In the present work, an analysis of different welding parameters was carried out on the
welding of stainless-steel thin thickness tubes by the Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) process. The
influence of three main parameters, welding voltage, movement angle, and welding current in
the quality of the welds, was studied through a specifically designed experimental process based
on the establishment of three different levels of values for each of these parameters. Weld quality
is evaluated using destructive testing (macrographic analysis). Specifically, the width and root
penetration of the weld bead were measured; however, some samples have been disregarded due
to welding defects outside the permissible range or caused by excessive melting of the base metals.
Data are interpreted, discussed, and analyzed using the Taguchi method and ANOVA analysis.
From the analysis of variance, it was possible to identify the most influential parameter, the welding
voltage, with a contribution of 43.55% for the welding penetration and 75.26% for the bead width,
which should be considered in the designs of automatic welding processes to improve the quality of
final welds.
This research was partially funded through the base funding from the following research units: UIDB/00690/2020 (CIMO)
