Prediction of Weld Pool Geometry in Pulsed Current Micro Plasma Arc Welding of SS304L Stainless Steel Sheets

Pulsed Micro Plasma Arc Welding (MPAW) is a metal joining technique widely used in manufacturing of thin sheet components due to its inherent properties. The weld quality and productivity are controlled by the process parameters. The paper discuses about development of mathematical models for weld pool geometry of stainless steel 304L sheets. Design of experiments based on full factorial design is employed for the development of a mathematical model correlating the important controlled pulsed MPAW process parameters like peak current, background current, pulse and pulse width with front width, back width, front height and back height. The developed mode has been checked for adequacy based on ANOVA analysis. Weld bead parameters obtained by the models are found to confirm actual values with high accuracy. Using these models effect of pulsed MPAW process parameters on weld pool geometry are studied. (C) 2011 International Transaction Journal of Engineering, Management, & Applied Sciences & Technologies. Some Rights Reserved.