Effect of Welding Current and Electrodes on Reinforcement Height in Shielded Metal Arc Welding Process

Abstract

Joining of materials is the need of modern industries and stuctures. Shielded metal arc welding process is one of the most popular and commonly used method of joining materials. The weld reinforcement height should be optimum for mechanical properties of the weld. If the reinforcement height is less or negative, it is not recommended considering strength of weld as surface area will be reduced and if the reinforcement height is more, it will produce stress concentration which is not recommended. In the present work the investigation of the effect of three different types of electrodes at three different welding currents in shielded metal arc welding process utilizing Low Carbon Steel plate of API 5L Grade X 52, was done for reinforcement height. The three different electrodes as E 6013, E 7016 and E 7018 and the varying currents as 90 A, 100 A and 110 A. Total 18 pieces were used to obtain 9 welds which were used to analyze the effect of current and the electrode on reinforcement height. The dimensions of the work pieces were taken as 75 mm x 50 mm x 5 mm. The values of reinforcement height in each weld were written in a table and respective diagrams were drawn to make clear the effect of welding current on reinforcement height for the three different electrodes.