TIG Welding Characteristics of Stainless Steel by Design of Experiment

Welding is very popular method for joining two or more metals. However, welding causes residual stress and distortion and these give a bad influence to the structure strength. In this paper, TIG welding technique was performed to investigate the joint characteristics of AISI321 steel. For its evaluation, the orthogonal array method and variance analysis were applied with three factors of electric current, travel speed and argon gas and also three levels of each factor to tensile tests for optimum design. From the results, the increaser weld speed the narrower bead width and the lower weld penetration. The increaser electric current the brighter argon gas and the wider bead width. Also weld speed influenced most on the tensile strength and presumption range of tensile strength at optimal condition from reliability 95% was estimated to $635.02{\pm}14.64$. In addition the increaser weld speed and electric current the fracture occurred around bead vicinity.