GMAW-S has been banned in the AWS D1.5 Bridge Code due to

lack of sidewall fusion. Our goal is to design and build a universal

device that will indicate transfer mode.

GMAW can be controlled by wire feed speed and voltage.

The statistical analysis program, Minitab, was used to

establish random sets of welding parameters with varying

voltage and WFS. Voltage ranged from 18 V—30 V and WFS

ranged from 275 IPM to 525 IPM.

Each weld sample was monitored with a LabVIEW program

designed by the team to diagnose the transfer mode. The

program results were compared to macro-analysis of the fillet

weld samples.

Macro-analysis of the fillet weld samples revealed high

correlation between lack of sidewall fusion and short circuit

transfer mode detection. Analysis methods diagnosed 100% of

the welds that exhibited lack of sidewall fusion with short

circuit transfer mode.

A universal portable DAQ system will be built and verified with more extensive testing on several power sources including a robotic

system. The new DAQ system will diagnose transfer mode in real time and generate a report for each weld without a computer.

Joseph Russell (Team Lead), William Bunker, Stephanie Nystrom, Derek Hoyt, Nathan Berthiaume and Wesley Alsman

Thanks to Dr. Yoni Adonyi for technical assistance. Project is supported by Trinity Industries.

The test results were verified with high speed video,

acoustic analysis, and voltage waveform evaluation. Each

transfer mode has unique characteristics that can be

recorded and analyzed to determine transfer mode.

Problem

GMAW Transfer Mode Monitor

Verification

Results

Design

Methodology

Acoustic

Analysis

Conclusions and Continued Work