Aspects of Multi-pass GTAW of Low Alloyed Steels

Automation of Gas Tungsten-Arc Welding (GTAW) has a high potential for increasing efficiency (increase of arc-time), because manually it is time-consuming and requires high-skilled labour. Moreover it has unique controllability, quality and does not require post-processing. In order to demonstrate the potential, in this paper V-Groove Joints of Low Alloyed Steels are welded together with autonomous, robotized GTAW. Multiple experiments are carried out and analysed in order to establish relationship between robot speed, current, heat input and wire feed. An industrial robot is used for the GTAW process, which is equipped with automatic height-voltage controller and a 3D line scanner. A simple programming interface for welding pass generation and result comparison is also presented.