The use of an advanced design of power supply control system for wet shielded metal arc welding

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:27955

Nixon, J H; Webb, D J ^[1]

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1. Cranfield Univ., Bedford (United Kingdom). Marine Technology Centre

The work described in this paper was carried out as a direct result of the research reported in an earlier OMAE document. That paper described a series of welding trials which investigated the handling characteristics of a series of wet shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) electrodes, and attempted to establish objective measures of welder skill by the use of parameter measurement techniques. One of the conclusions reached as a result of that work was that a skilled wet SMAW welder was capable of maintaining a much shorter arc length than a less skilled welder, resulting in higher levels of metal transfer efficiency and higher weld heat inputs. Based on this conclusion, it was decided to utilize a highly flexible welding power supply control system (PSCS) developed at Cranfield for welding process research, and to apply it to wet SMAW. Similar control techniques have been suggested by other sources. Using the consumable regarded most favorably in the earlier work, a series of welding trials were undertaken to optimize the various operating parameters which the PSCS could control. Although only a limited series of welding tests were conducted, it is felt that techniques of this type offer sufficient promise that they should be investigated in a larger scale investigation.

• OSTI ID: 27955
• Report Number(s): CONF-940230--; ISBN 0-7918-1266-9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
COMPUTERIZED CONTROL SYSTEMS
METALLOGRAPHY
OFFSHORE PLATFORMS
OPTIMIZATION
SHIELDED METAL-ARC WELDING
STEELS
WELDED JOINTS
WELDING MACHINES