THE EFFECT OF SHIELDING GAS MIXTURE ON INCLUSION DISTRIBUTION FOR

MIG WELDING PROCESS

Moreira,A.F.; Gallego,J.; Tokimatsu,R.C. & Ventrella,V.A.*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, UNESP
P.O.Box 31, Ilha Solteira-SP, 15.385-000, Brazil;
e-mail: ventrella@dem.feis.unesp.br

In the present study, a structural steel was welded by MIG process with different shielding gases mixtures. The
filler metal of the similar chemical composition to the parent material was used for welding. The specimens used in the
investigation were extracted from the welding region (i.e. only deposited metal). This study aims to examine how
different shielding gases influence inclusions distribution in the weld metal.
The shielding gas used for GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding) process has to protect the weld pool and molten
droplet transferred across the arc. In addition, it should promote a stable arc, the desired mode of metal transfer and
weld bead characteristic. Traditionally, CO2 is used as a shielding gas due to its cheapness, but its use has been limited
because of the problem of spatter, oxidation losses and poor all-position performance[1]. On the other hand, argon alone
is also unsuitable for welding steel as it cannot obtain the desired arc stability and desired weld bead characteristics[2].
Therefore, argon mixed with CO2 and or O2 is being preferred as a shielding gas for arc stability, mode of metal
transfer, weld bead characteristics, inclusions distribution, etcDuring welding, the shielding gas interact with the weld
pool, and the addition of CO2 and or O2 in argon causes oxidation, which results in some losses of alloy constituents and
produces inclusions in the weld. In general, the presence of inclusions is detrimental to weld properties. However, under
a given set of conditions certain oxide inclusions promote the formation of an acicular ferrite phase which improves
toughness . On the other hand, the presence of a very high volume fraction of inclusions may initiate premature ductile
fracture. The quality, efficiency and overall operating acceptance of the GMAW process are strongly dependent on the
shielding gas composition[3].
The influences of carbon dioxide (CO2) addition in the shielding gas were examined for 4 welds, whose matrix
of experimental gas compositions is shown in table 1. It is important to note that sample S1 had no addition of CO2.
So, the shielding gas composition was pure argon and mixture of argon-carbon dioxide (92%Ar+8%CO2,
85%Ar+15%CO2 and 75%Ar+25%CO2). Welding was carried out in the flat position on experimental plates of 200 x
100 x 19 mm ASTM A-36 structural steel adopting the bead-on-plate technique. Steel wires of AWS ER70S-6
specification and diameter of 1.2 mm were used. Bead-on-plates welds were made by an automatic arc welding
machine with a nominal heat input of 1.22 kJ/mm.
The inclusion volume fraction is presented in Table 1 and figure1. Transmission electron micrographs of the
typical inclusion in the weld metal were extracted from carbon extraction replicas and are given in figure 2. Increasing
the CO2 content in the shielding gas, the size and the volume fraction of the inclusions increased. The oxygen activity
as influenced by carbon dioxide content of the shielding gas has an effect on the weld metal oxygen content.
Increasing the oxygen activity of the shielding gas increased the weld metal oxygen content, as represented by the
volume fraction of inclusion (table 1), since most of the oxygen will combine with other elements to form oxides due to
its low solubility in iron. The results present in Table 1 shows that for a chosen base metal and a particular set of
welding conditions, in addition to shielding gas oxygen potential have different volume fraction and size distribution of
inclusions. The effect of weld metal oxygen on the inclusions was also reported by Liu and Olson[4]. TEM reveals
inclusions of varying size and distribution within the acicular ferrite(AF), as shown in figure 2. It was observed that the
formation of AF was by intergranular ferrite nucleation. Occasionally, an elongated inclusions was observed, but most
of them were spherical in shape.
References:
[1] VARGA,T.; KONKOLY,T.; STRAUBE,H. Investigation on microstructure, toughness and defect tolerance of gas
metal arc welding, IIW Document X1205-90, 1990.
[2] VAIDYA,V.V. Shielding gas mixtures for semiautomatic welds, Welding Journal, 81(9) 43-48, 2002.
[3] MUKHOPADHYAY,S.; PAL,T.K. Effect of shielding gas mixture on gas metal arc welding of HSLA steel using
solid and flux-cored wires, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 29:262-268, 2006.
[4] LIU,S.; OLSON,D.L. The influence of inclusion in controlling HSLA steel weld microstructures. Welding Journal,
65 (6), 139S-149S, 1986.

Table 1: Gas composition and values of volume fraction of inclusion.

Sample
Gas composition
Volume fraction of inclusion [%]
S1
pure argon
2,32 + 0,4
S2
92%Ar + 8% CO2
2,94 + 0,3
S3
85%Ar + 15% CO2
3,12 + 0,3
S4
75%Ar + 25% CO2
3,48 + 0,2
5,0

S1

pure argon

S2
4,0

92%Ar + 8% CO2

S3

85%Ar + 15% CO2

3,5

S4

75%Ar + 25% CO2

Volume fraction of inclusions [%]

4,5

3,0
2,5
2,0
1,5
1,0
0,5
0,0
S1

S2

S3

S4

o.

SAMPLE N

Fig.1: Volume fraction of inclusions in weld metal.

Fig.2: Transmission electron micrographs of typical inclusions: a) sample S1, b) sample S2, c) sample S3, d) sample S4.