Development of low spatter CO₂ arc welding process with high frequency pulse current

Metal transfer phenomena and spatter generation in CO₂ arc welding with a solid wire were investigated, and a low spatter welding process using a high frequency pulse rectangular current was developed. The optimal conditions of high frequency pulse CO₂ arc welding were determined to be a peak current of 450–550 A and pulse frequency of 450–750 Hz. These high frequency pulse currents influenced the droplet oscillation due to resonance between the applied pulse frequency and the natural frequency of the droplet. A droplet was regularly transferred by 9–11 pulses, and the average interval of metal transfer was ∼16 ms, which was half of that in conventional CO₂ arc welding. The average droplet weight is 34 mg, showing a large reduction in comparison with that of the conventional method. As a result, the total spatter weight was reduced by 70% in comparison with the conventional method, and particularly large spatters more than 0·5 mm in diameter were reduced from 25 to 3 mg s⁻¹.