• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.8
• /
• pp.2755-2770
• /
• 2022

The need for Dissimilar Welded Joint (DWJ) in the power plant components arises in order to increase the overall efficiency of the plant and to avoid premature failure in the component welds. The Activated-Tungsten Inert Gas (A-TIG) welding process, which is a variant of Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding, is focus of this review work concerning the DWJ of nuclear grade creep-strength enhanced ferritic/martensitic (CSEF/M) steels and austenitic steels. A-TIG DWJs are compared with Multipass-Tungsten Inert Gas (M-TIG) DWJ based on their mechanical and microstructural properties. The limitations of multipass welding have put A-TIG welding in focus as A-TIG provides a weld with increased depth of penetration (DOP) and enhanced mechanical properties. Hence, this review article covers the A-TIG welding principle and working parameters along with detailed analysis of role played by the flux in welding procedure. Further, weld characteristics of martensitic and austenitic steel DWJ developed with the A-TIG welding process and the M-TIG welding process are compared in this study as there are differences in mechanical, microstructural, creep-related, and residual stress obtained in both TIG variants. The mechanics involved in the welding process is deliberated which is revealed by microstructural changes and behavior of base metals and WFZ.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.43-48
• /
• 2017

Pulse TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding is often considered the most difficult of all the welding processes commonly used in industry. Because the welder must maintain a short arc length, great care and skill are required to prevent contact between the electrode and the workpiece. Pulse TIG welding is most commonly used to weld thin sections of stainless steel, non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, magnesium and copper alloys. It is significantly slower than most other welding techniques and comparatively more complex and difficult to master as it requires greater welder dexterity than MIG or stick welding. The problems associated with manual TIG welding includes undercutting, tungsten inclusions, porosity, Heat affected zone cracks and also the adverse effect on health of welding gun operator due to amount of tungsten fumes produced during the welding process. This brings the necessity of automation. Hence, In this paper an attempt has been made to build a customerized setup of Pulse TIG welding based on through review of Pulse TIG welding parameters. The cost associated for making automated TIG is found to be low as compared to SPM (Special Purpose machines) available in the market.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.70-75
• /
• 2002

The penetration potential of TIG welding in one single run is limited, though the process itself generates high quality welds with good weld cosmetics. This is one of the main reasons, which has contributed to its development in high duty applications such as those encountered in aeronautical, aerospace, nuclear & power plant applications. For these applications, stainless steels, titanium k nickel based alloys are most often used. As these materials remain very sensible to weld heat input k atmospheric pollution, stringent processing conditions are imposed. For example welding of titanium alloys requires argon shielding of weld zone and for 5 mm thick plates multi-pass runs & filler additions are required. This multi-run operation not only raises the welding cost, but also increases defect risks. In recent years, extensive interest has been raised by the possibility to increase weld penetrations through flux applications & the process is designated ATIG-activated TIG, or FBTIG-flux bounded TIG. The improved welding performance of such flux assisted TIG is related to arc constriction and surface tension effects on weld pool. The research work by authors has lead to the formulation of welding fluxes for stainless steels k titanium alloys with TIG Process. These fluxes are now commercialized & some applications in industry have already been carried out. FBTIG for aluminum has been proposed with silica application for AC mode TIG welding. The paper highlights the fundamentals of flux role in TIG welding and illustrates some industrial applications.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.26-31
• /
• 2014

Conventional TIG(C-TIG) welding process guarantees higher quality weldment when compared with other processes. However, C-TIG with inherent low penetration shows disadvantages in productivity, especially for thick-walled structure. To overcome these handicaps, active-flux TIG(A-TIG) welding has been introduced and studied widely in a motivation to improve both quality and productivity. Present study made a focus on optimum combination of oxide components to enhance arc contraction and penetration. Results indicated that arc contraction inducing enhancement of penetration could be possible when composition of active fluxes was well matched with base metal.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.670-677
• /
• 2003

Although Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW or TIG welding) is considered as high quality and precision welding process, it also has demerit of low melting rate. Narrow-gap TIG welding which has narrow joint width reduces the groove volume remarkably, so it could be shorten the welding time and decrease the overall shrinkage in heavy wall pipe welding. Generally Narrow-gap TIG welding is used as orbital welding process, it is important to select the optimum conditions for the automatic control welding This paper looks at the application and metallurgical properties on Narrow-gap TIG welding joint of heavy wall large austenitic stainless steel pipe to determine the deposition efficiency, the resultant shrinkage and fracture toughness. The fracture toughness depends slightly on the welding heat input.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.54-60
• /
• 2005

Tungsten Inert Gas(TIG) welding is today one of the most popular arc welding process because of its high quality welds and low equipment costs. Even if welding productivity increases with welding speed and current, this strategy is limited by the appearance of defects such as undercut and humping bead due to the depressed molten metal. The purpose of this study investigates the effect of He mixing ratio on the characteristics with high current and speed in TIG welding. The conclusions obtained permit to explain the arc start characteristics quantitatively and the maximum welding speed on stable bead formation with He mixing ratio for high current and speed TIG welding observed in experiments. Also through the relation of the maximum arc pressure and surface depression depth at high current and speed TIG welding, it made clear the mechanism of unstable bead formation.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.27-29
• /
• 2004

Orbital TIG welding process being used fur the new construction, the repair of nuclear piping system ana other critical piping. When weld quality is important or there are a large number of similar weld to be made or when access is restricted with manual torch, Orbital TIG welding is most effective process because of practical for out-of-position and high weld quality. Furthermore, typically superior to manual TIG welding process where the pipe remains in place and the tungsten electrode orbits the weld. As smaller and more compact welding head is being developed, could operate in tight spaces and lend itself to this type of application better than any other welding process. Orbital TIG welding has become more and more field practical process.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• v.43
• /
• pp.76-78
• /
• 2004

The phenomenon of weld shrinkage mainly occurs owing to residual stress by heating, which largely effects on welding quality, Actually as the shrinkage rate depends on the weld deposit amount, so it is desired that the sectional area of weld joint shall be reduced. In this respect the Electron beam welding has more profitable position compare to Narrow-gap TIG welding which is even superior to other arc welding processes. In case of thick austenitic stainless steel the shrinkage rate of Electron beam welding has about $10\%$ of Narrow-gap TIG welding's, which means that residual stress is a lot less than that of Narrow-gap TIG welding. And heat input and welded section area also indicate large difference between two processes.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2005.06a
• /
• pp.82-84
• /
• 2005

Among the advanced welding processes which are superior to conventional process, Electron beam welding and Narrow-gap TIG welding are most prospective in being applicable for the heavy industry field. With STS316LN, which is high strengthened austenitic stainless steel, the characteristic evaluation for these welding processes was carried out through the mechnical tests and property analyses. For the tensile strength EBW is better while in reverse for the yield strength. In Narrow-gap TIG the distribution of hardness values has some deviation according to the thickness direction while EBW has a tendency of a litter high hardness values in weld metal. After EB welding brings the reduction of nitrogen content, in TIG welding weld metal depends on the contents of welding material. Both processes have almost austenitic structure, but weld metal of EBW is also shown terrific structure

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.68-77
• /
• 1994

TIG welding process is applied for the active metal such as aluminum and titanium, also sometimes for overlay welding of superalloy. However the welding speed to be applied is very low because of the unstable bead formed in the region of high current and high welding speed. The present study was carried out to examine the basic phenomena of high speed TIG melt run welding by the 2% Th - W electrode(dia.3.2mm) of various tip shapes.