the consequent propagation of the cracks within the welds. Due to the presence of crack like defect in welds, the major part of the fatigue life is spent in the growth of preexisting cracks from initial defect size to critical crack size.

Parameter studies
The influences of welding parameters on different defined problems have been investigated, where different welds are produced with varying welding parameters. Parameter studies are also performed to modify a weld process for a specific application. In this study classical design of experiment with some considerations for welding has been used. Every statistical design of experiment includes several steps: 1. Definition of the problem which the experiment is designed for 2. Definition of factors which are likely to influence the results 3. Definition of responses or what to measure 4. Performing the experiment 5. Evaluation of results and empirical modeling using regression

Experimental approach
Structural steel (EN 10 025-S275JR) plates were plasma-cut to smaller coupons with the dimension of (1250300 mm) and weld position PA was chosen to perform bead on plate welds. Parameters were defined to obtain welds in spray mode with a fairly good appearance. Table 1 shows the investigated welding parameters and their ranges.

No 1 2 3 4 5 6

Tandem Arc Welding parameters Weld Speed Arc Length(Leading) Contact Tube to Work Distance (Leading) Torch Angle Wire combinations Wire Feed Speed (Set to WS*15)

Notation WS Larc CTWD TA WFS

Range 1.2,1.4,1.6 m/s 2,4,6 mm 15,16,17 mm -10 (Pull), 0 , 10 (Push) degree Solid-solid, Solidcored 18,21,24 m/s

Table 1. Weld parameters and their ranges in this investigation The WFS of both leading wire and trailing wire was kept always equal i.e WFSLeading=WFSTrailing=WFS/2. The distance between the two contact tubes were always kept constant (20mm) and wire diameter for both solid wire and metal cored wire was 1.2 mm. The throat thickness was kept reasonably constant in this experiment series, by setting the ratio between wire feed speed and welding speed, WFS/WS to the constant value 15, corresponding to a throat thickness of about 4mm. Weld speed, Arc Length (measured at Leading wire), Contact Tube to Work Distance (measured at Leading wire), and Torch Angle were varied according to table 1. The influence of wire type was also investigated by adding an experiment series with cored wire in the trailing position. According to the selected welding variables, a fractional factorial two levels model with one replication was chosen to design the experiment with the software MODDE. For a statistically significant model, a total number of 38 weld specimens with different and controlled welding parameters were welded according to the produced work sheet. Table 2 is the work sheet, according to which the specimens were welded. No 1, 20 2, 21 3, 22 4, 23 5, 24 6, 25 7, 26 8, 27 9, 28 10, 29 11, 30 12, 31 13, 32 14, 33 15, 34 16, 35 17 18 19 36 37 38 WFS (m/min) 18 24 18 24 18 24 18 24 18 24 18 24 18 24 18 24 21 21 21 21 21 21 WS (m/min) 1,2 1,6 1,2 1,6 1,2 1,6 1,2 1,6 1,2 1,6 1,2 1,6 1,2 1,6 1,2 1,6 1,4 1,4 1,4 1,4 1,4 1,4 Larc (mm) 2 2 6 6 2 2 6 6 2 2 6 6 2 2 6 6 4 4 4 4 4 4 CTWD (mm) 13 13 13 13 15 15 15 15 13 13 13 13 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 TA -10 -10 -10 -10 -10 -10 -10 -10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wire type Cored Solid Solid Cored Solid Cored Cored Solid Solid Cored Cored Solid Cored Solid Solid Cored Cored Cored Cored Solid Solid Solid

Table 2. Work sheet of welding parameters used in this investigation

Execution
The arc length was set by varying the voltage manually until the desired arc length was obtained. To measure and check the arc length a long tungsten pointer attached to a digital caliper was used. The voltage corresponding to the desired arc length was determined by first welding a test plate. Then the pointer was removed and the test plate was replaced by the actual specimen. The weld toe imperfection characteristics were quantitatively evaluated by measuring the dimensions and noting the shape of these imperfections. Further, chemical composition in their vicinity could be assessed by detecting these defects first and performing the characterization. This is done conventionally by slicing the specimens, polishing and then observing the cross section with microscope. This process is time consuming and gives information only about the cross sections so there is a risk of missing toe flaws which are between the two cross sections. To perform the evaluation faster and gain more information about the weld toe a destructive method based on mechanical impact test was developed. In this technique the specimens are first sliced to an appropriate dimension being fit to an impact test machine. After being cooled down in liquid nitrogen for ten minutes they were hit by the pendulum of an impact test device. Figure 1 illustrates schematically the experiment procedure.
(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 1.a) Bead on plate weld specimens, b) slicing the specimen to sub specimens, c) Hitting by a pendulum, d) Light or electron microscopy of the fracture surface

Observation
The fracture surfaces of the broken specimens (figure1.d) were studied using light and electron microscopy. Observation showed that toe flaws were of two different types and characteristics. Some were observed as solidified overlap of weld pool on the base metal making semi-elliptical cracks at weld toe and the rest were spatters tending to attach to the weld toe either in a single or cluster form. Figure 2 shows two types of cold laps, namely overlap and spatter. It was seen that the surfaces of these toe flaws are porous and containing some solid inclusions in some parts. These solid inclusions were detected by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) to be Mn and Si oxides which are formed during the process.

Weld Weld

Overlap Base metal fracture surface

Spatter Base metal fracture surface

(a)

(b)

Figure 2 .a) Scanning electron microscopy of the fracture surface of welded specimen containing overlap type cold laps. b) Single spatter at the top of the fracture surface.

Evaluation Overlaps
The factors with most pronounced effect on the overlap depth were the total wire feed speed (WFS) and the torch angle (TA). Interestingly, the effect of torch angle was reversed when switching to cored trailing wire compared with solid-solid. The contact tube to work piece distance (CTWD) had a minor effect but still statistically significant.

Figure 3. Scaled and centered coefficient plot of parameters affecting maximum overlap depth in 110 mm of welds As seen in figure 3, WFS and CTWD have negative effect on overlap depth. This means that increasing their values to their maximums will decrease the depth of overlap. On the other hand solid-metal cored combination of wires and its interaction with TA have positive influence on overlap depth. Thus, changing wire from solid-solid combination to solid-cored combination causes deeper overlaps, in particular for positive torch angles.

Spatter
For spatter defect depth, the total wire feed speed (WFS) and the torch angle (TA) were dominating factors. Here, however, the effect of torch angle was strictly positive, while increased wire feed speed was only beneficial for spatter defects if cored trailing wire was employed. (Figure.4)

Figure 4. Scaled and centered Coefficient plot of parameters affecting maximum spatter depth in 110 mm of welds As for overlap type defects, wire feed speed was the most important parameter, followed by torch angle and CTWD, with arc length being of minor importance.

Summary and Conclusions

The suggested destructive method for detecting and characterizing weld toe defects has been shown to give quantitative information concerning the occurrence and magnitude of crack-like toe defects. The main advantage compared to conventional cross-section cut-and-polish is that a longer section of the weld is tested, thus considerably reducing the risk of missing the cold laps altogether or not getting an accurate measure of the deepest defect. The weld toe defects detected by the proposed method, cold laps, are considered highly detrimental to weld integrity, in particular under fatigue loading. Cold laps, here defined as semi-elliptical crack-like defects with a depth between 0.1 and 1.4 mm distributed along weld toes, are caused by microscopic lack of fusion. In the present study they were observed in the form of overlaps and spatters. Overlaps are considered to be caused by an "overflow" of hot metal from the weld pool over cold metal to the side of the weld, rapid enough not to fully melt the underlying base material. Spatters are weld droplets hitting the base material ahead of the weld pool and then overrun and partly merged with the weld. In the parameter study performed, it was found that wire feed speed and torch angle are the two most important variables in controlling the formation of cold laps. Unfortunately, low values in these parameters increases the risk of overlap type cold laps while high values increases the risk of spatter cold laps. Strange enough, switching to cored leading wire has a negative effect on the occurrence of overlap cold laps. It does have a positive influence on spatter cold laps, though, especially at higher wire feed speed. A reason for not getting the expected quality improvement from cored wire could be that these experiments were performed on as-rolled metal sheets. Thus, the surface quality was not optimal and sheet surface impurities had a dominating effect. Further studies on welding blasted base material at even higher speeds should be performed to provide a better view of wire performance, optimizing the torch angle and CTWD for maximum welding speed.

Acknowledgements
The research presented here was supported by the Swedish KK-foundation. Experiments were performed at the University of Trollhttan/Uddevalla, while impact testing and most metallographic work was performed at ESAB welding process centre and material laboratory. Volvo Construction Equipment and SSAB contributions in the form of material and plate preparation are highly appreciated.

References
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