Application of pulsed tandem gas metal arc welding for fabrication of high strength steel panels in naval surface vessels

Pulsed tandem gas metal arc welding (PT-GMAW) has been identified as a process that is potentially capable of increasing productivity and minimising distortion in the fabrication of surface ship panels. For this study, the PT-GMAW process was used in pulse pulse mode to butt-weld 8 MM HSLA65 steel plate in order to determine its suitability as a replacement for standard gas-metal-arc welding (GMAW) and submerged-arc welding (SAW) in naval shipbuilding. In the pulse-pulse mode, the leading and trailing welding wires alternately transfer metal into a single molten weld pool at deposition rates or travel speeds greater than those used in conventional single-wire arc welding processes. The results showed that the lowest level of distortion occurred in a single-bead butt weld using PT-GMAW. Higher levels of distortion were measured after square-butt welding using double-bead PT-GMAW, with one bead per side; and applying standard GMAW multiple-bead butt welding with a single-V preparation. Although the magnitude of the maximum tensile residual stresses was similar for all welds, the single-bead weld rising PT-GMAW resulted in the largest region of high tensile residual stresses (>500 MPa) in the longitudinal direction. Nevertheless, it showed the lowest distortion and the strength, hardness and impact toughness were similar to those of the double-bead PT-GMAW weldment and the standard GMAW weldment.