Technological And Economical Aspects Of Arc Welding Of AL 5754
Aluminium and its alloys represent very important group of structural materials. They have many applications in mechanical and civil engineering, and welding is considered to be one of the most important joining techniques. However, welding of aluminium has several issues, like high thermal conductivity and easy formation of oxide layer with high melting temperature. Recently, solid state friction stir welding process has been developed to overcome such issues, but it is not easily applicable in every situation. Therefore, welding of aluminium still greatly relies on arc welding. Among commonly used TIG and MIG processes, pulsed MIG (and its variants) are developed to fulfil requests regarding heat input and oxide layer removal during welding. This paper gives brief general overview of technical and technological aspects of these processes, and then more details regarding welding of widely used aluminium 5754 alloy with thickness of 4 mm. Comparison of relevant costs is given as well. All welds were made using digitally controlled equipment, while voltage and current were additionally measured. Based on evaluation of welds and calculated costs, conclusion regarding feasibility of each process is given.