Weling 5083 Aluminum

By bhitch Date 12-06-2004 22:44

I am presently working, using the GMAW welding process and am looking for some anwers to inprove the process to cut down on repairs. The material and welding process:

Material:5083
Thickness: 1"
GTAW Process 1/16 Filler material 5356
Desired weld size is 3/8
Shielding: 75 Argon 25 Helium
Joint Type:Outside corner and Fillet
Preheat:200F

Problem:1.)Weld cracking at the crater on the Fillets and lack of penetration in the cornerof the joint.

2.)Problems with the starts and stop locations

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 12-07-2004 02:43

Brian,

Welcome to the forum!

It looks like your filler choice is right, nothin wrong with your gas selection either. Thats good. Here are a few other vairables to explore.

Are you troubleshooting a manual or robotic application?

Are your fillets heavily restrained? Sometimes too-robust fixturing can be a cause of cracks.

Are your fillets (I'm assuming traditional spray transfer) in the flat or horizontal position?

Is your power source equipped with a crater fill function? Crater fill functions in GTAW are worthless but in a GMAW situation it might be worth exploring.

Minimizing the bead size at the end of the weld in order to reduce transverse stresses can help too when it comes to craters at the end of the weld.

Run off tabs are a bit of a pain but might solve the problem.

As for the lack of fusion we would have to look at:
Torch angle
Travel speed
Tip to work distance
Voltage
Wire speed/amperage
surface prep (especially at the root faces)

By bhitch Date 12-08-2004 20:31

I am trouble shooting a manual application. Parts are free from restaint from fixturing. The joints are outside corner and fillets inside the part and I am using the spray transfer mode. As far as a crater fill I have not seen and would be looking for a aluminum push pull system that has a crater fill opiotion. I only found crater fill with a push system.

As far as surface preperation we are using Weld-O to remove the oxide surface

Welding voltage is around 29.5

In order to meet the fillet size requirement I would no think the minimizing the size of the weld would be an opition.

In accordacne with the D1.2 code is it a requirement to have full penitration on intermitent fillet welds and fillets