Control of surface defects on plasma-MIG hybrid welds in cryogenic aluminum alloys

Lately, high production rate welding processes for Al alloys, which are used as LNG FPSO cargo containment system material, have been developed to overcome the limit of installation and high rework rates. In particular, plasma-metal inert gas (MIG) hybrid (PMH) welding can be used to obtain a higher deposition rate and lower porosity, while facilitating a cleaning effect by preheating and post heating the wire and the base metal. However, an asymmetric undercut and a black-colored deposit are created on the surface of PMH weld in Al alloys. For controlling the surface defect formation, the wire feeding speed and nozzle diameter in the PMH weld was investigated through arc phenomena with high-speed imaging and metallurgical analysis.