Optimization of MIG Welding Parameters to Control the Angular Distortion in Fe410WA Steel

Abstract

In the fabrication industry, metal inert gas (MIG) welding is a very important process and Fe410WA is the most commonly used material for the manufacturing of fabricated structures. During the preparation of butt welded joints, angular distortion is a major concern. Angular distortion can be minimized by optimizing the input parameters. In this paper, a study of the optimization of controllable input parameters such as current, voltage and gas flow rate by using the Taguchi method is performed. Butt welding samples were prepared by using three levels and three factors. An orthogonal array of nine trials is considered for the design of the experiment. After measuring the distortion angle, observed readings were verified by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique and it was found that the p-values were less than 0.05. Theoretical calculations were performed to optimize the process parameters to achieve the minimum distortion angle. A confirmation test was taken for validation purposes and to confirm the result.

Keywords:

• Butt joint
• Current
• Gas flow
• MIG welding
• Taguchi method
• Voltage

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank Mr Vivek Deshpande (Plant Head) of Marathwada Auto Compo Pvt. Ltd., MIDC Waluj, Aurangabad, Maharashtra State, India for their help. The author is also thankful to Mr Ganesh Jadhav (Sr. Manager HR and Admin) for giving permission to conduct the experiments.