The objective of this study was to characterize personal exposures to welding-related metals and gases for production welders and non-welders in a large manufacturing facility. Welding fume metals and irritant gases nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) were sampled for thirty-eight workers. Personal exposure air samples for welding fume metals were collected on 37 mm open face cassettes and ni...

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people work in welding, cutting and brazing. It is estimated that welders compose 1 to 2% of the U.S. working population, including a significant segment of the aging workforce. According to OSHA’s Christine Petitti, the most commonly used welding processes are: 1) Flux-cored arc welding (FCAW). This process uses an arc between a continuous filler metal electrode and th...

Solidification cracking is a key phenomenon associated with defect formation during welding. To elucidate the failure mechanisms, solidification cracking during arc welding of steel are investigated in situ with high-speed, high-energy synchrotron X-ray radiography. Damage initiates at relatively low true strain of about 3.1% in the form of micro-cavities at the weld subsurface where peak volum...

Modelling of the arc in electric arc welding is significant to achieve a better process understanding, thus gain better weld quality and a more efficient production process. It requires knowing the conditions at the surfaces of the anode and cathode. These conditions are very difficult to set from measurements and should be calculated. This requires modelling the complex physics of the electrod...

Vision is one of the most powerful forms of non-contact sensing for monitoring and control of manufactusang processes. However, processes involving an arc plasma or flame such as welding or thermal spraying pose particularly challenging problems to conventional vision sensing and processing techniques. The arc or plasma is not typically limited to a single spectral region and thus cannot be eas...

The ethernet technology is used in multi-arc submerged arc welding systems communicate with each other. The structure of twin-arc high-speed SAW (Submerged arc welding) equipments based on Ethernet is proposed. The welding equipment technical requirement for Ethernet is discussed. The crucial implementations of Ethernet TCP / IP in the welding equipment is presented including designs of ARM (Ad...

This article analyzes the transient complex heat transfer and fluid flow in molten metal and arc plasma during the gas metal arc welding process. The model predicts the formation, growth, detachment, and transfer of droplets from the tip of a continuously fed electrode under the influences of several competing forces including gravity, electromagnetic force, arc pressure, plasma shear stress, a...

The present study shows the relationship between welding quality and optical-acoustic emissions from electric arcs, during welding runs, in the GMAW-S process. Bead on plate welding tests was carried out with pre-set parameters chosen from manufacturing standards. During the welding runs interferences were induced on the welding path using paint, grease or gas faults. In each welding run arc vo...

Robot automation systems are rapidly taking the place of the human work force. One of the benefits is that this change provides the human work force with the time to spend on more creative tasks. The highest population of robots is in spot welding, spray painting, material handling, and arc welding. Spot welding and spray painting applications are mostly in the automotive industry. However, arc...