DOI 10.4010/2016.

1189
ISSN 2321 3361 © 2016 IJESC

Research Article Volume 6 Issue No. 5

A Review on Experimental Investigation of SS 316 by using TIG-

MAG Welding
Ajay S. Karwande1, Rameshwar V. Chavan2
P.G. student1, Assistant Professor2
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Deogiri Institute of Engineering and Management Studies, Aurangabad, India

Abstract:
Gas-shielded arc-welding processes such as Tungsten inert gas (TIG), Metal Active Gas (MAG) and metal inert gas (MIG) are
one of the mostly used welding processes in many industrial fields during manufacturing of fusion reactor, pressure vessels.
Nowadays, cost reduction and productivity improvement in welding operation can generate considerable impacts on
competitiveness of various manufacturing industries. Welding is challenging as per demands like 20-60mm range in different
types of steel specimen. The other factors which plays a major role in determination of weld quality is tensile strength, hardness,
impact test, surrounding conditions. Therefore, the Combination of TIG-MIG or TIG-MAG can be proposed.

Keywords: MAG, MIG, TIG, Welding.

I. INTRODUCTION be a potential method of welding stainless steel with low cost

Welding is a process in which edges to be joined are
heated and fused together with or without filler material to
form homogenous bond. Also it can be a process of joining
same or dissimilar materials accomplishes whole coalescence.
There are different types of welding processes such as laser-
TIG welding, laser welding, resistance spot, friction-stir
welding, diffusion welding which are employed to join
stainless steel, Mg alloys, etc. However, the laser-TIG hybrid
welding is not so stable which needs additional filling metal
and suitable joint preparation while the capital equipment
costs of laser welding and friction stir welding are high[1].
TIG, MIG and MAG welding are the most popular
gas shielded arc welding processes used in many industrial
fields. TIG welding consists of features such as less spatters
without requiring much post weld cleaning and better weld
bead surfaces than MIG welding with pure Ar. However, TIG
welding needs improvement in its efficiency. MIG welding
has high efficiency and high rates of metal deposition but it
needs some improvement in quality, oxidation of bead surface
and spatter to be produced [2]. Because of relatively high
productivity and low cost MAG welding is mostly used, but
there are some instabilities presented in MAG welding as
spatter and weld bead roughness is also existed. Lucas and
Tusek suggested that a number of appearance defects typically
including undercut and humping weld were easily formed,
which limited the further improvement of productivity [3].
Thick materials welding is challenging as per
demands like 20-60mm range in different types of steel
specimen. Thus, development of advance welding technique
for 316L thick is of great significance [4].
TIG arc can stabilize the MAG arc by stable
hybridization. The FCC structure maintained 316 consist of
good plasticity and relatively high impact toughness and also
has superior mechanical and corrosion resistant properties due
to this it is used for making fusion reactor components and
Toroidal Fields Coils (TFC) [3].TIG-MIG hybrid welding can
and high efficiency. After TIG-MIG hybrid welding the
welded specimens of stainless steel gives good weld without
any pore or spatter. TIG-MIG hybrid welding to weld stainless
steel shows broad application prospects [1].
The aim of this study is to investigate stainless steel
316 materials with the variation in the thickness by using TIG-
MAG welding. The characterization of these SS 316 samples
for tensile tests and hardness measurements will be carried out
to analyze weld joint strength. Also the samples will be
subjected to non destructive examination such as X ray
radiography test.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
1] TIG-MIG HYBRID WELDING OF FERRITIC
STAINLESS STEELS AND MAGNESIUM ALLOYS WITH
CU INTERLAYER OF DIFFERENT THICKNESS.
In the present manuscript of M. Ding, S. S. Liu, Y.
Zheng, et al. An experiment was conducted to study the effect
of thickness of interlayer on the performance and
microstructure of the weld joint. In the present experiment,
Copper foils with varying thicknesses were selected as the
interlayer and the hybrid TIG-MIG welding was proposed to
weld stainless steels and magnesium alloys due to its stability.
The dimension of AZ31B Mg alloy and 430 ferritic stainless
steel plates were 150mm × 60mm × 3mm and 150mm ×
60mm × 2mm. The optimized welding parameters used were
welding current of 134A, welding voltage of 15.2V, gas flow
rate of 15L/min and welding speed of 30 mm/min. By using
TIG-MIG hybrid welding process AZ31B Mg and 430 ferritic
stainless steel with 0.1mm and 0.02mm thick Cu interlayer
were successfully welded. As compared to that with 0.02mm
thick interlayer joints the tensile-shear strength with 0.1mm
thick interlayer joints was improved by 47%.
2] STUDY OF TIG-MIG HYBRID WELDING PROCESS
During the study of TIG-MIG hybrid welding process
Shuhei Kanemaru, Tomoaki Sasaki, et al. investigated the
influence of the TIG MIG welding current balance, which is

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the one of the most important condition that affects stability of
arc and penetration of arc. They confirm the suitable range of
currents by experiments and numerical simulation. They
applied the process to butt weld joints which show that the
welding time can be reduced to about 17-44% of the time in
case of the conventional TIG welding. In this study they found
that a pure argon shielded MIG arc can become stable by
using TIG-MIG hybrid system. For the current balance in the
TIG and MIG arcs of the hybrid welding process, when using
pure argon to keep the stability of MIG arc the TIG current
needs to be larger than that of the MIG current. In TIG-MIG
hybrid welding, from both experimental and numerical
simulation results suggests that in between TIG and MIG
electrodes the current path is generated and this phenomena
contributes to the stability of arc in case of MIG welding. Due
to hybridization of TIG-MIG good butt and fillet joints were
obtained with no defects detected by radiography.
3] HIGH SPEED TIG-MAG HYBRID ARC WELDING OF
MILD STEEL PLATE
A TIG-MAG hybrid arc welding to achieve high
speed welding process was proposed by Xiangmeng Meng,
Guoliang Qin, et al. The influence of hybrid arc welding
parameters on welding speed and welding appearance were
studied through orthogonal experiment and also the
microstructures and mechanical properties of welded
specimens were tested and compared with that of the
conventional MAG welded specimens. A key factor for TIG
MAG hybrid arc welding to achieve the stable and high
quality high speed welding process was balance between TIG
and MAG welding current and proper wire electrode distance
which was proposed by the stable hybridization. The hybrid
welding current and arc voltage waveform were more
compared with those of conventional MAG welding. Welded
joints with high tensile strength, micro hardness and narrower
HAZ obtained by TIG-MAG hybrid welding were compared
with conventional MAG welding.
4] THICK SS 316 MATERIALS TIG WELDING
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES TOWARDS ADVANCED
FUSION REACTOR VACUUM VESSEL APPLICATION.
Ramesh Kumar, R. Gangradey in their paper
reports characterization of TIG welded samples with 20 and
40mm thick SS 316 material. Also, their mechanical
properties characterization with tensile test, bend test and
impact tests are carried out. In addition to this vickers
hardness test have been carried out to analyze weld joint
strength. Micro structural analysis of properties base metal,
Heat affected zone and weld zone are done. During tensile test
all the specimens are broken out of the weld region and tensile
strength of 20 and 40 mm samples are 589 & 595MPa for base
metal and 609 & 598MPa for welded sample indicating of
good weld quality joint strength. The fabricated samples are
subjected to standard 180° bend tests and it exhibited good
weld joint strength without any opening on the weld line or
shown any defects like cracks or openings. The values of
Vickers hardness measurements indicate higher hardness
values at weld zone and heat affected zone also low hardness
values at the base metal region due to the work hardening
during heating and cooling of weld process. In case of 20mm
sample the weld zone has exhibited impact energy (187J)
which is higher as compared to base metal (160J) and is
indicative of good quality of welded region. Whereas for
International Journal of Engineering Science and Computing, May 2016
40mm sample, the welded zone has shown impact energy
(71J) which is less in comparison with base metal (119J) and
HAZ (71J) values. The weld zone microstructures for 20mm
samples are found with fine grain boundaries with austenitic
structures. Where as in case of 40mm samples weld zone
structures were observed with coarsened fine grain boundaries
with austenitic structures.
5] EFFECT OF HEAT INPUT ON CRYOGENIC
TOUGHNESS OF 316LN AUSTENITIC STAINLESS
STEEL NG-MAG WELDING JOINTS WITH LARGE
THICKNESS.
In this paper of Xiao Wenkai, Zhu Li, Zhang Fuju,
et al. designed novel narrow gap metal active gas arc welding
system to join AISI 316 LN thick plate and the effect of heat
input on impact toughness of the weldmetal was investigated
and suitable welding parameters were explored so as to
optimize the toughness of weld metal and avoid weld defects
simultaneously. The NG-MAG arc welding showed much
higher efficiency in comparison with the counterpart TIG. The
suitable heat inputs of ITER AISI 316LN structure in present
NG-MAG welding were determined as 1.0-1.4 kJ/mm. Due to
lower heat input non fusion defects would appear and when
heat input exceed 1.4 KJ/mm solidification cracks will appear.
6] THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF
MIG/MAG WELDING TECHNIQUE.
In this paper, Sushant S. Pawle has discussed about
the basic mechanism of MIG/MAG welding techniques which
includes MIG/MAG welding terminologies, factors affecting
deposition rate, effects of stick out length, factors affecting
penetration, advantages and limitations of MIG/MAG. They
have worked out on basic mechanism of MIG/MAG welding
technique. It can be well extended by putting metal or alloy
and its behavior, weldability. It can be concluded that the ideal
stick out length should be between 15 to 20mm.
7] EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF MULTIPASS
TIG WELDING USING RESPONSE SURFACE
METHODOLOGY
Sreejith S. Nair studied TIG welding of stainless
steel at different values of current and electrode diameter but
electrode material, voltage and welding speed is kept as
constant. 6mm thick stainless steel plates was used for TIG
welding. The photographs of the welded seams were observed
and tensile testing of specimens was done to evaluate the
mechanical properties of the welded joint. As per their
experimental work most important factor affecting the tensile
strength and penetration is found to be filler wire diameter
where as for hardness the major factor is welding current.
The optimum process parameters for the wire diameter and
welding current in case of TIG welding should be taken as
3mm and 140 Ampere.
8] A COMPARISON OF RESIDUAL STRESSES IN
MULTIPASS NARROW GAP LASER WELDS AND GAS
TUNGSTEN ARC WELDS IN AISI 316L STAINLESS
STEEL
Ahmed Elmesalamy, John Anthony Francis
investigated the development of through-thickness residual
stresses in NGLW of AISI 316L stainless steel by using
contour method. The preliminary study investigates the
material thicknesses up to 20mm and the results obtained for
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the same thickness of material were compared with the [7] Sreejith S Nair, “Experimental investigation of multipass
residual stresses that were measured in conventional GTA TIG welding using response surface methodology”, pp. 242-
welds. From the preliminary study it is hoped that it will 254, 2013.
provide insight way in which NGLW affects the factors
development of residual stresses and cyclic hardening of the [8] Ahmed Elmesalamy, J. A. Francis, L. Li, “A comparison
material during multipass welding that have a critical of residual stresses in multipass narrow gap laser welds and
influence on the integrity of nuclear welds. For the purpose of gas tungsten arc welds in AISI 316L stainless steel”, pp. 49-
validation on the same specimens the surface X-ray diffraction 59, 2014.
measurements were also carried out. In comparison with GTA
welding the residual stresses were 30-40% lower to those for
the narrow gap laser welds. For 10mm thick welds tensile
stress was 520MPa and 310MPa in case of GTA and NGLW
process. In GTA welding the accumulation of plastic strain
due to thermo-mechanical cycling was higher than for NGLW.
GTA welds distortion angle was 3 times higher than for
NGLW. There is less significant influence of thickness of
welded specimens on the induced residual stresses than the
choice of welding process.
III. CONCLUSION
From the literature review it is observed that MAG
welding has spatter, appearance defects, weld bead roughness
which limited the further improvement of productivity. It
needs some improvement in quality, oxidation of bead surface
and spatter to be produced. Also, Ramesh kumar, R.
Gangradey reports that thick materials welding is challenging
as per demands like 20-60mm range in different types of steel
specimen. Therefore development of advanced welding
technique is necessary.
TIG-MIG hybrid welding process by the effect of
hybridization, it becomes possible to achieve the both merits
of high quality as well as TIG and high efficiency as well as
MIG. Through stable hybridization TIG arc may stabilize the
MAG arc and can also preheat the metal before MAG arc
increasing wettability and spreadability of molten wire on the
substrate. Development of the process of multipass welding
can have the possibility of giving high strength, high quality
and efficiency.

IV. REFERENCES
[1] M. Ding, S. S. Liu, Y. Zheng, et al., “TIG-MIG hybrid
welding of ferritic stainless steel and magnesium alloys with
Cu interlayer of different thickness”, pp. 375-383, 2015.

[2]Shuhei Kanemaru, Tomoaki Sasaki, Toyoyuki Sato, “Study

for TIG–MIG hybrid welding process”, pp. 11-18, 2014.

[3]Xiangmeng Meng, Guoliang Qin, Zhang Yuqi, “High speed

TIG-MAG hybrid arc welding of mild steel plate”, pp. 1-31,
2014.

[4] B. Ramesh Kumar, R. Gangradey, “Thick SS316 materials

TIG welding development activities towards advanced fusion
reactor vacuum vessel applications”, pp. 1-6, 2012.

[5] Xiao Wenkai, Zhu Li, Zhang Fuju, “Effect of heat input on
cryogenic toughness of 316LN austenitic stainless steel NG-
MAG welding joints with large thickness”, pp. 160-167, 2015.

[6] Sushant S Pawale, “Theoretical & experimental study of

MIG/MAG welding technique”, pp. 142-144, 2015.

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