Abstract
Double-electrode gas metal arc welding (DE-GMAW) is a novel welding process in which a second electrode, non-consumable or consumable, is added to bypass part of the wire current. The bypass current reduces the heat input in non-consumable DE-GMAW or increases the deposition rate in consumable DE-GMAW. The fixed correlation of the heat input with the deposition in conventional GMAW and its variants is thus changed and becomes controllable. At the University of Kentucky, DE-GMAW has been tested/developed by adding a plasma arc welding torch, a GTAW (gas tungsten arc welding) torch, a pair of GTAW torches, and a GMAW torch. Steels and aluminum alloys are welded and the system is powered by one or multiple power supplies with appropriate control methods. The metal transfer has been studied at the University of Kentucky and Shandong University resulting in the desirable spray transfer be obtained with less than 100 A base current for 1.2 mm diameter steel wire. At Lanzhou University of Technology, pulsed DE-GMAW has been successfully developed to join aluminum/magnesium to steel. At the Adaptive Intelligent Systems LLC, DE-GMAW principle has been applied to the submerged arc welding (SAW) and the embedded control systems needed for industrial applications have been developed. The DE-SAW resulted in 1/3 reduction in heat input for a shipbuilding application and the weld penetration depth was successfully feedback controlled. In addition, the bypass concept is extended to the GTAW resulting in the arcing-wire GTAW which adds a second arc established between the tungsten and filler to the existing gas tungsten arc. The DE-GMAW is extended to double-electrode arc welding (DE-AW) where the main electrode may not necessarily to be consumable. Recently, the Beijing University of Technology systematically studied the metal transfer in the arcing-wire GTAW and found that the desired metal transfer modes may always be obtained from the given wire feed speed by adjusting the wire current and wire position/orientation appropriately. A variety of DE-AW processes are thus available to suit for different applications, using existing arc welding equipment.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2014
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2013.08.003
Repository Citation
Lu, Yi; Chen, ShuJun; Shi, Yu; Li, Xiangrong; Chen, Jinsong; Kvidahl, Lee; and Zhang, Yu Ming, "Double-Electrode Arc Welding Process: Principle, Variants, Control and Developments" (2014). Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications. 2.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ece_facpub/2
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Journal of Manufacturing Processes, v. 16, issue 1, p. 93-108.
Per the publisher Elsevier: "NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Manufacturing Processes. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Manufacturing Processes, v. 16, issue 1, (January 2014). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2013.08.003"