Determination of enthalpy, temperature, surface tension and geometry of the material transfer in PGMAW for the system argon–iron

The metal transfer is a fundamental process in gas metal arc welding, which substantially determines the shape of the weld seam and strongly influences arc formation and stability. In this investigation the material transfer from the wire electrode (anode) to the workpiece (cathode) is analysed experimentally with high accuracy using various innovative diagnostic techniques for a pulsed gas metal arc welding (PGMAW) process. A high-speed two-colour pyrometer, a calorimeter, thermocouples, a stereo optical setup and a droplet oscillation technique are used to analyse a precisely defined PGMAW process. Thus, results obtained are verified by different measurement techniques and enable a comprehensive description of the material transfer procedure. The surface temperature of both electrodes as well as the droplet temperature, enthalpy and surface tension were determined. Furthermore, the geometry of the arc, wire, droplets and weld pool were extracted in three dimensions in order to describe the interaction between the material transfer and the formation of the weld seam. The experiments are performed using argon as shielding gas and pure iron as filler and base material to reduce complex chemical processes. It turned out that the wire feed rate has the biggest influence on droplet temperature and detachment. A correlation between weld pool formation and weld pool surface temperature gradient was observed, which is mainly a function of welding speed and wire feed rate. The experimental results obtained provide a detailed data pool for use in modelling. (paper)