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Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1502 1506

International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors 2012 (IRIS 2012)

The Effect of Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) processes on different

welding parameters
Izzatul Aini Ibrahim1, Syarul Asraf Mohamat1, Amalina Amir1, Abdul Ghalib1
1
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 40450 Selangor

Abstract

Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) process is leading in the development in arc welding process which is higher productivity
and good in quality. In this study, the effects of different parameters on welding penetration, microstructural and hardness
measurement in mild steel that having the 6mm thickness of base metal by using the robotic gas metal arc welding are
investigated. The variables that choose in this study are arc voltage, welding current and welding speed. The arc voltage and
welding current were chosen as 22, 26 and 30 V and 90, 150 and 210 A respectively. The welding speed was chosen as 20,
40 and 60 cm/min. The penetration, microstructure and hardness were measured for each specimen after the welding
process and the effect of it was studied. As a result, it obvious that increasing the parameters value of welding current
increased the value of depth of penetration. Other than that, arc voltage and welding speed is another factor that influenced
the value of depth of penetration. The microstructure shown the different grain boundaries of each parameters that affected
of the welding parameters.

2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Centre of
Humanoid Robots and Bio-Sensor (HuRoBs), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Keywords: Depth of penetration, Hardnessn Microstructural, Welding Parameters

Nomenclature
uT velocity in the direction of (m/s)
A radius of (m)
B position of
C further nomenclature continues down the page inside the text box
Greek symbols
J stoichiometric coefficient
G boundary layer thicknesses(m)
Subscripts
r radial coordinate

1.0 Introduction

Welding techniques back in the recently years, the GMAW process leading in the development in arc welding
process which is higher productivity and good in quality. A Metal Inert Gas (MIG) also called GMAW is the process that
included of heating, melting and solidification of parents metals and a filler (wire electrode) material in restricted fusion
zone by transient heat source to form a joint between the parents metals [2]. The continuous wire electrode from an
automatic wire feeder and fed through the contact tip inside the welding torch is melted by the internal resistive power and
heat transferred from the welding arc. Heat determined from the end of the melting electrode to molten weld pools and by

1877-7058 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.07.342
 Izzatul Aini Ibrahim et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1502 1506 1503

the molten metal that transferred to weld pools [5].

The GMAW welding parameters influence the quality, productivity and cost of welding joint. The perfect arc will
be achieved if all the welding parameters in conformation. These parameters consists of arc welding current, arc voltage,
welding speed, torch angle, free wire length, nozzle distance, welding position and direction and lastly the flow rate of gas
[1].
The relationship between the bead geometry and process parameters began investigation in the mid 1900s and the
regression analysis was applied in the welding geometry research in 1987. The best possible welding conditions are
determined by combination the factors like the types of base metal, the geometry of welded parts and the welding process
[4].
From the previous study with an MIG or GMAW welding process, it observed that the depth of penetration
increased when the welding current is increased but decreased with decrease in voltage and the penetration increased when
arc travel rate decreased until it attained a minimum value depends on the arc power [5]. The investigation of GMAW
process and relationship between process variables and bead geometry was carried and the results showed the arc current
has the greatest effects on bead geometry. Investigation in the weld deposit area and presented that the effects of electrode
polarity, diameter and extension, arc voltage, welding current, power source setting, travel speed and flux on the weld
deposit area [3].

2.0 Experimental

For the experimental studies, the mild steel having the 100mm x 100mm x 6mm sizes were used as the base metal.
The spectrometric analysis of the specimen was done by using Spectromax and the chemical compositions of base metal and
wire electrode were given in the Table 1.
GMAW welding operations were performed by means of an OTC Almega AII-B4 welding robots. 100%
percentage CO2 was used as a shielding gas protect, 1.2mm diameter of electrode wire (AWS classification ER70S-6), the
torch angle is 5, nozzle to work distance is 12mm and only one pass on weld plate. The variables that choose in this study
are arc voltage, welding current and welding speed. The arc voltage and welding current were chosen as 22, 26 and 30 V
and 90, 150 and 210 A approximately. The welding speed was chosen as 20, 40 and 60 cm/min.

Table 1. The chemical composition of the specimens, wt (%)

Element Wt (%) C Si Mn P S Cr Ni

Base Metal 0.204 0.231 0.65 0.0085 0.012 0.143 0.081

Wire Electrode 0.06-.15 0.80-1.15 1.40-1.85 0.025 0.035 0.15 0.15

After done with the welding process for all those of arc welding process, the specimens will cut perpendicular to
the welding direction by using a cut-off machine to cut the specimens and polished with different grades of emery sheets.
Then, the specimens will etched using 2% nital to clearly the metal zone of welding. The depth of penetration will measure
and microstructural will observed on the etched specimens by optical microscopy 10x magnification. Lastly, for the Vickers
Hardness values for HAZ, the 1kg load applies up to 20second on the specimens [1] [2] [5].

Figure 1. A OTC Almega AII-B4 welding robots

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3.0 Results and discussion

The total 27 experiments with different variables parameters which are arc voltage, welding current and welding
speed were performed and the hardness, penetration value was measured and also the microstructure for all cases.

3.1 The effect of welding current on penetration

The effect of welding current on penetration was present in Figures 2. In Figure 2, welding speed as constant as 20
cm/min and the value of penetration was increased by increasing the value of welding current 90, 150 and 210 A. The
highest penetration is 2.98 mm at 22 V and 210 A.

Penetration vs welding parameter

10
Penetration (mm)

8
6
4
2
0 speed 60 cm/min
90

90

90
150

210

150

210

150

210
welding current

speed 40 cm/min
(A)

speed 20 cm/min

arc voltage (V) 22 26 30

Figure 2. Penetration vs. Welding Current diagram for 20 cm/min welding speed

In Figure 2, welding speed as constant as 40 cm/min and the value of penetration was increased by increasing the
value of welding current 90, 150 and 210 A. The highest penetration is 3.26 mm at 22 V and 210 A.
The change in the value depth of penetration is similar at voltage of 26V and 30V. The welding speed as constant
as 60 cm/min and the value of penetration was increased by increasing the value of welding current 90, 150 and 210 A. The
highest penetration is 2.79 mm at 26 V and 210 A.

3.2 Microstructural

These microstructural changes have been shown in Figures 3. The changes in gas metal arc welding parameters are
influence the affect of the microstructure of weld metal. The increased welding current, welding speed and arc voltage the
grain size of microstructure also different from one point to another point.
The Figure below shown at the arc voltage 22 V, 210 A welding current and different value of welding speed 20
cm/min, 40 cm/min and 60 cm/min present the different phase of grain boundaries. At 20 cm/min, the large grain
boundaries have shown but at 40 cm/min, the grain boundaries become smaller than 20 cm/min and at 60 cm/min it is
smallest and form more martensite than others.
 Izzatul Aini Ibrahim et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1502 1506 1505

210 A, 22V, 20cm/min 210 A, 22V, 40cm/min 210 A, 22V, 60cm/min

Figure 3. Microstructure of welded parts

3.3 Vickers Hardness Test

The specimens will cut perpendicular to the welding direction by using a cut-off machine to cut the specimens and
polished with different grades of emery sheets. Then, the specimens will etched using 2% nital to clearly the metal zone of
welding. The Vickers Hardness values for HAZ, the 1kg load applies up to 20second on the specimens.
The hardness values are determined and performance in Figure 6. Normally, the material will loses its original
strength by strain hardening effect in the fused zone area during the solidification. In the low alloy steel or carbon steel, at
the fusion zone that content the formation of bainite or martensite phase and that were increased the hardness of metal [5].

Hardness traverses of current and

voltage
300
Hardness (HV)

200
100 speed 20 cm/min
0
weldin
90

90

90
210
150
210

150

150
210

speed 40 cm/min
speed 60 cm/min
arc voltage (V) 22 26 30

Figure 4. Hardness vs. Welding Current and arc voltage diagram

Hardness values under the different welding parameters were plotted in Figure 4. In that Figures, it represents the
welding current versus hardness value at weld bead. In studying the hardness graphs that produced from different welding
parameters, it noticed that hardness was increased at 90 A and slowly decreased to 150 A but at 210 A it greater than 150 A.
Hardness at speed of 60cm/min, voltage of 26V expose the highest hardness because of the faster the speed at medium
voltage reveals the best formation of martensite grain.
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4.0 Conclusions

In this study to investigate the effect of GMAW processes on different welding parameters. The variables
parameters in this experiment are welding current, arc voltage and welding speed. In this conclusion it found that:
1. The value of depth of penetration increased by increasing the value of welding current 90, 150 and 210 A. Welding
current is factor that will determine the penetration. Penetration also influence by the factors from welding speed
and arc voltage. At the graph, the good value of penetration for three various welding speed is 22 V at 210 A. It
plotted the highest values of penetration than others. At the welding speed 60 cm/min, the good value for
penetration happened is 26 V at 210 A.
2. The hardness at weld bead it is higher value at point 90 A and it slowly dropped to 150 A and at 210 A it small
increased than 150 A. The higher value of hardness is 26 V at 90 A at welding speed 60 cm/min.
3. The grain boundaries of microstructure changes from bigger size to smallest size when the variables welding
parameters changed.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank to the Amalina Amir and Abdul Ghalib for their support and also to the Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor Malaysia.

References

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