Case Study-4 Pi-Cheng Tung, Ming-Chang Wu, Yean-Ren Hwang, An image-guided mobile robotic welding system for SMAW

repair processes, International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 44 (2004) 12231233. Conventionally, shield metal arc welding (SMAW) has been performed by manual operator, and hence it is not easy to apply in hazardous areas such as in nuclear power plants. An image-guided mobile robotic welding system is developed by Pi-Cheng et al [2004] for the automation of the SMAW process. The position of cracks can also be determined by this image-guided mobile robotic welding system. The researchers installed two CCD cameras, a five-axis SCORBOT-ER VII robot and SMAW equipment on a mobile vehicle. The control system determines the feeding velocity of the electrode from the measured welding current and joint positions and modifies the joint trajectories correspondingly. The experimental results show that our system can effectively perform SMAW operations resulting in good quality welding. Also, the variation of the welding current in our system is much smaller than that operated by even senior technicians. Arc welding is an important technology for manufacturing and repairing metal products. However, hazardous working environments where some arc welding operations are required may endanger technician health. Due to the shortage of skilled technicians and to maintain good welding quality, the automation of arc welding has become an important issue, attracting more and more attention during past decades. Pi-Cheng et al [2004] reported a new image-guided mobile robotic welding system for shield metal arc welding (SMAW) operations is described. Welding for the purpose of repair work must often be carried out at different locations and the welding paths are not easily pre-programmed. In general, GTAW and GMAW are not suitable for welding repair work because of their poor mobility. On the other hand, the equipment required for SMAW is quite simple and compact and can be easily moved.

Case study-5 G. Madhusudhan Reddy, T. Mohandas, K.K. Papukutty, Effect of welding process on the ballistic performance of high-strength low-alloy steel weldments, Journal of Materials Processing Technology 74 (1998) 2735. The resistance against projectile penetration of the various zones in the weldments of a high-strength low-alloy steel has been studied. A comparison has been made between weldments obtained through three welding processes, namely: shielded metal arc welding (SMAW); gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW); and flux cored arc welding (FCAW). In all of the weldments, the projectile passed through all of the weld zones. However, the ballistic limit has been found to be highest in the case of the SMAW weld and least in respect of FCAW welds. The heat-affected zone (HAZ) of SMAW was resistant to penetration and exhibited the highest ballistic limit, whilst the HAZ of FCAW exhibited an intermediate performance. The ballistic performance of the weldments has been explained on the basis of the weld-zone microstructure, the hardness gradients across the weldments and the thermal efficiencies of the three welding processes. Quenched and tempered steels of high hardness are used in armour applications where resistance against projectile attack is needed. When these steels are exposed to weld thermal cycles they exhibit heat-affected- zone (HAZ) softening, this softening leading to degradation in ballistic performance. The degree of softening in the HAZ is a function of the weld thermal cycle, which is a characteristic of the welding process. The softening characteristics depend also on the kinetics of the phase transformations of the steel and are a function of the chemistry of the steel. In an earlier work the authors have reported that increasing heat inputs lead to a wider soft heat-affected zone and that the ballistic performance is inversely proportional to the width of the soft HAZ. Subsequently it has also been reported by the authors that HAZ softening in shielded metal arc welding is least and highest in flux cored arc welding (FCAW). The present study reports on the ballistic performance of weldments obtained through shielded metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding and flux cored arc welding processes. The base metal used in this investigation is a quenched and tempered high-strength low-alloy steel of the composition given in Table 1. The heat treatment of the steel comprises of austenitising at 900C followed by oil quenching and subsequent tempering at 250C.

The weld coupons were subjected to ballistic evaluation with a 7.62 mm penetrator. The ballistic test arrangement for the penetrator was made such that the initial velocity of the projectile before it attacked the weld coupon and the residual velocity after passing through the plate could be recorded.
The weld zones of SMAW and FCAW consisted of columnar grains with a vertical growth direction, these grains being larger in FCAW, whilst on the other hand the GTAW welds consisted of equiaxed grains. The weld region comprised austenite, ferrite and martensite (Fig. 10). However, it may be noted that a basket-weave type of structure is prevalent in the GTAW weld (Fig. 10b).

Acicular martensite ferrite formation in this case (Fig. 7a). austenite, carbides and ferrite constituents (Fig.6bFig. 7bFig. 8b), It has also been observed that the extent of this decomposition in HAZ is more in the HAZ of GTAW than for SMAW and FCAW (compare Figs. 6 and 8).

Case study 3 V. Balasubramanian, B. Guha, Influences of welding processes on fatigue life of cruciform joints of pressure vessel grade steels containing LOP defects, Mechanics of Materials 32 (2000) 265276 The influences of two welding processes, namely, shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) and flux cored arc welding (FCAW), on fatigue life of cruciform joints, containing lack of penetration (LOP) defects, have been studied. Load carrying cruciform joints were fabricated from high strength, quenched and tempered steels of pressure vessel.

The experimental evidence shows that the microstructural features of deposited weld metal play an important role in fatigue crack growth behaviour and influence the fatigue life of the joints. The joints fabricated by the SMAW process, which contains a high proportion of acicular ferrite in the weld metal microstructre, displayed better fatigue performance than the FCAW joints.