STUDY OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES IN MILD STEEL USING METAL INERT GAS WELDING

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to show the influence of different input parameters such as welding current, arc voltage and root gap on the mechanical properties during the Metal Inert Gas Welding (MIG) of mild steel 1018 grade. The microstructure, hardness and tensile strength of weld specimen are investigated in this study. The selected three input parameters were varied at three levels. On the analogy, nine experiments were performed based on L9 orthogonal array of Taguchi's methodology, which consist three input parameters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to find the levels of significance of input parameters. Root gap has greatest effect on tensile strength followed by welding current and arc voltage. Arc voltage has greatest effect on hardness followed by root gap and welding current. Microstructure of weld metal consists of fine grains of ferrite and pearlite.