APPLICATION OF PLASMA MIG HYBRID WELDING TO DISSIMILAR JOINTS BETWEEN COPPER AND STEEL

APPLICATION OF PLASMA MIG HYBRID

WELDING TO DISSIMILAR JOINTS
BETWEEN COPPER AND STEEL
S. Asai, T. Ogawa, Y. Ishizaki, T. Minemura, H. Minami
and S. Miyazaki

Plasma MIG hybrid welding was developed several decades ago. This welding method is known to be suitable
ABSTRACT

for aluminium. But cases of practical use were not reported so much. The combination of plasma and MIG
arcs has recently been noticed again as a process appealing for heat source and arc phenomenon. Therefore,
we examined the practical application, while the effectiveness of the plasma MIG hybrid welding was con-
firmed. This time, the result of examining the applicability to the copper contaminant welding is reported. The
plasma MIG hybrid welding torch is coaxial with the MIG electrode placed in the centre, and the ring electrode
in which the plasma arc is generated at the circumference. First, the weldability of copper was examined in
order to confirm the basic characteristics of plasma MIG hybrid welding. The process was very effective for
the application to the welding of copper in order to contribute not only to plasma preheating the base mate-
rial but also stabilizing the MIG arc. Next, it was shown that copper-carbon steel dissimilar metal welding was
possible by justifying the welding parameters. On the basis of these results, plasma MIG hybrid welding was
applied to the copper-carbon steel contaminant welding of large structures for the nuclear waste storage,
and the result was good.

IIW-Thesaurus keywords: Combined processes; Copper; Dissimilar materials; Nuclear engineering; Plasma MIG
welding; Storage; Wastes.

37

1 Introduction 2 Outline of plasma and MIG

Plasma MIG hybrid welding was developed several hybrid welding equipment
decades ago [1]. This welding method is known to have
the advantages of both a high deposition rate and an The system configuration of the plasma and MIG hybrid
excellent wettability [2]. But the cases of practical use welding is shown in Figure 1. Commercial MIG and
were not reported so much. The combination of plasma plasma power sources were used with one torch for
and MIG arcs has recently been noticed again as a pro- welding. The type of MIG current was (DC) mode and
cess appealing for heat source and arc phenomenon. the power source characteristic was the constant volt-
Therefore, we focused on this process and investigated age. The sectional view of the torch is shown in Figure 2.
its practical application, while the effectiveness of the The plasma MIG hybrid welding torch is coaxial with
plasma MIG hybrid welding was confirmed. Generally, the MIG electrode placed in the centre, and the ring
copper welding has some arc stability problems due to
the high thermal conductivity for the application of MIG
welding. Furthermore, dissimilar metal welding of copper
to carbon steel is more difficult due to the difference in
thermal conductivity. Plasma MIG welding has two heat
sources, MIG arc and plasma arc, and it is considered that
the plasma arc effectively acts on the preheating effect
and the stability of the MIG arc. In this paper, the results
of tests evaluating the applicability of plasma MIG hybrid
welding to the dissimilar metal welding between copper
and steel is reported. As a result, plasma MIG hybrid weld-
ing was applied to large weld structures with the copper
dissimilar weld in actual use. Figure 1 – System configuration of plasma MIG hybrid welding

Doc. IIW-2105, recommended for publication by Commission XII “Arc Welding Processes and Production Systems.”

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 APPLICATION OF PLASMA MIG HYBRID WELDING TO DISSIMILAR JOINTS BETWEEN COPPER AND STEEL
Figure 2 – Configuration of a plasma MIG torch
electrode in which the plasma arc is generated at the
circumference. The inside diameter of plasma electrode
was 6 mm, that of the plasma nozzle 9 mm. The material
of the plasma electrode was copper. Shielding gas was
passed through a 3-fold structure, i.e. they were centre
gas for MIG, plasma gas, and shielding gas. The gases
were argon and helium.
3 Evaluation of basic
characteristics in copper welding
38
The weldability of copper was examined in order to check
the basic characteristics of plasma MIG hybrid welding.
Single plasma welding, single MIG welding and plasma
MIG hybrid welding were compared for bead appearance
and penetration shape by the bead-on-plate welding using
300 mm x 150 mm x 4tmm pure copper without preheat-
ing. A 1.2 mm diameter pure copper wire (equivalent to
JIS YCu), was used as the welding wire. Helium was used
as the centre gas, argon was used as both plasma and
Figure 3 – Comparison of bead and penetration shape between MIG and plasma MIG
shielding gas. The use of helium as the centre gas was
effective to obtain the smooth bead shape in the prelimi-
nary test.
The test results of a bead-on plate welding are shown
in Figure 3. Single MIG welding has small penetration,
insufficient wettability, unstable arc, much spatter, and
a meander bead. On the other hand, plasma MIG hybrid
welding welded at the same deposition rate as single
MIG has good wettability, stable arc and sound bead.
Single plasma arc alone did not melt the base metal with
the same plasma current as in plasma MIG hybrid weld-
ing. The above results show that in plasma MIG hybrid
welding there is a better wettability between deposited
metal and base material according to the preheating
effect of plasma heating, and an arc stabilizing effect. In
this case, the total energy of the plasma MIG was higher
than that of MIG. For MIG, wire feed rate and welding
voltage should be increased in order to obtain the same
heat input as in plasma MIG. It is confirmed that plasma
MIG has the advantage of both arc stability and bead
wettability when using the same wire feed rate. Figure 4
shows the effect of wire feed rate on bead and penetra-
tion shape in plasma MIG hybrid welding under constant
plasma current. It is confirmed that the increase in MIG
welding current can improve the bead shape and pen-
etration depth. Next, the relationship between plasma
current and MIG current under constant wire feed rate is
shown in Figure 5. MIG current decreases while plasma
current increases. It may be considered that the plasma
heat influenced the fusion of the wire and the arc length
was changed.
Thus, plasma MIG hybrid welding affects the melting of a
MIG wire while plasma heating can be utilized for its pre-
heating effect of the base material, and it is presumed to
contribute to stabilize the MIG arc, and it is thought that it
is very effective in its application to copper welding.
 APPLICATION OF PLASMA MIG HYBRID WELDING TO DISSIMILAR JOINTS BETWEEN COPPER AND STEEL
Figure 4 – Effect of wire feed rate on bead and penetration shape in plasma MIG
4 Application of plasma MIG
hybrid welding
4.1 Application structure of plasma MIG
hybrid welding
The application of plasma MIG hybrid welding to nuclear
waste storage constructions was studied [3]. The weld
section structure of this nuclear waste storage construc-
tion is shown in Figure 6. Many copper plates are arranged
between cylinders made of double-structure carbon steel.
The copper plate is joined to both the inside and the out-
side cylinders by a single-sided fillet weld. The weld-line is
4 m-long per place, the diameter of the outside cylinder is
about 2 200 mm, and welding is required to be made at a
narrow location (approximately150 mm square area). The
use of a pure copper wire for the fillet weld was required
Figure 5 – Relationship between plasma current
and MIG current and the weld configuration
for the heat transfer from the copper plate. Welding con-
ditions for the dissimilar Cu-steel joint depend on the
fusion of the copper plate. As a result of the bead-on-
plate test for the copper plate, it was confirmed that the
excellent wettability and the stable bead can be obtained
in plasma MIG welding as compared to MIG welding.
Although automatic TIG welding was used conventionally
in nuclear waste storage construction, the application of 39
plasma MIG welding was considered for improving both
the productivity by increasing welding speed and the heat
transfer characteristics by increasing the fillet length. The
subjects for applying plasma MIG hybrid welding are the
optimization of welding parameters for the dissimilar cop-
per-steel joint, and the development of the welding equip-
ment applicable to a narrow part.
4.2 Optimization of welding parameters
for dissimilar copper-steel joints
The fillet-weld condition was selected in the flat plate
specimen imitating the actual weld configuration. Base
metals are 20 mm-thick mild steel and 4 mm-thick oxy-
gen-free copper. A 1.2 mm diameter pure copper wire
(equivalent to JIS YCu), was used as the welding wire.
Figure 7 shows the relationship between plasma current
and a wire feed rate in Cu-steel fillet joint. The torch aim
location is offset 5 mm from the root to the copper plate
side. The torch height, i.e. the distance between the tip
Figure 6 – Weld section structure applied
for plasma MIG hybrid welding
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 APPLICATION OF PLASMA MIG HYBRID WELDING TO DISSIMILAR JOINTS BETWEEN COPPER AND STEEL

Figure 7 – Relationship between plasma current and wire feed rate in Cu-steel joint

of the nozzle and the base metal is 8 mm. Thus, some
defects, e.g. lack of wetting, burn-through, etc. can be pre-
40 vented by optimizing plasma current and wire feed rate.
The macro-section of welds produced using these proper
welding conditions is shown in Figure 8. There is very lit-
tle penetration on the carbon steel side. Figure 9 shows
the microstructure of the boundary of a Cu-carbon steel
weld metal. There is a minute fusion layer at the boundary.
Moreover, a welded joint tensile test showed it had a suf-
ficient joint strength.
The offset of the torch aim location and the torch height
influence the stability of weld greatly. Figure 10 shows
these relationships, and when applying to actual struc-
tures, the position control of the torch is very important.
4.3 Development of plasma MIG hybrid
welding equipment for practical use
Plasma MIG welding equipment with narrow-part and
long-distance welding is possible was developed for prac-
tical use. Such welding equipment is shown in Figure 11.
Figure 12 shows the welding torch for a narrow part.
The welding torch is curved so that it can be inserted
in a narrow part. The increase in wire feed resistance
by torch bow is compensated with the wire feeder by
using a push-pull system. The torch aim location is

Figure 8 – Macro-section of a Cu-steel welded joint

 APPLICATION OF PLASMA MIG HYBRID WELDING TO DISSIMILAR JOINTS BETWEEN COPPER AND STEEL

checked with the CCD camera installed in front of the

torch.

Based on this result, actual welding was performed on the

large-size nuclear waste storage structure with a 4 m-long
weld-line, and a good result was obtained. The weld situ-
ation is shown in Figure 13. The weld bead appearance is
shown in Figure 14.

Figure 9 – Microstructure of a Cu-steel joint

Figure 12 – Appearance of the welding torch
for a narrow part

41

Figure 11 – Plasma MIG hybrid welding equipment

for large structures Figure 13 – Plasma MIG hybrid welding in actual use

Figure 10 – Relationship between torch offset position and torch height

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 APPLICATION OF PLASMA MIG HYBRID WELDING TO DISSIMILAR JOINTS BETWEEN COPPER AND STEEL
Figure 14 – Appearance of weld bead
5 Conclusions
This paper describes the application of plasma MIG hybrid
welding to dissimilar Cu-carbon steel joints. The main
results can be summarized as follows.
1. The applicability of plasma MIG hybrid welding to cop-
per was examined. As a result, since an excellent wetta-
bility was obtained by plasma heating, it was confirmed
that the application of plasma MIG hybrid welding to
copper is effective.
2. Considering the application of plasma MIG hybrid
42 welding to dissimilar Cu-carbon steel joints resulted in
the optimization of fillet-welding conditions. The occur-
rence of weld imperfections can be prevented by opti-
mizing plasma current and wire feed rate. Furthermore,
the relation between offset of the torch aim location
and torch height can affect the stability of welding.
3. The plasma MIG welding equipment was developed for
the practical use in narrow-part, long-distance weld-
ing. Plasma MIG welding was applied to a large-size
nuclear waste storage structure with a 4 m-long weld-
line, and good results were obtained.
References
[1] “A New Process: Plasma-GMA Welding”, based on a
report issued by Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven,
The Netherlands, Welding Journal,1972, vol. 51, no. 8,
p. 560.
[2] Essers W.G.: New process combines plasma with
GMA welding, Welding Journal, 1976, vol. 55, no. 5,
pp. 394-400.
[3] Akamatsu H., Taniuchi H., Shin T., Yoshimura K.,
Shimojo J. and Yamada H.: Transport and storage casks
development, R&D Kobesteel Engineering Reports, 2005,
vol. 55, no. 2, p. 122.
About the authors
Mr. Satoru ASAI (satoru.asai@toshiba.co.jp), Mr. Tsuyoshi OGAWA (tsuyoshi.
ogawa@toshiba.co.jp), Mr. Yoshiki ISHIZAKI (yoshiki1.ishizaki@toshiba.co.jp), Mr.
Toshiyuki MINEMURA (toshiyuki.minemura@toshiba.co.jp), Mr. Hideyuki MINAMI
(hideyuki.minami@toshiba.co.jp) and Mr. Satoshi MIYAZAKI (satoshi1.miyazaki@
toshiba.co.jp) are all with Toshiba Corporation, Power Systems Company, Keihin
Product Operations, Yokohama (Japan).