Process Optimization of Cold Metal Transfer Plug Welding of Aluminum AA6061-T6-to-Galvanized DP590 Steel Based on Orthogonal Experiment Method

Abstract

In this paper, cold metal transfer (CMT) plug welding of aluminum AA6061-T6-to-galvanized DP590 steel is studied using AlSi-5 welding wire as filler material. The influence of wire feeding speed on welding quality is one of the research emphases. Firstly, an orthogonal experiment is designed to investigate the impact of wire feeding speed, welding speed and arc length correction on the mechanical performance of the joints. In addition, the welding quality of weldments under optimized process parameters are examined by tensile test and metallographic test. Finally, the influence rule of joint shape, metal transition thickness and welding strength under different wire feeding speed is studied. The results show that wire feeding speed has the greatest influence on joint strength. When wire feeding speed goes up from 5.0 m/min to 6.2 m/min, the thickness of intermetallic transition layer increases. The optimal combination of process parameters is analyzed.