Advancements in pulse gas metal arc welding

Environmental concerns have driven manufactures to look for alternative materials like aluminium that are lighter in weight and possess good thermal and electrical conductivity. However, fabrication of alternative materials presents a considerable challenge for fabrication in volume production. Welding is one of the most common fabrication processes. Good thermal and electrical conductivity act as a drawback for welding and generally results in excessive heating of base material. Pulse gas metal arc welding (GMAW-P) overcomes this drawback by producing spray transfer at lower mean currents. Modern welding has become complex due to need for setting up of combination of large number of welding parameters to achieve best quality of weld. Trial and error methods are impractical. In addition, there are many facets of disturbances and each has its own source and mitigation techniques. This need has resulted in several advancements in GMAW-P technology. This paper reviews progress in performance of GMAW-P technology.