ELECTRIC WELDING

INTRODUCTION
Welding is the process of joining two pieces of metal or non-metal together by heating them to their
melting point. Filler metal may or may not be used to join two pieces. The physical and mechanical
properties of a material to be welded such as melting temperature, density, thermal conductivity, and
tensile strength take an important role in welding. Depending upon how the heat applied is created; we get
different types of welding such as thermal welding, gas welding, and electric welding. Here in this chapter,
we will discuss only about the electric welding and some introduction to other modern welding techniques.
Welding is nowadays extensively used in automobile industry, pipe-line fabrication in thermal power
plants, machine repair work, machine frames, etc.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF WELDING
Some of the advantages of welding are:
 Welding is the most economical method to permanently join two metal parts.
 It provides design flexibility.
 Welding equipment is not so costly.
 It joins all the commercial metals.
 Both similar and dissimilar metals can be joined by welding.
 Portable welding equipment are available.
Some of the disadvantages of welding are:
 Welding gives out harmful radiations and fumes.
 Welding needs internal inspection.
 If welding is not done carefully, it may result in the distortion of workpiece.
 Skilled welding is necessary to produce good welding.
Classification of Electric Welding

It is defined as the process of joining two metal pieces, in which the electrical energy is used to
generate heat at the point of welding in order to melt the joint.
The classification of electric welding process is shown in fig.
 Fig. Classification of electric welding
The selection of proper welding process depends on the following factors.
 The type of metal to be joined.
 The techniques of welding adopted.
 The cost of equipment used.
 The nature of products to be fabricated.
RESISTANCE WELDING
Resistance welding is the process of joining two metals together by the heat produced due to the resistance
offered to the flow of electric current at the junctions of two metals. The heat produced by the resistance to
the flow of current is given by: H = I2Rt,
Where I is the current through the electrodes, R is the contact resistance of the interface, and t is the time
for which current flows. Here, the total resistance offered to the flow of current is made up of:
1. The resistance of current path in the work.
2. The resistance between the contact surfaces of the parts being welded.
3. The resistance between electrodes and the surface of parts being welded.

In this process of welding, the heat developed at the contact area between the pieces to be welded reduces
the metal to plastic state or liquid state, then the pieces are pressed under high mechanical pressure to
complete the weld. The electrical voltage input to the welding varies in between 4 and 12 V depending
upon area, thickness, composition, etc. and usually power ranges from about 60 to 180 W for each sq. mm
of area.

Any desired combination of voltage and current can be obtained by means of a suitable transformer
in AC; hence, AC is found to be most suitable for the resistance welding. The magnitude of current is
controlled by changing the primary voltage of the welding transformer, which can be done by using an
auto-transformer or a tap-changing transformer. Automatic arrangements are provided to switch off the
supply after a pre-determined time from applying the pressure, why because the duration of the current
flow through the work is very important in the resistance welding.

The electrical circuit diagram for the resistance welding is shown in Fig. below. This method of
welding consists of a tap-changing transformer, a clamping device for holding the metal pieces, and some
sort of mechanical arrangement for forcing the pieces to form a complete weld.
 Fig. Electric circuit for resistance welding
Advantages
 Welding process is rapid and simple.
 Localized heating is possible, if required.
 No need of using filler metal.
 Both similar and dissimilar metals can be welded.
 Comparatively lesser skill is required.
 Maintenance cost is less.
 It can be employed for mass production.
However, the resistance welding has got some drawbacks and they are:
 Initial cost is very high.
 High maintenance cost.
 The workpiece with heavier thickness cannot be welded, since it requires high input current.
Applications
 It is used by many industries manufacturing products made up of thinner gauge metals.
 It is used for the manufacturing of tubes and smaller structural sections.
Types of resistance welding
Depending upon the method of weld obtained and the type of electrodes used, the resistance welding is
classified as:
1. Spot welding.
2. Seam welding.
3. Projection welding.
4. Butt welding.
(i) Spot welding
Spot welding means the joining of two metal sheets and fusing them together between copper electrode
tips at suitably spaced intervals by means of heavy electric current passed through the electrodes as shown
in Fig. below.
 Fig. Spot welding
This type of joint formed by the spot welding provides mechanical strength and not air or water tight, for
such welding it is necessary to localize the welding current and to apply sufficient pressure on the sheet to
be welded. The electrodes are made up of copper or copper alloy and are water cooled. The welding
current varies widely depending upon the thickness and composition of the plates. It varies from 1,000 to
10,000 A, and voltage between the electrodes is usually less than 2 V. The period of the flow of current
varies widely depending upon the thickness of sheets to be joined. A step-down transformer is used to
reduce a high-voltage and low-current supply to low-voltage and high-current supply required. Since the
heat developed
being proportional to the product of welding time and square of the current. Good weld can be obtained by
low currents for longer duration and high currents for shorter duration; longer welding time usually
produces stronger weld but it involves high energy expenditure, electrode maintenance, and lot of
distortion of workpiece.
When voltage applied across the electrode, the flow of current will generate heat at the three junctions, i.e.,
heat developed, between the two electrode tips and workpiece, between the two workpieces to be joined as
shown in Fig.above.

(ii) Seam welding

Seam welding is nothing but the series of continuous spot welding. If number spots obtained by spot
welding are placed very closely that they can overlap, it gives rise to seam welding. In this welding,
continuous spot welds can be formed by using wheel type or roller electrodes instead of tipped electrodes
as shown in Fig. below.
 Fig. Seam welding

Seam welding is obtained by keeping the job under electrodes. When these wheel type electrodes travel
over the metal pieces which are under pressure, the current passing between them heats the two metal
pieces to the plastic state and results into continuous spot welds.

In this welding, the contact area of electrodes should be small, which will localize the current pressure to
the welding point. After forming weld at one point, the weld so obtained can be cooled by splashing water
over the job by using cooling jets.

In general, it is not satisfactory to make a continuous weld, for which the flow of continuous
current build up high heat that causes burning and wrapping of the metal piece. To avoid this difficulty, an
interrupter is provided on the circuit which turns on supply for a period sufficient to heat the welding
point. The series of weld spots depends upon the number of welding current pulses.

(iii) Projection welding

It is a modified form of the spot welding. In the projection welding, both current and pressure are localized
to the welding points as in the spot welding. But the only difference in the projection welding is the high
mechanical pressure applied on the metal pieces to be welded, after the formation of weld. The electrodes
used for such welding are flat metal plates known as platens.
The two pieces of base metal to be weld are held together in between the two platens, one is movable and
the other is fixed, as shown in Fig. below.

Fig. Projection welding

One of the two pieces of metal is run through a machine that makes the bumps or projections of required
shape and size in the metal. As current flows through the two metal parts to be welded, which heat up and
melt. These weld points soon reach the plastic state, and the projection touches the metal then force
applied by the two flat electrodes forms the complete weld.
The projection welding needs no protective atmosphere as in the spot welding to produce successful
results. This welding process reduces the amount of current and pressure in order to join two metal
surfaces, so that there is less chance of distortion of the surrounding areas of the weld zone. Due to this
reason, it has been incorporated into many manufacturing process.
The projection welding has the following advantages over the spot welding.
 Simplicity in welding process.
 It is easy to weld some of the parts where the spot welding is not possible.
 It is possible to join several welding points.
 Welds are located automatically by the position of projection.
 As the electrodes used in the projection welding are flat type, the contact area over the projection is
sufficient.
This type of welding is usually employed on punched, formed, or stamped parts where the projection
automatically exists. The projection welding is particularly employed for mass production work, i.e.,
welding of refrigerators, condensers, crossed wire welding, refrigerator racks, grills, etc.

(iv) Butt welding

Butt welding is similar to the spot welding; however, the only difference is, in butt welding, instead of
electrodes the metal parts that are to be joined or butted together are connected to the supply.
The three basic types of the butt welding process are:
1. Upset butt welding.
2. Flash butt welding.
3. Percussion butt welding.

ELECTRIC ARC WELDING

Electric arc welding is the process of joining two metallic pieces or melting of metal is obtained due to the
heat developed by an arc struck between an electrode and the metal to be welded or between the two
electrodes as shown in Fig. below.

Fig. Arrangement of electric welding equipment

In this process, an electric arc is produced by bringing two conductors (electrode and metal piece)
connected to a suitable source of electric current, momentarily in contact and then separated by a small
gap, arc blows due to the ionization and give intense heat.
The heat so developed is utilized to melt the part of workpiece and filler metal and thus forms the weld.
In this method of welding, no mechanical pressure is employed; therefore, this type of welding is also
known as 'non-pressure welding’.
The length of the arc required for welding depends upon the following factors:
 The surface coating and the type of electrodes used.
 The position of welding.
 The amount of current used.

When the supply is given across the conductors separated by some distance apart, the air gap present
between the two conductors gets ionized, as the arc welding is in progress, the ionization of the arc path
and its surrounding area increases. This increase in ionization decreases the resistance of the path. Thus,
current increases with the decrease in voltage of arc. This V-I characteristic of an arc is shown in Fig., it
also known as negative resistance characteristics of an arc. Thus, it will be seen that this decrease in
resistance with increase in current does not remain the arc steadily. This difficulty cab be avoided, with the
supply, it should fall rapidly with the increase in the current so that any further increase in the current is
restricted.

For the arc welding, the temperature of the arc should be 3,500°C. At this temperature, mechanical
pressure for melting is not required. Both AC and DC can be used in the arc welding. Usually 70–100 V
on AC supply and 50–60 V on DC supply system is sufficient to struck the arc in the air gap between the
electrodes. Once the arc is struck, 20–30 V is only required to maintain it.

However, in certain cases, there is any danger of electric shock to the operator, low voltage should be used
for the welding purpose. Thus, DC arc welding of low voltage is generally preferred.
Electric arc welding is extensively used for the joining of metal parts, the repair of fractured casting, and
the fillings by the deposition of new metal on base metal, etc.

Various types of electric arc welding are:

1. Carbon arc welding.
2. Metal arc welding.
3. Atomic hydrogen arc welding.
4. Inert gas metal arc welding.
5. Submerged arc welding
Carbon arc welding
It is one of the processes of arc welding in which arc is struck between two carbon electrodes or the carbon
electrode and the base metal. The simple arrangement of the carbon arc welding is shown in Fig. below.

Fig. Carbon arc welding

In this process of welding, the electrodes are placed in an electrode holder used as negative electrode and
the base metal being welded as positive. Unless, the electrode is negative relative to the work, due to high
temperature, there is a tendency of the particles of carbon will fuse and mix up with the base metal, which
causes brittleness; DC is preferred for carbon arc welding since there is no fixed polarity maintained in
case of AC.
In the carbon arc welding, carbon or graphite rods are used as electrode. Due to longer life and low
resistance, graphite electrodes are used, and thus capable of conducting more current. The arc produced
between electrode and base metal; heat the metal to the melting temperature, on the negative electrode is
3,200°C and on the positive electrode is 3,900°C.
This process of welding is normally employed where addition of filler metal is not required. The carbon
arc is easy to maintain, and also the length of the arc can be easily varied. One major problem with carbon
arc is its instability which can be overcome by using an inductor in the electrode of 2.5-cm diameter and
with the current of about of 500–800 A employed to deposit large amount of filler metal on the base metal.
Filler metal and flux may not be used depending upon the type of joint and material to be welded.
Advantages
 The heat developed during the welding can be easily controlled by adjusting the length of the arc.
 It is quite clean, simple, and less expensive when compared to other welding process.
 Easily adoptable for automation.
 Both the ferrous and the non-ferrous metals can be welded.
Disadvantages
 Input current required in this welding, for the workpiece to rise its temperature to melting/welding
temperature, is approximately double the metal arc welding.
  In case of the ferrous metal, there is a chance of disintegrating the carbon at high temperature and
transfer to the weld, which causes harder weld deposit and brittlement.
 A separate filler rod has to be used if any filler metal is required.

Applications
 It can be employed for the welding of stainless steel with thinner gauges.
 Useful for the welding of thin high-grade nickel alloys and for galvanized sheets using copper
silicon
manganese alloy filler metal.

Metal arc welding

In metal arc welding, the electrodes used must be of the same metal as that of the work-piece to be welded.
The electrode itself forms the filler metal. An electric arc is stuck by bringing the electrode connected to a
suitable source of electric current, momentarily in contract with the workpieces to be welded and
withdrawn apart. The circuit diagram for the metal arc welding is shown in Fig. below.

Fig. Metal arc welding

The arc produced between the workpiece and the electrode results high temperature of the order of about
2,400°C at negative metal electrode and 2,600°C at positive base metal or workpiece.
This high temperature of the arc melts the metal as well as the tip of the electrode, then the electrode melts
and deposited over the surface of the workpiece, forms complete weld.
Both AC and DC can be used for the metal arc welding. The voltage required for the DC metal arc
welding is about 50–60 V and for the AC metal arc welding is about 80–90 V
In order to maintain the voltage drop across the arc less than 13 V, the arc length should be kept as small
as possible, otherwise the weld will be brittle. The current required for the welding varies from 10 to 500
A depending upon the type of work to be welded.
The main disadvantage in the DC metal arc welding is the presence of arc blow, i.e., distortion of arc
stream from the intended path due to the magnetic forces of the non-uniform magnetic field with AC arc
blow is considerably reduced. For obtaining good weld, the flux-coated electrodes must be used, so the
metal which is melted is covered with slag produces a non-oxidizing gas or a molten slag to cover the
weld, and also stabilizes the arc.

COMPARISON BETWEEN RESISTANCE AND ARC WELDING

Resistance Welding Arc Welding

The source of supply is AC only. The source of supply is either AC (1-φ or 3-φ) or DC.
The heat developed is mainly due to the striking of
The head developed is mainly due to the
arc between electrodes or an electrode and the
flow of contact resistance.
workpiece.
The temperature attained by the workpiece The temperature of the arc is so high, so proper care
is not so high. should be taken during the welding.
No external pressure is required hence the welding
External pressure is required.
equipment is more simple and easy to control.
Filler metal is not required to join two Suitable filler electrodes are necessary to get proper
metal pieces. welding strength.
It is not suitable for mass production. It is most
It cannot be used for repair work; it is
suitable for repair works and where more metal is to
suitable for mass production.
be deposited.
The power consumption is low. The power consumption is high.

The operating power factor is low. The operating power factor is high.
Bar, roller, or flat type electrodes are used Bare or coated electrodes are used (consumable or
(not consumable) non-consumable).

COMPARISON BETWEEN AC AND DC WELDING

AC Welding DC Welding
Motor generator set or rectifier is required in
Only transformer is required
case of the availability of AC supply.
The cost of the equipment is high. The cost of the equipment is cheap.

Arc stability is more. Arc stability is less

The heat produced is uniform. The heat produced is not uniform

Both bare and coated electrodes can be used. Only coated electrodes should be used.
The power factor is low. So, the capacitors are
The operating power factor is high.
necessary to improve the power factor.
It is safer since no load voltage is low. It is dangerous since no load voltage is high.
The electric energy consumption is 5–10 The electrical energy consumption is 3–4 kWh/kg of
kWh/kg of deposited metal. deposited metal
Arc blow occurs due to the presence of non- Arc blow will not occur due to the uniform magnetic
uniform magnetic field. field.
The efficiency is high due to the absence of rotating
The efficiency is low due to the rotating parts
parts.