Abstract:
Weld quality mainly depends on features of bead geometry, mechanical-metallurgical
characteristics of the weld. The most common problem in beverage and food Factories is faced
with line breakage, leakage, minimal detrimental residual stresses and distortion that are due to
the control of welding process input parameter to obtain a good welded joint with required
quality and strength. This study investigated the optimization of three welding process
parameters (welding Current, arc voltage and wire feed speed) of Gas Metal Arc Welding for SS
304L by using Taguchi based Grey relational analysis and Subsequently MINITAB software
employed to analyze and optimize the experiments. Numbers of trials were performed as per L9
orthogonal array design and the mechanical Property such ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and
Hardness (HRC) on Fusion and Heat affected zone. An optimal combined parameter of the
welding operation was obtained via Grey relational analysis. By analyzing Grey relational grade
matrix, the degree of influence for each controllable process factor onto individual quality targets
were found. result shows that the optimal parameters combination were as i.e. welding current at
200 A, arc voltage at 26 V and wire feed speed at 8.5 m/min. Through analysis of variance
(ANOVA) contribution and effect of individual parameter were investigated. It was observed
that arc voltage with 38.27% contribution had the most significant effect followed by welding
current with 37.04% contribution and wire feed speed as insignificant effect on the Tensile
Strength and Hardness of the welded joint. Finally the conformations tests were carried out to
compare the predicated values with the experimental values to confirm its effectiveness in the
analysis of weld bead joint strength. The Grey Based Taguchi Method (GRG) for the
Confirmation experiment test is 0.7735, which is in the range of the 95% confidence interval of
the predicted optimal gray relational grade 0.6141 and 1.0415 and achieved tensile strength and
hardness of 1520.87MPa, 25.40 HRC on FZ and 22.18 HRC on HAZ respectively. Hence,
optimization of welding parameter can be a very useful technique for use to the industries to
obtain significant improvements in welding strength and quality.
Keywords:
Gas Metal Arc welding, SS304L, Welding Parameter, GRG, mechanical Properties and
ANOVA