Effect of rare earth metal oxide additions to tungsten electrodes

Abstract

A comparative study has been made on the operating characteristics of gas-tungsten arc (GTA) welding for several types of electrodes. The work was carried out with a pure tungsten electrode and tungsten electrodes activated with a small quantity of the rare earth metal oxides, La2O3, Y2O3, CeO2, and with ZrO2, ThO2, and MgO. Their behaviors during arcing were analyzed and compared from the points of view of arc starting characteristics, electrode consumption, change in shape due to long-term operation, and incompleteness of insert gas shielding and electrode temperature. The results indicated that W-La2O3 electrodes have superior characteristics among those tested. Metallographic studies of the electrodes indicate that the superiority of operating characteristics strongly depends on the behavior of the rare earth metal oxides during arc burning. It is observed that the rare earth metal oxides form tungstate or oxytungstate during arc burning. These newly formed compounds have low melting points and migrate from the low temperature zones to the high temperature zones throughout the electrode tip, while ThO2 reacts with tungsten, forming pure Th. Also, the investigation demonstrates good stability of La2O3 during arc burning compared with the other oxides. Particular attention was also paid to the electrode temperature measurement and the important phenomena concerning the emissivity of a particular surface as one of the thermal properties. The investigation reveals the effects of temperature and oxide distribution on the spectral emissivity of the electrode in addition to the main different effect of oxides added to tungsten. Observations of the cathode tip microstructure during and after arc burning were made, and important phenomena concerning the formation of a tungsten “rim” at the periphery of the cathode area, which governs the durability of the electrode and the stability of the arc, are discussed theoretically and experimentally based on the temperature measurement of the tip and the oxidation of tungsten.