Effect of flux powder SiO2 for the welding of 304-austenitic stainless steel using gas tungsten arc welding

Abstract

Three input machine parameters namely current, welding speed and gas flow rate at three different levels have been considered in order to find out the influence of parameters on weld bead geometry, i.e. weld bead width, penetration and angular distortion. Taguchi method has been used in order to analyse the effect of various parameters on the weld geometry. Orthogonal array L9 has been applied for conduct in the experimentation. Based on the experimental data, the mathematical model has been developed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). It is found that TIG welding with flux powder SiO₂ increases the penetration and decreases the bead width, and tends to reduce angular distortion of the welds.

Keywords: 304- austenitic stainless steel, SiO₂ flux, GTAW, Weld Geometry