Electric Welding

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Electric Welding

• Welding is the process of joining two pieces of metal or


non-metal together by heating them to their melting
point.

• Filler metal may or may not be used to join two pieces.

• The physical and mechanical properties of a material


to be welded such as melting temperature, density,
thermal conductivity, and tensile strength take an
important role in welding.

• Depending upon how the heat applied is created; we


get different types of welding such as thermal welding,
gas welding, and electric welding.
• Welding is nowadays extensively used in automobile
industry, pipe-line fabrication in thermal power plants,
machine repair work, machine frames, etc.

Advantages of welding are:

• Welding is the most economical method to permanently


join two metal parts.

• It provides design flexibility.


• Welding equipment is not so costly.
• It joins all the commercial metals.
• Both similar and dissimilar metals can be joined by
welding.
Disadvantages of welding are: o
Welding gives out harmful radiations and fumes. O

Welding needs internal inspection. O

If welding is not done carefully, it may result in the distortion of


work piece. O

Skilled welding is necessary to produce good welding.


ELECTRIC WELDING
It is defined as the process of joining two metal
pieces, in which the electrical energy is used to
generate heat at the point of welding in order to
melt the joint.

The classification of electric welding process is


shown in fig.
The selection of proper welding process depends on the
following factors.

o The type of metal to be joined.


o The techniques of welding adopted.
o The cost of equipment used.
o The nature of products to be fabricated.
RESISTANCE WELDING

• Resistance welding is the process of joining two metals


together by the heat produced due to the resistance
offered to the flow of electric current at the junctions of
two metals. The heat produced by the resistance to the
flow of current is given by:

H = I2Rt,

where I is the current through the electrodes,


R is the contact resistance of the interface, and
t is the time for which current flows.
Here, the total resistance offered to the flow of
current is made up of:

1. The resistance of current path in the work.


2. The resistance between the contact surfaces of
the parts being welded.
3. The resistance between electrodes and the
surface of parts being welded.

In this process of welding, the heat developed at


the contact area between the pieces to be welded
reduces the metal to plastic state or liquid state,
then the pieces are pressed under high mechanical
pressure to complete the weld.

The electrical voltage input to the welding varies in


between 4 and 12 V depending upon area, thickness,
composition, etc. and usually power ranges from about 60
to 180 W for each sq. mm of area.
The electrical circuit diagram for the resistance welding is
shown.

This method of welding consists of a tap-changing


transformer, a clamping device for holding the metal
pieces, and some sort of mechanical arrangement for
forcing the pieces to form a complete weld.
Applications

o It is used by many industries manufacturing


products made up of thinner gauge metals.

o It is used for the manufacturing of tubes and


smaller structural sections.
Types of resistance welding
• Depending upon the method of weld obtained
and the type of electrodes used, the
resistance welding is classified as:

1. Spot welding
2. Seam welding
3. Projection welding
4. Butt welding
Spot welding

Spot welding means the joining of two metal


sheets and fusing them together between copper
electrode tips at suitably spaced intervals by means
of heavy electric current passed through the
electrodes as shown in Fig.
This type of joint formed by the spot welding
provides mechanical strength and not air or water
tight, for such welding it is necessary to localize the
welding current and to apply sufficient pressure on
the sheet to be welded.
The electrodes are made up of copper or copper
alloy and are water cooled.

The welding current varies widely depending upon


the thickness and composition of the plates.

It varies from 1,000 to 10,000 A, and voltage


between the electrodes is usually less than 2 V.
The period of the flow of current varies widely
depending upon the thickness of sheets to be
joined.

A step-down transformer is used to reduce a high-


voltage and low-current supply to low-voltage and
high-current supply required.

Since the heat developed being proportional to the


product of welding time and square of the current.
Good weld can be obtained by low currents for
longer duration and high currents for shorter
duration;
longer welding time usually produces stronger weld but
it involves high energy expenditure, electrode
maintenance, and lot of distortion of workpiece.

When voltage applied across the electrode, the flow of


current will generate heat at the three junctions, i.e.,
heat developed, between the two electrode tips and
workpiece, between the two workpieces to be joined as
shown in Fig. 3.3.

The generation of heat at junctions 1 and 3 will effect


electrode sticking and melt through holes, the prevention
of electrode striking is achieved by:
(ii) Seam welding

Seam welding is nothing but the series of


continuous spot welding.

If number spots obtained by spot welding are


placed very closely that they can overlap, it gives
rise to seam welding.

In this welding, continuous spot welds can be


formed by using wheel type or roller electrodes
instead of tipped electrodes as shown in Fig.
• Seam welding is obtained by keeping the job under
electrodes. When these wheel type electrodes travel
over the metal pieces which are under pressure, the
current passing between them heats the two metal
pieces to the plastic state and results into continuous
spot welds.

• In this welding, the contact area of electrodes should


be small, which will localize the current pressure to the
welding point.

• After forming weld at one point, the weld so obtained


can be cooled by splashing water over the job by using
cooling jets.
• In general, it is not satisfactory to make a continuous
weld, for which the flow of continuous current build up
high heat that causes burning and wrapping of the
metal piece.

• To avoid this difficulty, an interrupter is provided on the


circuit which turns on supply for a period sufficient to
heat the welding point.

• The series of weld spots depends upon the number of


welding current pulses.

• The two forms of welding currents are shown in Fig.


5.6(a) and (b).
• Welding cannot be made satisfactorily by using
uninterrupted or un-modulated current, which builds
up high heat as the welding progress; this will over heat
the workpiece and cause distortion.

• Seam welding is very important, as it provides leak


proof joints. It is usually employed in welding of
pressure tanks, transformers, condensers, evaporators,
air craft tanks, refrigerators, varnish containers, etc.
(iii) Projection welding
• It is a modified form of the spot welding.

• In the projection welding, both current and pressure


are localized to the welding points as in the spot
welding.

• But the only difference in the projection welding is


the high mechanical pressure applied on the metal
pieces to be welded, after the formation of weld.

• The electrodes used for such welding are flat metal


plates known as platens.
• One of the two pieces of metal is run through a
machine that makes the bumps or projections of
required shape and size in the metal.

• As current flows through the two metal parts to be


welded, which heat up and melt. These weld points
soon reach the plastic state, and the projection touches
the metal then force applied by the two flat electrodes
forms the complete weld.

• The projection welding needs no protective


atmosphere as in the spot welding to produce
successful results.

• This welding process reduces the amount of current


and pressure in order to join two metal surfaces, so that
there is less chance of distortion of the surrounding areas of
the weld zone. Due to this reason, it has been incorporated
into many manufacturing process.

The projection welding is particularly employed for mass


production work, i.e., welding of refrigerators, condensers,
crossed wire welding, refrigerator racks, grills, etc.
(iv) Butt welding

• Butt welding is similar to the spot welding;


however, the only difference is, in butt welding,
instead of electrodes the metal parts that are to
be joined or butted together are connected to
the supply.

• The three basic types of the butt welding


process are:
1. Upset butt welding.
2. Flash butt welding.
3. Percussion butt welding
(a) Upset butt welding

• In upset welding, the two metal parts to be welded


are joined end to end and are connected across
the secondary of a welding transformer as shown
in Fig. 5.8.
• Due to the contact resistance of the metals to be welded, heating
effect is generated in this welding.

• When current is made to flow through the two electrodes, heat


will develop due to the contact resistance of the two pieces and
then melts.

• By applying high mechanical pressure either manually or by toggle


mechanism, the two metal pieces are pressed. When jaw-type
electrodes are used that introduce the high currents without
treating any hot spot on the job.

• This type of welding is usually employed for welding of rods,


pipes, and wires and for joining metal parts end to end.
(b) Flash butt welding

• Flash butt welding is a combination of resistance, arc,


and pressure welding. This method of welding is
mainly used in the production welding. A simple flash
butt welding arrangement is shown in Fig.
• In this method of welding, the two pieces to be welded
are brought very nearer to each other under light
mechanical pressure.

• These two pieces are placed in a conducting movable


clamps. When high current is passed through the two
metal pieces and they are separated by some distance,
then arc established between them.

• This arc or flashing is allowed till the ends of the


workpieces reach melting temperature, the supply will
be switched off and the pieces are rapidly brought
together under light pressure.

• As the pieces are moved together, the fused metal and


(c) Percussion welding

• It is a form of the flash butt welding, where high current


of short duration is employed using stored energy
principle. This is a self-timing spot welding method.

• Percussion welding arrangement consists of one fixed


holder and the other one is movable. The pieces to be
welded are held apart, with the help of two holders, when
the movable clamp is released, it moves rapidly carrying
the piece to be welded.

• There is a sudden discharge of electrical energy, which


establishes an arc between the two surfaces and heating
them to their melting temperature, when the two pieces
are separated by a distance of 1.5 mm apart.
As the pieces come in contact with each other under
heavy pressure, the arc is extinguished due to the
percussion blow of the two parts and the force between
them affects the weld.

The percussion welding can be obtained in two methods;


one is capacitor energy storage system and the other is
magnetic energy storage system. The capacitor discharge
circuit for percussion welding is shown in Fig. 5.10.
• The capacitor ‘C’ is charged to about 3,000 V from a
controlled rectifier. The capacitor is connected to the
primary of welding transformer through the switch and
will discharge.

• This discharge will produce high transient current in the


secondary to join the two metal pieces.

• Percussion welding is difficult to obtain uniform flashing


of the metal part areas of the cross section grater than 3
sq. cm.

• Advantage of this welding is so fast, extremely shallow of


heating is obtained with a span of about 0.1 sec.
It can be used for welding a large number of dissimilar metals.

Applications
o It is useful for welding satellite tips to tools, sliver contact tips to
copper, cast iron to steel, etc.

o Commonly used for electrical contacts.

o The metals such as copper alloys, aluminum alloys, and nickel


alloys are percussion welded.
ELECTRIC ARC WELDING
• Electric arc welding is the process of joining two
metallic pieces or melting of metal is obtained due to
the heat developed by an arc struck between an
electrode and the metal to be welded or between the
two electrodes as shown in Fig. 5.13 (a).
In this process, an electric arc is produced by bringing two
conductors (electrode and metal piece) connected to a suitable
source of electric current, momentarily in contact and then
separated by a small gap, arc blows due to the ionization and give
intense heat. The heat so developed is utilized to melt the part of
workpiece and filler metal and thus forms the weld. In this method
of welding, no mechanical pressure is employed; therefore, this type
of welding is also known as 'non-pressure welding’. The length of the
arc required for welding depends upon the following factors:

The surface coating and the type of electrodes used.


o The position of welding.
o The amount of current used.
When the supply is given across the
conductors separated by some distance apart,
the air gap present between the two
conductors gets ionized, as the arc welding is in
progress, the ionization of the arc path and its
surrounding area increases. This increase in
ionization decreases the resistance of the path.
Thus, current increases with the decrease in
voltage of arc. This VI characteristic of an arc is
shown in Fig. (b), it also known as negative
resistance characteristics of an arc. Thus, it will
be seen that this decrease in resistance with
increase in current does not
remain the arc steadily. This difficulty cab be avoided, with the supply, it should fall rapidly
with the increase in the current so that any further increase in the current is restricted.
For the arc welding, the temperature of the arc should be 3,500°C. At this temperature,
mechanical pressure for melting is not required. Both AC and DC can be used in the arc
welding. Usually 70–100 V on AC supply and 50–60 V on DC supply system is sufficient to
struck the arc in the air gap between the electrodes. Once the arc is struck, 20–30 V is
only required to maintain it.
However, in certain cases, there is any danger of electric shock to the operator, low
voltage should be used for the welding purpose. Thus, DC arc welding of low voltage is
generally preferred. Electric arc welding is extensively used for the joining of metal parts,
the repair of fractured casting, and the fillings by the deposition of new metal on base
metal, etc. Various types of electric arc welding are:
Carbon arc welding. 2. Metal arc welding. 3. Atomic hydrogen arc welding. 4. Inert gas
metal arc welding. 5. Submerged arc welding.
Carbon arc welding

It is one of the processes of arc welding in which arc is struck between two carbon
electrodes or the carbon electrode and the base metal. The simple arrangement of the
carbon arc welding is shown in Fig. 5.14.

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