Double-sided arc welding with multiple electrodes of vertical joints of steel tanks

Abstract

The increase of the welding productivity is still of immediate interest, which in turn requires the development and implementation of more high-performance welding methods that ensure a consistently high quality of welded joints. One of the ways to further increase the productivity of arc welding processes in the construction of tanks is the industrial use of automatic double-sided arc welding with multiple electrodes in separate weld pools. To establish the relationship between the parameters of the welding mode, energy characteristics, as well as the distance between the torches and their angle of inclination relative to the groove, a physical and mathematical model of the production of the welding joint when four arcs participate in pairs from both sides of the joint has been developed. Thus, computer modeling showed that during weld formation with the movement of the electrode down (vertical down), the possibility of supplying each pair of arcs with pulsed current should be taken into account. During groove filling with the movement of the electrodes up (vertical up), their lateral oscillations and delays at the edges should be carried out according to an aperiodic law in order to minimize the effects of 'magnetic blow'. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.