Characteristics of fume sedimentation in the working zone during arc welding with covered electrodes

Abstract

In order to develop effective protection measures and reduce the number of diseases in the welding industry, a detailed study of the mechanism of propagation of welding fumes in the working zone is necessary. The present work investigates the characteristics of fume sedimentation in the working zone during arc welding with various covered industrial electrodes. The influence of covering type (rutile, basic, acid, and rutile-cellulose) on the quantity (number of particles) of РМ_0.3…PM₁₀ fractions in fumes is shown. Data on the absolute quantitative prevalence of particles of the smallest measured PM_0.3 fraction (PM_0.3/PM₁₀ ≫ 75–90%) were obtained. Based on regression analysis, the sedimentation processes of welding fumes were modeled. The shortest forecast period of particles sedimentation is forecast for acid covered electrodes (53 min.), the maximum – for basic covered ones (150 min.). The maximum predicted distance of fumes distribution in space is expected for rutile-cellulose covered electrodes (16 m), the smallest – for rutile covered ones (6 m). The different types of electrodes for arc welding were ranked according to the degree of negative impact of exposure to fumes depending on the duration of their fume emission rate in the air and the propagation distance in the working zone.

Keywords:

• Arc welding
• welding fume
• particle size distribution
• condensed part of welding fume
• PM10
• maximum permissible concentration

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the staff of the Collective Use Center “Interdepartmental Center for Analytical Control of the State of the Environment” FEFU for the research equipment provided.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by “Scholarship of Genzo Shimadzu” and a grant of the President of Russian Federation for young PhDs, project MK − 2461.2019.5.