What Are the Best Methods for Welding Metal?

Metal welding is a manufacturing or sculpting process that connects metals. During the welding process, the workpiece and solder are melted or not melted, forming a material directly connected to the weld seam. In this process, it is usually necessary to apply pressure to join the weldment.

Metal welding

Metal welding is a manufacturing or sculpting process that connects metals.

Metal Welding

The difference between ordinary welding and brazing and soldering is that soldering forms a connection by melting the solder with a lower melting point (below the melting point of the workpiece itself) without heating and melting the workpiece itself.

There are many sources of energy for welding, including gas flames, arcs, lasers, electron beams, friction, and ultrasound. In addition to being used in the factory, welding can be performed in a variety of environments, such as field, underwater, and space. Wherever possible, welding can be dangerous to the operator, so proper precautions must be taken when welding. Possible injuries to the human body from welding include burns, electric shock, visual impairment, inhalation of toxic gases, and excessive ultraviolet radiation.

There are more than 40 kinds of metal welding methods, which are mainly divided into three categories: fusion welding, pressure welding and brazing:

Before the end of the 19th century, the only welding process was metal forging that the blacksmith used for hundreds of years. The earliest modern welding technology appeared at the end of the 19th century, first arc welding and oxygen gas welding, and later resistance welding. In the early 20th century, there was a great demand for military equipment in World War I and World War II, and the corresponding cheap and reliable metal connection technology was valued, which promoted the development of welding technology. After the war, several modern welding technologies have emerged, including the most popular manual arc welding, and automatic or semi-automatic welding technologies such as molten electrode gas shielded arc welding, submerged arc welding, flux-cored arc welding, and electroslag welding. . In the second half of the 20th century, the development of welding technology changed rapidly, and laser welding and electron beam welding were developed. Today, welding robots are widely used in industrial production. Researchers are still deeply studying the nature of welding, continue to develop new welding methods, and further improve welding quality.

Status and Prospect of Welding Automation Technology

With the increasing maturity of digital technology, the digital welding machine and digital control technology of representative office grounding technology have steadily entered the market. The Three Gorges Project, the West-East Gas Transmission Project, the aerospace project, and the shipbuilding project have effectively promoted the development and progress of advanced welding, especially welding automation technology. The degree of automation in the manufacture of automobiles and parts and components requires rapid changes. China's welding industry is gradually moving towards "high efficiency, automation, and intelligence." China's welding automation rate is less than 30%, which is far from 80% in developed industrial countries. Since the 20th century, the country has gradually promoted the basic welding method of automatic welding-gas shielded welding in various industries to replace the traditional manual arc welding, which has achieved initial results. It can be expected that in the future, domestic automated welding technology will develop at an unprecedented speed.
The current status of efficient and automated welding technology In the 1990s, the welding industry in China took mechanization and automation of the welding process as strategic goals. It has already been implemented in the development of science and technology in various industries. And flexible manufacturing technology, the development and application of computer-aided design and manufacturing; among them, the growth rate of flux-cored wire has increased significantly, and it will exceed the solid-core wire in the next 20 years, and will eventually become the leading product of welding centers.

Prospect of welding automation technology The development of electronic technology, computer microelectronic residence and automation technology has promoted the development of welding automation technology. In particular, the introduction of unit technologies such as numerical control technology, flexible manufacturing technology and information processing technology has promoted the revolutionary development of welding automation technology.
(1) The intelligence of the welding process control system is one of the core issues of welding automation, and it is also an important direction for future research. Research should be carried out on the best control methods, including linear and various non-linear controls. The most representative are the fuzzy control of welding processes, neural network control, and the research of expert systems.
(2) Welding flexibility technology is also the focus of research. In future research, various optical, mechanical, electrical technologies and welding technologies will be organically combined to achieve precision and flexibility of welding. Using microelectronic technology to transform traditional welding process equipment is the fundamental way to improve the level of welding automation. Matching numerical control technology with various welding machinery and equipment to improve its flexibility is a current research direction. In addition, the combination of welding robots and expert systems enables automatic path planning, automatic trajectory correction, and automatic penetration control Is the focus of research.
(3) The integration of welding control system is the integration of people and technology and the integration of welding technology and information technology. The information flow and material flow in the integrated system are its important components. Promoting their organic integration can greatly reduce the amount of information and the requirements of real-time control. Pay attention to the use of human response and judgment in control and ad hoc processing, and establish a human-machine Christmas friendly interface, so that people and automatic systems are harmonious and unified, which is an inescapable factor of the integrated system.
(4) Improving the reliability, quality stability and control of welding power sources, as well as excellent dynamic performance, is also a subject of emphasis. Develop a high-performance welding machine that can adjust the arc movement, wire feeding and welding gun attitude, can detect the beginning of the weld slope, temperature field, molten pool state, and penetration conditions, and provide welding specification parameters in a timely manner. A computer for the welding process should be actively developed Simulation technology. An important aspect of welding automation is to make welding technology evolve from "craftsmanship" to "science". The first decade of this century will be a favorable period for the rapid development of the welding industry. Our vast number of welding workers have a long way to go, and we must establish a determination to overcome difficulties. Seize the opportunity and work hard to improve the level of welding automation in China.