Effect of the Wire Temperature on the Weld Formation in GMAW

An arc-preheating wire GMAW process is proposed in this paper. The welding wire is preheated by a TIG arc to enhance the wire melting. As a result, the welding current is decrease. So the improved GMAW process is aimed at high efficiency welding with a low level heat input. In this paper, the welding system is designed. The wire temperature is measured by a pyrometer. The preheating current effect on the wire temperature is analyzed. In addition, the influence of the wire temperature on the weld current and weld formation are analyzed compared with conventional GMAW. The results show that the preheated wire can significantly enhance the wire melting. By increasing the temperature of the welding wire, the welding current decrease and the heat input of the base metal reduce accordingly. The shallow penetration and large reinforcement height are obtained at the arc-preheating wire GMAW process.