The importance of spatter formed in shielded metal arc welding

Spatter results when droplets of liquid metal that have been ejected from the weld pool by the impact of small droplets from the covered electrode solidify and weld to the surface of the base material. The present paper studies spatter and reveals why these small droplets do not oxidise during their short trajectory and accounts for why they arrive with sufficient heat to weld to the adjacent base material. Welds were thus performed on mild steel using covered electrodes (rutile type) to obtain spatter on the adjacent base material. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray mapping were used to study the above mentioned phenomena.