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GMA process development for pore-free zinc-coated steel sheet welding in automotive industry

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Abstract

In GMAW (gas metal arc welding) of Zn (zinc)-coated steel sheets, defects such as pores occur in the weld due to trapped Zn vapor. To solve this problem, we investigated the pore-free welding condition using conventional solid wire. We verified through experiments that the combination of 20% CO2-Ar shielding gas and DCEP (direct current electrode positive) polarity has a higher pore-free performance than other combinations. A higher performance of pore-free welding was obtained by reducing the CTWD (contact tip to work distance) and using ER70S-3 wire. In conclusion, the optimized welding conditions at 10 mm overlap, 80 cm/min welding speed, and 30° work angle are 160 A arc current, 20 V voltage, 15 mm CTWD, 10° push angle, DCEP polarity, 20% CO2-Ar shielding gas with 20 L/min flow rate, and ER70S-3 wire type. For flow pattern analysis, a high-speed camera with blue laser was used, and it was observed that a longer weld pool and smaller droplets could improve the efficiency of Zn vapor emission. With ER70S-3, a longer weld pool can be obtained, as it has a lower viscosity due to lower percentages of Si and Mn in its composition.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No.2021R1A4A1033141) and (No.2021R1F1A1064238), and Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) grant funded by the Korea government (MOTIE) (No.20015926) and (No.20022438), and the BK21 Four program through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education of Korea (No. 2020142354).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, 28644, Korea

    Sang-Woo Han, Hansol Kim, Geonho Lee, Seungcheol Shin, Jongho Jeon, Sangjun Han & Jungho Cho

  2. Welding & Joining Research Group, Steel Solution Research Lab., Technical Research Lab., POSCO Global R&D Center, Songdo, 21985, Korea

    Gyuyeol Bae

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  1. Sang-Woo Han
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  2. Hansol Kim
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  3. Geonho Lee
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  6. Sangjun Han
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  7. Gyuyeol Bae
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  8. Jungho Cho
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Contributions

All authors contributed to this paper. Experiments were performed by Hansol Kim, Geonho Lee, Seungcheol Shin, Jongho Jeon, and Sangjun Han. Data analysis and result considerations were performed by Sang-Woo Han, Gyuyeol Bae, and Jungho Cho. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Sang-Woo Han, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jungho Cho.

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Han, SW., Kim, H., Lee, G. et al. GMA process development for pore-free zinc-coated steel sheet welding in automotive industry. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 126, 3849–3859 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11338-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11338-9

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