• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.67-72
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• 2011

The proportion of the welding in the production process of machinery, buildings and marine structures is increasing and the joining are mainly conducted by butt and fillet weld. In the case of fillet weld, the shape of structures is complicated depending on the constraint on the geometry of the structures, therefore, the full penetration is mostly difficult. Accordingly, it is necessary to establish safe and economical criteria of design of the structures through the strength based on the penetration state of the fillet weld. Patterns of fatigue failure in cruciform fillet weld jont appear in the form of the root, toe and mixed failure. In the case of toe and mixed failure, the fatigue strength is higher than root failure. Therefore, we have to make the enough depth of penetration or perform the welding work through improving the fatigue strength of cruciform joints in welded structures. So it is necessary to optimize the penetrated depth in the range of the possible mixed failure and find the way in the cost-effective design to lessen the amount of the welding work.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.301-306
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• 2002

This paper presents the use of the neural network technology to establish a mathematical model for predicting bead geometry (top-bead width, top-bead height, back-bead width and back-bead height) for multi-pass welding, and understand relationships between process parameters and bead geometry for robotic GMA welding process. Using a series of robotic arc welding, additional multi-pass butt welds were carried out in order to verify the performance of the developed neural network model. The results show that not only the proposed model can predict the bead geometry with reasonable accuracy and guarantee the uniform weld quality, but also the neural network model could be better than the linear and curvilin ear equations developed from Lee [8].

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.18-20
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• 2003

Optimal processing and system to produce the laser welded tube for one body formed bumper beam are studied. The calculated size of tube is a thickness of 1.4mm, diameter of 105.4mm and length of 2000mm. The tube is shaped from cool rolled high strength steel sheet(tensile strength: 60kgf/$\textrm{mm}^2$ grade). Two roll bending method is the optimal tube shaping process compared to UO-bending, bending on press brake, multi-step continuous roll forming and 3 roll bending methods. Weld quality monitoring and seam tracking along the butt-joint lengthwise to the tube axis are also studied. The longitudinal butt-joint is welded by the $CO_2$ laser welding system equipped with a seam tracker and plasma sensor. The constructed $CO_2$ laser tube welding system can be used for the precision seam tracking and the real-time monitoring of weld quality. Finally, the obtained laser welded tube can be used for one-body formed automobile bumper beam.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.978-983
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• 2008

An application of innovative laser+GMA hybrid welding process is presented for reducing bead humping defects in high speed welding and increasing side wall fusion in narrow groove welding without torch or wire oscillation. In this hybrid process, the laser heat input is applied adjacent to the weld pool at a relatively low power density to produce a wider, flatter weld bead. In bead on plate in sheet metal gauges, the hybrid process was able to produce hump-free welds from 70ipm (${\sim}1780mm/min$) to over 150ipm (${\sim}3810mm/min$) of the travel speed compared to the un-assisted GMAW process. A square-butt joint in 15mm A572 Gr50 steel welds was investigated. A square butt joint with a gap of 3.2mm was filled with 6 passes. Liquid Nitrogen calorimetry and innovative $CO_2$ laser reflective optics were also developed to demonstrate the concept of hybrid welding.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.165-173
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• 2004

Laser beam welding is increasingly being used in welding of structural steels. The laser welding process is one of the most advanced manufacturing technologies owing to its high speed and deep penetration. The thermal cycles associated with laser welding are generally much faster than those involved in conventional arc welding processes, leading to a rather small weld zone. Experiments are performed for 304 stainless steel plates changing several process parameters such as laser power, welding speed, shielding gas flow rate, presence of surface pollution, with fixed or variable gap and misalignment between the similar and dissimilar plates, etc. The following conclusions can be drawn that laser power and welding speed have a pronounced effect on size and shape of the fusion zone. Increase in welding speed resulted in an increase in weld depth/ aspect ratio and hence a decrease in the fusion zone size. The penetration depth increased with the increase in laser power.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.136-144
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• 2004

Optimal process and system to produce the laser welded tube for one body formed bumper beam are studied. The calculated size of tube is a thickness of 1.4mm, diameter of 105.4mm and length of 2000mm. The tube is shaped from a cold rolled high strength steel sheet(tensile strength: 60kgf/$\textrm{mm}^2$ grade). Two roll bending method is the optimal tube shaping process compared to UO-bending, bending on press brake, multi-step continuous roll forming and 3 roll bending methods. Weld quality monitoring and seam tracking along the butt-joint lengthwise to the tube axis are also studied. The longitudinal butt-joint is welded by the $CO_2$ laser welding system equipped with a seam tracker and plasma sensor. The constructed $CO_2$laser tube welding system can be used for the precision seam tracking and the real-time monitoring of weld quality. Finally, the obtained laser welded tube can be used for one-body formed automobile bumper beam.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.627-631
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• 2005

In this study, low fatigue behavior of laser welded sheet metal were investigated. Before welding, the cross section of butt joint was prepared only by fine shearing without milling process. Specimens were same sheet metal and welding condition that using automobile manufacturing company at present. Butt joint of cold rolled sheet metal was welded by $CO_2$ laser. It is used that welding condition such as laser welding speed was 5.5m/sec and laser output power was 5kW for 0.8mm and 1.2mm sheet metal. The laser weldments were machined same or different thickness and same or different material. In order to mechanical properties of around welding zone, hardness test was performed. Hardness of welding bead is about 2 times greater than base material. We performed the low cycle fatigue tests for obtaining fatigue properties about thickness and the weld line direction of specimen. The results of strain controlled low cycle fatigue test indicate that all specimens occur cyclic softening, as indicated by the decrease in stress to reach a prescribed strain.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.85-89
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• 2011

Waste water is disposed to sewage disposal plant by underground PE double wall pipes. Various processes have been introduced to join PE pipes, but most of these methods have many disadvantages such as costs, lack of reliability and difficulties in joining, etc. Recently butt welding has been paid much attention to joint PE pipes as this process has many advantages such as cost, safety and reliability. In this study, newly developed heat plate, a patent-pending heat plate with a groove, was used to butt-weld PE double wall pipes with different misalignment gaps to simulate real underground conditions, and the butt welding temperature of PE pipe was determined by thermal analysis (Thermal Gravimetric Analysis, Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis). The resulting joining characteristics of double wall pipes were compared with those from a conventional heat plate, in terms of stiffness, flattening and leakage tests. The results from the stiffness and flattening test showed that there were no big differences between the butt-welded joints made from these two plates. From the leakage test, although PE pipes welded with a conventional heat plate did leak below the required test conditions (10 min. at 0.75kgf/cm2), the pipes welded with a patent-pending grooved heat plate did not show any leakage even at a pressure 1.5 times higher than the required conditions. It was noted that by utilizing a grooved heat plate more complete fusion at the pipe joints could be obtained, which in turn induced a high quality joints.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.34-39
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• 2003

Recent deepwater offshore structures in the Gulf of Mexico utilize butt welded tubular joints. Application of a welded tubular joint includes tendons, production risers, and steel catenary risers. Fatigue life assessment of these joints becomes more critical, as the structures to which they are attached are allowed to undergo cyclic and sometimes large displacements around an anchored position. Estimation of the fatigue behavior of these tubular members in the design stage is generally condrcted by using S-N curves, as specified in the codeds and standards. Applying the stress concentration factor of the welded structure to the S-N approach often results in a very conservative assessment, because the stress field acting on the tubular has a non-uniform distribution through the thickness. Fatigue life analysis using fracture mechanics has been applied in the design of the catenary risers. This technology enables the engineer to establish proper requirements on weld quality and inspection acceptance criteria to assure satisfactory structural integrity during its design life. It also provides guidance on proper design curves and a methodology for accounting for the effects of non-uniform stress distribution through the wall thickness. Still, there is inconsistency when designing tubular joints using a conventional S-N approach and when specifying weld flaw acceptance criteria using fracture mechanics approach. This study developed fatigue curves that are consistent with both the S-N approach and the fracture mechanics approach. Accounting for non-uniform stress distribution and threshold stress intensity factor were key parameters in relating both approaches. A series of S-N curves, generated from the fracture mechanics approach, were compared to the existing S-N curves. For flat plate butt joint, the S-N curve generated from fracture mechanics matches with the IIW class 100 curve when initial crack depth was 0.5 mm (0.02 ). The new curves for tubular joint agree very well with the experimental results. The comparison also indicated the degree of conservatism built into the API X design curve.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.70-75
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• 2010

This study intends to investigate the weldability and mechanical characteristics of butt weld joints by LAFSW for dissimilar materials (Al6061-T6 and SS400). At optimum welding conditions, the tensile strength of dissimilar materials joints made by FSW is found to be lower than that of LAFSW. Due to the increase in plastic flow and formation of finer recrystallized grains at the TMAZ and SZ by laser preheating in LAFSW, the hardness in LAFSW appeared to be higher than that of FSW. Compared with FSW, finer grain size is observed and elongated grains in parent metal are deformed in the same direction around the nugget zone in TMAZ of Al6061-T6 by LAFSW. Whereas, at weld nugget zone, coarse grain size is appeared in LAFSW compared to FSW, which is owing to more plastic flow due to laser preheating effect. In dissimilar materials joints by LAFSW, ductile mode of fracture is found to occur at Al6061 side with fewer brittle particles. Mixed mode of cleavage area and ductile fracture is observed at SS400 side.