SUBMERGED ARC WELDING (SAW)

Submerged-arc welding (SAW is the proper AWS abbreviationsub- arc is a common

nickname in welding shops) uses an electric current passing through a continuous filler-metal
wire to produce an arc. The arc melts the wire and the base metal, just like in GMAW
welding, but no shielding gas is used. The tip of the welding wire, the arc, and the welding
joint in the work piece are covered by a layer of granulated minerals known as SAW flux.
For submerged arc welding method, welding wire comes from a bobbin passes through spools
which an engine drives and also by passing the contact nozzle is transmitted to welding area.
To be melted it needs the effect of current from contact nozzle. With that, the wire melts in
welding arc. This arc is protected by a powder comes from a different canal which includes
silicate and alkaline metals.
Arc occurs between the welding wire and work piece. Its high temperature forces some
elements inside the wire and powder, to melt and it provides to form the welding metal. Arc is
continuously burned under powder. Thats why they call it submerged arc welding. Welding
wires which are used for submerged arc welding are made from good quality steel. Especially
their chemical composition and with their high magnesium quantity, they can easily discern
from normal wires. These wires are made copper coated. Thin copper layer makes easy
passage of current to wire inside the nozzle and protects from oxidization. The flux protects
the arc, the molten filler metal, and the hot base metal from oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapor
in the air. There is no visible arc, no sparks, no spatter, and no smoke.
BEFORE SUBMERGED ARC WELDING:
1- If sheet metal thickness is less than 14 mm and with not opening edge, we decide the
starting and finishing thack length should be 150200 mm additionally the length between
sheet metals should be maximum 1 mm. If sheet metals which have welding edge are welded,
the same of this should be opened for starting and finishing lama. At submerged arc welding
we use high current instance so to provide high penetration and to reach kep thickness, we
must start from 150 mm back of the welding point.
2- If we realize that there is damp on sheet metal we must get rid of damp. If we dont, it will
separate hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen will exit from welding bath with the shape of gas
bubbles and at these points, pores will occur.
3- Sheet metals must be welded as the day they damp. If we dont weld them that day, they
oxidize from butt and this area would porozite while welding. We have to clean butt area from
oxidization and irregular damps must be grinded. So we avoid porozitation.
4- The two grounding cables should be attached left and right side of the submerged arc
welding machine. Unless grounding cables attached that we told, unstable energy can affect
negatively to arc points. Not enough penetration and irregular seam occurs.
5- The tack which does before welding should not be less than 50 mm. Because tacks can
rupture and it causes mistakes for welding. It avoids going forward orderly.

6- Welding machines powder bag must not be cut. Powders can spread and can be dangerous
for mechanic and electronic parts of welding machine. Powder bag must be safe.
7- The slop of sheet metal should be less than 60 degrees. For bigger than that number, for
descent places welding penetration would be low and welding seam get bigger. For Uphill
condition, penetration and welding seam would be very high.
While welding cables should not be on welding machines or on the ground with wrapped roll
shape. If it is work like this, cables work like bobbins and they degree an inductive potential.
It causes very serious problems on electronic system of welding machine.
THE SAW PROCESS
Very high welding speeds and weld-metal deposition rates are characteristic of SAW. A V4-in.
[6.4-mm] steel wire operated at 1400 A can deposit around 45 lb [20.4 kg] of weld metal per
hour. Welding currents up to 4000 A, ac or dc, on a single welding wire have been used
(although 4000 A is an extreme case). Welding speeds up to 200 in. /min [5 m/ min] are
possible using high-am- peerage single-wire welding. With more than one electrode wire in
the same weld joint, even higher speeds and very high deposition rates are possible.
Submerged-arc welding is used mostly on thick steel plates and heavy structural sections.
One- pass welding of plate or structuralize up to 3 in. [76 mm] thick is possible. Multipass
welding of sections of any thickness can be done. The practical minimum thickness for SAW
is 18-gauge sheet metal.
Submerged-arc welding is fast and welding costs are low. So why isnt this process used
everywhere and on all kinds of products? The reason is that SAW is limited to carbon, HSLA,
and special alloy steels for pressure vessels, although some hard facing flux and wires also are
available. The very large weld puddle produced at the high currents that are used in SAW
tends to limit the process to heavy steel plate.
SAW EQUIPMENT
You will recognize most of the equipment used in SAW welding, like the power source and
wire feeder, but this time you will have some new equipment to deal with and some new types
of controls and accessories.
Components of the SAW System
An SAW "head, or assembly, containing a hopper, a funnel, and a flux feed tube is used for
feeding the granular flux to the joint ahead of the welding wire. The head has some controls,
often a seam follower to guide the welding wire, and various other attachments. A common
attachment is a vacuum sweeper that sucks up excess flux that didnt get melted into slag.
(Submerged-arc fluxes are expensive because they have a lot of alloying elements in them,
and therefore unused flux is recovered and reused.) Another piece of equipment that is
attached to the SAW head is the wire feeder and a wire reel for the filler metal. The welding
head and wire feeder with its controls often ride along a track or on a welding manipulator
carriage that runs along the work piece or weld seam. If you are welding a wide joint, the

welding head usually will move automatically from side to side to tie the weld into the face of
the welding joint. The controls on the welding head often can be set so that the wire will
"dwell, or stop momentarily, at each side of the joint to ensure that the weld metal is strongly
tied into the base metal.The welding head can be suspended from a boom on the welding
manipulator or it can ride directly on tracks laid down on the work piece. A power source
suitable for use with SAW often is mounted on the manipulator along with all the other equipment. The manipulator rides along the work piece, but circumferential (around the pipe) welds
also can be made in pipe, large- diameter tubing, or a pressure vessel by rotating the work on
rollers while the sub-arc head stays stationary over the top of the rotating joint.
The weld backing keeps the flux and molten metal from leaking out of the bottom gap in the
weld joint. Since sub-arc often is used to weld thick plates, the joint designs used vary from
single-V to double-V or other, wider joint designs. The pieces to be welded are usually placed
in position for welding and are tack-welded by some other process such as stick- electrode
welding or MIG, before the first SAW pass is made. Thinner work pieces often have to be
clamped or held in jigs to maintain the desired gap width and keep the work from distorting
due to the large heat input from the high-amperage submerged arc.
Each element of the submerged- arc system has an effect on the finished weld. The values for
welding voltage and current, the composition and diameter of the welding wire, wire feeds
and speeds, and the flux are usually selected from tables of SAW parameters that you will be
given before you start a job. We list some of these data at the end of this chapter.Its your
responsibility to prepare the weld joint and clean it up before welding. You also will set up the
equipment, tack weld or jig up the work piece, adjust the welding head over the work, check
the system to make sure everything is ready and operating, and monitor the work as the SAW
system produces a weld.
Submerged-Arc Fluxes
The fluxes used in SAW are very similar to those used in making steel. The job of the flux is
to protect molten weld metal and nearby hot base metal from oxy-gen in the air until the metal
cools. The flux also lowers the melting point of certain impurities in the metal and floats them
out of the weld as slag. Alloying additions also are made with the flux, so that a low-cost
carbon- steel wire can produce high- strength low-alloy steel weld metal if used in
combination with the correct flux.
An SAW flux is chosen for the type of welding job you have. A certain flux might be best for
welding mill-scaled plate or rusty joints. Another flux might be used to control weld-metal
reinforcement and penetration through the joint. A third flux might help you bridge joints with
poor fit-up.Still another flux might help give you weld metal with high impact toughness at
low temperatures. One or more of the fluxes might give you slag that is almost self-peeling or
slag that is very difficult to remove. Some other sub-arc fluxes may be better if you switch
from dc to arc welding.The choice of a flux to cope with factors peculiar to a given welding
job is generally made by the welding shop based on prior experience and the guidance and
recommendations of the flux supplier. In other words, submerged- arc fluxes are one of those
areas in welding where there are a lot of proprietary products. You get a recommendation

from a reputable supplier and try it out. If it doesnt do the job, you either try another flux or
another supplier.There is a general flux specification. Its the same one that covers SAW
wires. The name of the American Welding Society (AWS) submerged-arc consumables specification for carbon steels is AWS A5.17, "Bare Mild Steel Electrodes and Fluxes for
Submerged- Arc welding. The AWS spec for low-alloy steels is AWS A5.23, "Low Alloy
Steel Electrodes and Fluxes for Submerged-Arc Welding.
AWS A5.17, the carbon-steel specification, classifies SAW fluxes on the basis of the tensile
strength of the weld metal they will produce when used with specific SAW wires. AWS A5.23
does something very similar for low-alloy steels. The point is you have to specify the flux and
the filler wire together.The flux designations in AWS A5.17 begin with the letter F and have a
number, such as 60 or 72, after them. The number refers to the tensile strength of the weld
metal the flux will produce. For example, F60 is one AWS grade of SAW flux. Another one is
F74. There are 10 AWS flux grades in the AWS A5.17 specification on carbon steels alone,
ranging from F60 to F74. Well list them for you shortly. The flux designations in A5.23 on
low-alloy steels work the same way, but there are even more flux-electrode wire combinations.
Note that the mechanical property data are still rather wide. Thats partly a reflection of the
fact that SAW consumables often are proprietary; data on wire and flux combinations from
individual producers will be far more specific. The vagueness in the data also reflects the fact
that specific weld-metal mechanical properties are strongly affected by the plate thickness,
joint design, and welding parameters. For example, a heavy plate section can cause considerable weld-metal dilution. These metallurgical complications are one reason why we left a
lot of data out of Table 18-2 under "Low-Alloy Steels. Explaining the data and its use is
simply beyond your present knowledge. It requires substantial metallurgical training. But, as
you will soon see, there are practical solutions to the problem.
Submerged-Arc Filler Wires
AWS A5.17 also lists designations for submerged-arc filler wires for welding carbon and
HSLA steels. The AWS uses a classification system that groups the steel submerged-arc wires
into low-man- ganese (L), medium-manganese (M), and high-manganese (H) classes. Its
difficult to give general rules on selecting these filler metals and fluxes without getting into a
lot of metallurgy; but the following rules of thumb will be helpful for most jobs.
General guidelines for selecting SAW flux and wires Low-alloy steels are much more
complicated to work with than carbon steels. Youll have to look closely at detailed materials
specifications to see what to do with them. Generally, low-alloy steels are used to get higher
strength than carbon steels, or for higher strength at high temperatures, or for increased toughness at low temperatures. Youll find them used in everything from boilers to submarines.
Yield, tensile strength, and hardness will increase with increasing carbon, manganese, and
silicon content. Silicon has the least effect and carbon has the strongest effect on tensile
strength. The best notch toughness will be from weld metal with low carbon, manganese, and
silicon content. Electrodes containing high manganese, such as EH14, promote weld-metal

soundness by reducing the tendency for cracking and porosity.Electrodes with larger amounts
of silicon, such as EL8K, EM5K, and EM13K, increase the fluidity of the molten weld metal
and its ability to wet the base metal, which improves the shape of weld- metal reinforcing and
produces more regular edges and sounder welds at maximum welding speeds. Whats more,
the way the flux is made also may affect the final mechanical properties and welding
characteristics that youll get. Some fluxes are fused (the grains look like black glass). Others
are mechanically mixed (they look gray) or bonded. Bonded flux looks like the grinding
material in a grinding wheel crushed into a fine granular powder.
High-current, single-pass SAW welds have much larger mixtures of base metal in them than
lower- current multipass welds where much of the previously deposited weld metal is
remolded with only minimum penetration into the base metal. Large single-pass welds
solidify and cool more slowly than the individual beads of multipass welds.
Furthermore, each pass of a multipass weld is subject to annealing (heat softening) due to the
heat input of the succeeding passes, which is one reason why mechanical property tests often
are made on sample welds designed to be as similar to production welds as possible when an
actual flux-electrode wire combination is selected.
We can get all kinds of flux- electrode wire combinations by putting the filler wire and the
fluxes together. For example, your best weld metal for the job at hand might be made with
F60- EH14, F71-EM12K, or F62-EL8K flux and wire.
There are dozens (maybe hundreds) of proprietary sub- merged-arc fluxes and welding wires.
The AWS A5.17 carbon steel and AWS A5.23 low-alloy steel sub-arc materials specifications
are purposely written with wide ranges on the numbers to allow suppliers and users to work
together to select the best flux- electrode wire combination for a given problem.
The actual weld metal that any flux-wire combination will produce is evaluated by welding
standard test specimens and measuring their mechanical properties, then by looking at the appearance of the weld metal. AWS A5.17 and AWS A5.23 give complete details for running
these tests and for evaluating the mechanical properties of the resulting weld metal. The
detailed procedures are complex and we wont include them here. New proprietary flux-wire
combinations also are evaluated the same way.
While the evaluation tests are being made, welding parameters such as current, voltage, and
wire speed are tested at the same time for a given plate material and joint design.
Low-alloy-steel flux-wire combinations often are dictated by the ASME Boiler and Pressure
Vessel Code. We repeat, low-alloy steels are much more complicated than carbon steels, but
flux-wire combinations would still be tested in the shop before they are used.This may sound
like a lot of work to do before production welding gets started, but once all the variables are
nailed down, the setup may be used to weld the entire hull of a ship or a dozen large pressure
vessels.

SAW Power Sources

Power sources for SAW can be either ac or dc machines. The dc machines can be either
constant- current (CC) or constant-voltage (CV) units. Since spatter is no problem with SAW
(the molten slag surrounding the arc traps the spatter), it is possible to use currents that are
two to three times as high as those used in MIG welding. Currents of 1500 A on a single
electrode wire are not unusual. The weld puddles are large and the power released as heat in
the arc zone is high. The sub-arc system is ideal for use on heavy steel plate. It also can be
used on thin materials, but sub-arcs prime use is on heavy steel weld- ments.
Because there is no great problem with spatter in sub-arc welding, theres no need to use slope
to control the short-circuit current. Constant-voltage power supplies without slope control are
less expensive than those with slope. Therefore, most dc CV welding power sources have very
flat volt- amp curves. In addition to holding down spatter, the flux makes it easier to run an
arc. Gases released in the weld zone produced by selecting the appropriate flux make it
possible to run ac as well as dc arcs.A large amount of inductance is recommended, but not
essential, for smoothing out the large current swings that would occur if inductance were not
present.
Large current swings tend to cause puddle turbulence and inductance helps to quiet the arc
action.The requirements for a dc CV power source for SAW are not very complicated. Practically any machine that can provide enough current and voltage will do the job.
Alternating current Alternating current is preferred whenever you expect to run into arc blow.
Arc blow is caused by the interaction of the magnetic field of the arc and magnetism induced
in the steel plate. It causes weird, erratic metal transfer and an irregular bead shape. When dc
is used, the arc is deflected in one direction by the induced magnetic field, usually to one side
or the other of the work piece joint. The arc can even gouge out small holes in the side of the
joint because the dc arc is attracted by the magnetic field set up in the work piece
Alternating current also induces magnetic fields in the work piece, but since the polarity of ac
alternates from positive to negative and back again about 60 times a second, it breaks down
magnetic fields in the steel plate as fast as they are set up. Therefore, ac tends to even out the
effects of arc blow while neutralizing the induced magnetic field.
High-nickel steels that are used for low-temperature and cryogenic pressure vessels and
liquefied gas containers are especially subject to arc-blow problems because nickel is even
more magnetic than iron. High-nickel steels are typical of materials that are welded with ac
power sources.Two SAW wires sometimes are run in tandem to get very high deposition rates
on thick joints. Arc blow is a common problem when two dc arcs (two wires) are run in the
same arc zone because their fields interact. They produce mutual arc blow. When two ac arcs
of the same phase are operated in the same arc zone they also cause mutual arc blow.
The solution is simply to use two ac arcs (and two separate power sources) that are out of
phase with each other. When one of the two ac arcs is at its maximum magnetic strength
(maximum current) at the top of the current peak, the other one can be set to be at zero

current. They are said to be 90 out of phase, which cancels out the effects of the mutual
magnetic fields and the arc blow that results from running two wires.One phase is usually
called the leading electrode phase and the other is called the trailing electrode phase. The two
electrodes operate one behind the other in the same weld pool. The ability to adjust the current
separately in each electrode is a big advantage when doing SAW. No matter what the
technical reasons are, the important thing for you to remember is that ac power sources are
used to control arc blow when you are doing SAW.
Wire Feeder Controls
Submerged arc produces very high welding speeds and high weld-metal deposition rates.
There is no way you could work fast enough to do it manually and maintain control of the
weld. Therefore, just about everything on a high-production SAW system operates
automatically.
The automatic control and power supply system used in SAW operate to maintain a constant
voltage and constant current. The welding voltage is proportional to the length of the current
path between the welding wire and the work piece. Therefore:
If the distance between the wire and the work piece increases, the welding voltage
increases.
If the distance between the wire and work piece decreases, the welding voltage
decreases.
If the distance between the wire and work piece remains constant, the welding voltage
will remain constant.
With a CV power source, the arc voltage is maintained by the power supply. Arc current is
controlled by the wire feed speed with increased feed speed producing increased current.
Therefore, the wire feed system is simplified to a constant-speed d6vice and arc control is
performed by the power source.
With a CC power source, if, for any short period of time, the current flowing through the
welding zone melts off the electrode wire at a faster rate than it is being fed, the distance
between the electrode wire and work will increase and the welding voltage will increase.
Conversely, if, for any short period of time, wire is feeding faster than it melts off, the
distance between the wire and the work will decrease and welding voltage will decrease.
A constant welding voltage can be maintained with a CC power source if a control unit is used
that will automatically vary the rate of electrode wire feed with changes in the welding
voltage.
WELD-METAL BACKING
Submerged-arc welding creates a large volume of molten weld metal that remains fluid for
quite a while, so you have to support the molten metal and contain it until it has solidified. If
you dont, the weld metal will leak out the bottom of the gap in the weld joint.
There are five ways of supporting molten weld metal in a joint. There are:
Nonfusible backing
Submerged-arc flux backing
Root backing
Weld backing

 Fusible metallic backing

The first two methods use temporary backing that is removed after the weld is completed. In
the other three, the backing becomes part of the completed weld joint. Lets take a close look
at each of these five flux-support systems.
Non-fusible Backing
Copper backing with water cooling frequently is used as a nonfusible backing when welding
steel. Water- cooled copper backing strips are used when the work piece is not massive
enough to provide adequate weld-metal support or when you must get complete weld penetration in one pass. Water-cooled copper backing is especially useful for welding thinnergauge steel.Because pure copper is an extremely good heat conductor it cools the molten weld
metal rapidly and provide support without being fused with the joint. People have tried using
copper alloys, aluminum, aluminum alloys, and ceramic materials to replace pure copper
backing strips, but the results have been invariably inadequate in both welding and service
quality.
The poor service results from the fact that these substitutes have lower thermal conductivity
than pure copper and they fuse at lower temperatures. Thus, they cannot withstand high
welding temperatures and they deteriorate rapidly in use.
TheWater-cooled copper backing strip can be grooved or recessed to make it easier for weld
metal to penetrate at the root of the joint. In practice, grooving is generally not used on sheet
below about 10- gauge in thickness because the full chill effect of the copper is required for
support. For material above 10 gauge, grooved backing strip with groove dimensions varying
from 0.02 to 0.06 in. [0.5 to 1.5 mm] deep and XA to 3A in. [6.4 to 19 mm] wide is used with
the groove dimensions and strip width increasing with the work piece thickness.
The groove corners can be rounded or squared. The groove is larger for the thicker plates because the full chill effect of the water-cooled copper would prevent complete penetration, and
because youll want to allow some weld metal to flow through and give additional
reinforcement to the underside of the joint. Wider roves let you get by with greater
misalignment of your plates, which is convenient when you are welding long joints.
The life of your water-cooled copper backing strip depends upon how well you take care of it.
Guard it against mechanical damage and against overheating due to poor joint fit-up. If the
contact surfaces of the backing strip become grooved or pitted, they can be made serviceable
again by remachining. A backing strip must not be machined too often or else it will not
provide the required chill effect because it will be too thin.
The water-cooled copper backing strip will tend to warp and become less abrasion resistant if
excessively heated. One of the most common causes of excessive heating is poor joint fit-up.
Poor fit-up allows too much of your molten metal to contact the copper bar. When a copper
backing "shoe is used, the welding heat is applied continuously to the same section of
copper. With a long backing bar the heat is applied progressively along its entire length. When
a short backing shoe is used (or when the same copper bar is used constantly without allowing
it to cool) the full chill effect is reduced.
You may want to add extra cooling to the backing strip by running circulating water through
flattened copper tubes inserted into grooves machined in the bottom of the backing strip.
When water cooling is used, moisture condensation or water leaking into the joint must be
avoided. The presence of moisture will lower the quality of the weld metal by introducing
hydrogen embitterment and porosity.
Warpage of the backing strip can be minimized by mounting the strip in a restraining jig or
fixture.

When copper backing is used for single-pass fillet welds, the corners should be chamfered to
at least Vs in. [3.2 mm] to allow some metal to fuse through the joint and produce a small fillet at the root. This small fillet gives your weld added strength and avoids a "nick effect that
can cause weld failure that sometimes occurs when fillet welds are made without adequate
weld-metal penetration.
Flux Backing
Although all grades of sub- merged-arc flux are sometimes used for backing, a special backing flux is recommended. Two methods for using flux backing are shown in Fig. 18-9. The
backing flux is held uniformly against the bottom of the joint by an air- or water-inflated fire
hose. The flux can be laid on top of the hose or it can be contained in a tube of cotton, glass
fiber, paper, or other material.
Looser joint fit-up can be tolerated when using backing flux than with other backing methods
because the granular flux shifts and accommodates a lot of misalignment.
Pressure exceeding that needed to hold the flux against the bottom of the joint tends to
produce a concave weld bottom, which is highly undesirable because it makes a weak joint
(the section thickness is less than it should be), so be careful not to use too much pressure.
Root Backing and Weld Backing
Root backing and weld backing are the most widely used methods of obtaining weld-metal
support under a submerged-arc joint.
In a root-backed joint, the root face is thick enough to support the incompletely penetrated
first pass of the weld. This method is used for butt welds (either grooved or square edge), for
fillet welds (lap or T joints), and for plug or slot welds. Extra backing or chilling sometimes is
used. It is most important that your joint edges be tightly butted at the point of maximum
penetration of the weld.
In a weld-backed joint, the first pass (made by submerged arc, gas metal-arc, or shield metalarc) forms the backing for subsequent passes (Figure). These passes will be made either from
the opposite side of the plate or from the same side.

Manual-Weld Backing
Manual welds often are used as backing for submerged-arc welds when it is not convenient to
use other backing methods. This often happens when you cant get at the joint easily with
backing strip, your joint preparation or fit-up is poor, or youre having problems turning the
welded plate over to work on the other side. Your manual weld should be removed later by arc

or flame gouging or chipping, or it may be machined out after the weld has been made. When
the manual weld is removed, it is replaced by a permanent submerged-arc weld.
If shielded-metal-arc (stick-electrode) welding must be used for submerged-arc weld backing,
a low-hydrogen electrode such as AWS E7016 or E7018 electrode is recommended. Also use
E7016 or E7018 for overhead or vertical welding because, although you could use E6010 or
E6011 electrodes, the low-hydrogen electrodes will make sure you dont get weld porosity.
SMAW electrodes E6012 and E6013 and their iron-powder equivalents are not recommended
because they tend to cause porosity in the finished submerged-arc weld.
Fusible Metallic Backing
When using fusible metallic backing, the weld metal penetrates into and fuses with the
backing material which, either temporarily or permanently, becomes an integral part of the
weldments.
Fusible backing can be made with steel backing strips, preferably of the same material being
welded. Otherwise a joint can be located so that it is already backed up against another part of
the weldments. It is important that your joint contact surfaces be clean and close together or
else porosity will occur and your molten weld metal will leak out of the joint.
PREPARING TO WELD
Now that you have some of the basics of SAW and have chosen a backing system, lets take a
look at the next two steps, edge preparation and precleaning your joint so youll be ready to
start sub-arc welding.
Edge Preparation
The way you prepare the edges of your work for SAW is very important. Your edge beveling
or grooving work will be done to control the amount of weld reinforcement you get on top of
the weld bead. The amount of weld penetration you get also is affected by changes in bevel
depth and volume. For butt, fillet, and multipass welds, the maximum weld width should be at
least somewhat wider than the weld depth. A weld-width-to-weld-depth ratio of 1.25 to 1.5 is
preferred to reduce the possibility of center weld cracking (caused when the weld metal cools
and shrinks). Proper joint bevels and joint design will help you get set up.
Beveling or grooving is especially desirable for submerged-arc butt joints thicker than % in
[16 mm]. Beveling is sometimes used for material as thin as lA in. [6.4 mm], where it can help
you in tracking the weld seam with knife-edged wheel followers. In positioned T joints or
corner-joint fillet welding where you want complete joint penetration, bevel the abutting
section if the depth of fusion you want for each weld exceeds % in.
The unleveled root face should be thick enough for the weld metal to fuse down into, but not
through, the butted root faces or "nose of the joint. If the nose is not thick enough, there will
not be enough metal mass to absorb the heat of your molten weld metal and it will spill out of
the bottom of the joint.
There are several methods for preparing the edges of a submerged-arc joint. You are already
familiar with most of them, but lets go over them again. Well tell you whats special about
them (if anything) when you do SAW.
Flame-cutting edges you can prepare your weld joints with manual or machine flame-cutting.
All loose scale and slag resulting from the cutting operation must be removed before
assembly and welding. It is not necessary to remove the oxide film formed on cooling. In fact,
it is good practice to let this dark oxide film remain on the edges if the plates are to be stored

for some time before welding since the thin oxide coating will help protect the plates from
rusting.
Machined edge preparation
Your plate edges can be machined with gate shears, planers, lathes, boring mills, shapers, and
so on, depending upon the availability of the equipment, the type of cut you need, the size,
and handling problems the machinist may have with your plate.
If gate shears are used for edge preparation, any heavy rust must be removed to prevent the
rust from becoming pressed into and embedded in the plate edges. Rust that has been
embedded in the steel by shearing cannot be removed by a wire brush. The edges must be
machined or ground off before welding. All cutting fluids and oils or greases must be removed before welding. A chlorinated solvent or some other degreaser that will leave no
residue upon evaporation should be used.
Manual chipping and grinding its lots of hard work, but manual chipping and grinding
sometimes are used to prepare plate edges for SAW. The accuracy of the edge preparation depends on your skill. Do it accurately and you will eliminate a lot of problems when you weld.
Precleaning the Joint
After the joint edges have been prepared, you still have the most important preparation job
ahead of you. The joint must be cleaned up. Any material that will evolve gases (such as
cleaning solvents, oil, grease, water, paint, rust, or scale) when subjected to the heat of
welding must be removed. Mill scale or even crayon marks can cause you trouble. Cleanliness
is particularly important when you are going to weld thin material at high speeds. Here are
some important cleaning methods.
Flame cleaning an ox fuel flame from a heavy-duty heating torch with a large tip often is used
to remove rust, scale, and moisture. Flame cleaning is one c the most effective means of
eliminating porosity in SAW. Since there is no radiant-arc heat preceding the weld, and speeds
are usually quite fast, flame cleaning is even more important than with an open-arc process.
Grinding can be used to remove mill scale or rust. Hand-operated grinders or wheels mounted
on the welding machine can be used. Protective glasses must be worn at all times when
grinding and the proper type of grinding wheel should be selected for the speed at which the
wheel will operate. If youre not sure which grinding wheel to use, asks a machinist or your
welding supervisor, or read the directions that come with the wheels.
Wire brushing Wire brushing with an air-operated brush wheel is useful only for removing
light rust and dirt. Some types of paint can be removed by wire brushing, but a paint remover,
flame cleaning, or grinding is necessary to remove heavy paint.
Paint removers Paint removers should be applied to painted surfaces and the loose paint
scraped off. Then brush the plate with a wire brush and wash it with a chlorinated solvent or
other volatile solvent. You have to recognize some risks here. Be careful with flammable or
explosive solvents. Take precautions and work in a well-ventilated area. Paint can sometimes
be removed by grinding, but surfaces should be carefully inspected to be sure that all paint has
been removed. Paint also clogs some grinding wheels.
Sand or shot blasting Shot or sand blasting readily removes heavy rust, mill scale, and paint.
Sheared edges are not satisfactorily cleaned by this method. You must be sure to work in a
well- ventilated area and use eye and face protection and possibly a filter mask.
Pickling is the chemical cleaning of mill scale and oxides with acids. It can be used to remove
even the heaviest mill scale and rust. The pickling bath should contain inhibitors and a
neutralizing rinse should be used to prevent hydrogen absorption into the steel which will
result in porosity and hydrogen embitterment. Most welding shops that do pickling use

proprietary solutions. They usually contain hydrochloric acid. If you do this work, make sure
that you work in a well-ventilated area and that you and your clothes are fully protected from
splashing acid. Also remember to "do like you aughter . . . add the acid to the water.
Degreasing, there are a lot of proprietary degreasing solutions that are used in welding shops.
They are especially useful for cleaning cold-formed parts. Chlorinated solvents are suitable as
degreasers. Although the solvents will evaporate in time, you should make sure that they are
completely removed before welding. The arc will turn any residual chlorinated solvents into a
poisonous gas called phosgene.
TYPES OF SAW JOINTS
A number of different types of joints are commonly used for SAW. In the following sections
well tell you how they will affect your work. Even if you forget the details (you can always
look them up later on), the important thing to learn about SAW is that joint design and
preparation are critical. The SAW process goes too fast for a manual operator to keep up with
it. Its essentially an automated process. Without a human being guiding the electrode wire,
the joint design, preparation, and fit-up have to be perfect. A machine cant make adjustments
for poor conditions like you can. The automatic SAW head is a machine, not a skilled welder.
Butt Joints
There are many different kinds of butt joints. Not all of them are set up the same way when
you weld them with the sub-arc process. See Figure A and B.

Square-groove butt joints

The square-groove butt joint (Figure A) is good for single-pass submerged-arc welds up to 7.9
mm. It has no root opening and requires suitable backing. Reinforcement on top of the SAW
bead tends to become excessive for thicker welds but it can be controlled by adjusting the root
opening. Variations in root opening, alignment of welding wire with the joint, and the amount
of weld metal required limit the thickness of this type of weld to 19 mm. Two-pass welds up
to 16 mm thick are made without root openings, but its essential in two- pass welding that the
edges be closely butted since weld backing is not used. The maximum permissible root
opening is 0.79 mm unless the joint is sufficiently backed to prevent weld metal from flowing
through the root opening. With such support greater root openings can be used.
When the root opening exceeds 1.6 mm, however, the opening should be packed with SAW
flux ahead of the weld. The maximum root opening is about 3.2 mm because of the difficulty
of re-fusing the welding flux at the base of the first-pass weld. Plate up to 19 mm thick can be
welded with square butt joints if the root gap is maintained constant for the entire length of
the seam. Your first weld is a backing weld made on the reverse side of the joint. Next turn
the work over and finish the weld. The finishing weld penetrates down into and refuses a
portion of the backing weld to make sure that you get a continuous weld structure all the way
through the plate thickness. A good way of getting your best weld-metal penetration without
excessive reinforcement is to back- gouge a groove about 3.2 to 7.9 mm deep into the top of
the joint after the backing weld has been made. When gouging is used, no additional
preparation or cleaning is needed except to remove any adhering slag. The advantage of the
square- groove butt joint (Figure A) is that it requires minimum edge preparation while it
produces good-quality welds with adequate base-metal penetration.
Single-V-groove butt joint with root face
The single-V-groove butt joint with a root face (Figure B) is used with non fusible backing
for single-pass butt welds of 7.9 mm or greater thickness. . For most industrial jobs, the
maximum thickness is around 32 to 38 mm for this joint design. The root face gives you
several advantages. The square edges of the single- V-groove joint with a root face simplify
assembly. Normal, practical variations in voltage, current, welding speed, and edge preparation will cause minimum damage to the backing. Relatively small quantities of electrode wire
are used because the V joint gives you good base-metal penetration without excessive current.
The volume of the V space is considerably smaller than that required by other welding
methods. Therefore youll use less filler metal to complete the job. Using no fusible backing,
the root-face dimension should be 3.2 to 4.8 mm. Your root gap should not exceed 1.6 mm.
Fusible metallic backing also is used with this joint design with a root gap of at least 3.2 mm.
The single-V-groove butt joint with root face and without external backing is also used for
two- pass welds where the plate thickness exceeds 16 mm. The first weld, usually the larger
one, is the backing weld made in the V side of the joint. The work is then turned over and the
finishing weld is made on the flat side. The finishing weld penetrates down into the first weld
and re-fuses a portion of this weld backing to make sure that you get complete penetration in
the joint. Figure 18-16 shows a single-V-groove butt weld with two overlapping welds. This
joint could be made in one pass with two welding heads on the bottom inside and then the top
outside of a cylinder The root face is about 9.5 mm for all commercially welded plate
thicknesses. The plate edges must be tightly butted together 79 mm is your maximum

allowable gap between the plates), just like the square- butt joint. When welding flux and
weld metal are retained by a support below the joint, slightly greater root gaps are
permissible; if the root gap exceeds 1.6 mm, SAW flux should be tamped into the gap ahead
of the weld.
Single-V groove without root face
The single-V groove butt joint without a root face (Figure C) is used for nearly all plate
thicknesses when using submerged arc backing flux. It is not commonly used below 9.5- mm
thickness since you can get adequate penetration for these thicknesses without beveling the
edge of your plate. The single-V groove butt joint without a root face must always have
backing since the mass of metal at the joint root is not sufficient to provide support for the
weld metal. Reasonable misalignment in fit-up and variations in the root gap can be tolerated
when using submerged-arc backing flux because the granular material will shift to
accommodate them. Copper backing is not recommended because of the tendency of the weld
metal to fuse to the backing piece. Fusible metallic backing is acceptable if you have no
objections to its remaining on the work as part of the completed weldment.
Double-V-groove butt joint
The double-V-groove butt joint (Figure D) is the basic design for two-pass submerged-arc
welds. It is commonly used for welding section thicknesses up to [51 mm]. Even greater
thicknesses have been welded successfully with this joint design. For welding thicknesses
above 2 in. [51mm], however, the joint for multipass welding (shown in Figure F) should be
used. The double-V-groove joint is designed with a large root face to provide adequate
support for the initial weld, which will be used as backing for the opposite-side weld. The
maximum possible fit-up misalignment is 25 percent of the root-face thickness. You should
try to keep misalignment much less than that. The root faces must be closely butted along
their entire length. The maximum permissible root gap is V. [0.79 mm]; any larger root gap,
and molten metal or slag will flow through the gap. Several methods are used to stop metal
flowing through the gap if its too big. A small stringer bead can be laid manually in the bottom of the V in which the finishing weld is to be made. A length of wire can be tacked into the
fin- ishing-weld V. Submerged-arc backing flux can be tamped into the gap ahead of the weld.
The stringer bead, wire, or backing flux should be removed before making the finishing pass
if you expect to get a high-quality weld joint. You simply cannot leave these materials in the
joint and expect to get a superior weld.
Single- and double-U-groove butt joints
The single-U-groove butt joint (Fig. F) is often used for multipass submerged-arc welds. Any
thickness of material can be welded using this joint design. A small manual backing weld
often is made from the reverse side of the joint. If the manual weld is not made, the root faces
must be closely butted [0.79-mm] maximum root gap). Double-U groove butt joints can be
used for extremely thick material. These are essentially two single-U-groove butt joints with a
common root. If a SMAW weld is used to back the first pass, you may want to remove it later
on if maximum weld quality is required. The use of gas metal-arc (GMA) manual welds will
eliminate the need for removing this first weld pass. Because of the internal and external slag-

free nature of GMA welds, subsequent submerged-arc welds of excellent quality can be
produced.
Single-fillet lap joint
The single-fillet lap joint is used primarily where the underside of the weld is not accessible,
or for service where little joint strength is required and tightness is the primary function of the
joint. Double-fillet lap joints are used for structural strength.
Joggled and through-welded lap joints
The joggled lap joint makes fit-up easy and requires little edge preparation. In addition, it
provides one flush surface that the ordinary lap joint does not have. The joint must be clean
and the lapping surfaces must be tightly fitted and dry. The joggled lap joint is used with a
single-fillet weld when fabricating small fuel-gas tanks. The double-fillet-welded joggled lap
joint is used extensively in shipbuilding to join the last of a series of butted plates to make fitup a lot easier. The continuous through-welded lap joints are used widely for welding sheet up
to 11 gauges. These joints are useful for joining sheets or for attaching sheets (either singly or
simultaneously) to a backing member. The lapping surfaces must be clean, dry, and in contact.
Fillet Joints
Submerged-arc welding produces deep penetration, which can save a lot of money when
making fillet welds by reducing the size of the fillet (and the filler metal required) without
reducing the strength of the joint. Design calculations of fillet-weld strengths are based on the
throat dimension of the fillet . For conventional arc-welded fillets, the throat dimension is obtained by multiplying the minimum leg dimension by half the square root of 2 (which is about
0.707), since the root of the fillet joint is rarely penetrated by the weld metal. The deeper
weld- metal penetration of sub-arc welding produces an effective throat depth about 20 to 30
percent greater than with ordinary arc welds. Therefore, the size of your submerged-arcwelded fillet joints can be made smaller and you will still get the same joint strength as a
conventional arc weld of greater size. Almost any reduction in the fillet size saves money because less weld metal is used (since the volume of deposited weld metal varies directly as the
square of the leg dimension). If you reduce the leg of the fillet weld by a factor of 2, you will
use four times less weld metal to make the joint.

Horizontally welded T fillets

Single-pass fillet welds up to [7.9-mm] leg dimension [9.5-mm] welds made by other
processes) are used for making T joints in the horizontal position. If the web thickness is no
greater than [9.5 mm], two [7.9 mm] fillets will penetrate into each other at the root (Figure
A). T joints that need deeper penetration or larger fillet welds can be made with multipass
welding (Figure B). The size limits of single-pass horizontal fillet welds are determined not
by the capacity of the SAW equipment, but by the volume of the molten metal that will
remain in position without flowing off the work piece.

Flat-position-welded T fillets
Fillets of equal leg dimension can be made by positioning the joint at a 45 angle (with the
weld surface flat). The depth of penetration can be increased still further by increasing the
angle of the "stem or bottom leg of the T by as much as 60 from the horizontal and
offsetting the wire toward the stem or leg side of the T joint. If the bottom leg or stem
thickness of the T joint exceeds [19 mm] and complete penetration is desired, the edges
should be beveled.
Comer Joints
Its pretty obvious that corner joints are used whenever two pieces of metal come together at
the corner of a part. Whats not so obvious is that corner joints often can be designed right out
of a part, saving extra welding costs, simply by using an extra sheet or plate that "wraps
around at least one of the corners on the part, even if it ends at another corner. That is, its
easier to make a box shape from two wide side sheets than four narrower ones, and it cuts the
welding work in half..
Square-groove corners
The square-groove corner joint is recommended for joint thicknesses up to [13 mm]. A
submerged-arc fillet weld is first made on the inside corner of the joint and then a squaregroove butt weld is made on the reverse side of the joint. The butt weld should penetrate
down into and re-fuse a portion of backing fillet weld.
The joint can be positioned for the fillet weld if larger fillets are desired. Backing is not
generally required if the edges are tightly butted. A copper backing bar sometimes is needed
for chilling the outer corner of the vertical member to prevent excessive fusion while the
finishing butt weld is being made.

V-groove comers
For thicker joints, single-V-groove joints are recommended to get penetration without
excessive weld-metal reinforcement. The V groove is preferred over the single-bevel groove
as it will give you full weld-metal penetration into the joint with an optimum weld shape. The
fillet weld is made first and then the butt weld is made on the reverse side. For processes other
than SAW, the preparation should provide a narrow root face and a root gap. These fillet
welds can be made with the edge preparation shown, or with a single-bevel grooved edge. A
copper chill bar can be useful with this joint as with the square butt joint.
J-groove corners
The J-groove joint either with a single-J groove or a double-J groove, is used for multipass
welding of even larger thicknesses than those for which the V-groove corner joint can be used.
The welding technique is similar to that used in the U-groove butt joint. A small backing weld
often is made before the multipass sub- merged-arc weld can be made. If no backing weld is
used, the maximum permissible root gap is [0.79 mm]. Since only one face of the joint is
prepared, the edge slope and radius of the Js curvature should be as specified in to give you
sufficient working area to deposit the welds at the root of the joint.
Comer Fillet Joints
The outside single-fillet-welded corner joint is useful for many jobs. The strength of the joint
can be increased by adding a second fillet at the interior angle of the joint to form a doublefillet- welded corner joint. The corner joint has the advantage of requiring no additional
backing other than that provided by the structure itself. The butting surfaces must be clean,
dry, and fitted tightly together.
Corner fillets with backing
Either square-groove or single-V joints can be used with backing to give you completes weldmetal penetration when welding from one side of the joint. The requirements of this method
are the same as for butt-joint welds with backing.
Plug-weld joints
Plug welds are used to join two pieces by welding through a hole in one of them to secure a
bond and fill the hole with weld metal. It is important that the hole be large enough to prevent
arcing between the electrode wire and the upper member. Unless the hole is beveled or
tapered, its diameter should be no less than the thickness of the upper member of the joint.
If you can use sufficient welding current and can tolerate excess weld metal on the surface,
weld penetration through the upper member of a section can be obtained without the hole. You
simply weld right through the section and into the underlying piece (very much like making a
spot weld). This is only practical, however, for attaching a thin section to a heavier piece
underneath. The size of the hole that can be used for a completely fused plug weld made
without changing electrode position during welding will be determined by the current that can
be applied. A large hole may require you to move the electrode during welding to get
complete root fusion.
POSITIONING YOUR WORK

Unlike other welding processes where the operator can control the position he or she works
in, when the work cant be positioned for them, submerged arc welded parts must be
positioned for down hand welding. You cant weld with SAW in the vertical and overhead
positions without the flux falling out of the weld. You also have to position the weldment
correctly before you start the process, because you have so little manual control once the
process gets started. Most SAW is done in the flat position to keep the large molten metal
puddle from running off the work. Sometimes you can weld with your work slightly inclined.
The force of gravity causes the weld puddle to flow back and lag behind the welding wire.
The edges of the weld lose metal which flows to the middle of the weld bead. As the angle of
inclination increases, buildup of weld metal in the center of the bead increases, and the width
of the weld decreases. Also, the bigger the weld puddle, the greater the penetration and center
build up. The limiting angle of inclination is about 6, or a drop of about 32 mm for each 305
mm of plate length. When higher welding currents are used, the maximum workable angle decreases. Greater workpiece inclination than that given above makes the weld uncontrollable
and run-outs of molten weld metal are likely to occur. The weld puddle tends to flow toward
the welding wire and preheats the base metal, particularly at the surface. This produces an
irregularly shaped fusion zone, called a secondary wash. As the angle of declination increases,
the middle surface of the weld is depressed, penetration decreases, and the width of the weld
increases. Note that these effects are exactly opposite those produced by uphill welding.
Wire Position
Submerged-arc welding heads can be angled in different directions to point the electrode wire
at the workpiece. You have to consider three things when you decide what angle to position
the welding head and the wire. They are:
The alignment of welding wire in relation to the joint
The angle of tilt in the lateral (sideways) direction transverse to (across) the joint
The direction the welding wire pointsforward or backward. Forward is the direction of
travel of the submerged arc welding head. The wire makes an angle with the workpiece less
than 90. A backward-pointing wire makes an angle with the workpiece larger than 90.
In general, a backward-pointing electrode wire produces greater, more uniform weld-metal
penetration. Increased height and decreased width of the weld reinforcement also are likely. A
forward-pointing electrode wire produces less weld-metal penetration and the weld will be
wide and flat.
STARTING THE WELDING ARC
The method used to start the weld in a particular position depends upon such factors as the
time required for starting relative to the total setup and welding time, the number of pieces to
be welded, the type of power source, and the importance of starting the weld on a
Particular spot on the work piece. There are several SAW starting methods. Using a dc CC
(constant current) power source for SAW is very much like doing MIG welding with a dc
CC machine. The arc length (voltage) is maintained by variations in the wire speed. A
reference arc length (voltage) is set on the welding control which compares it to the actual arc
voltage at the end of the welding wire. The wire feed rate adjusts itself automatically to

maintain the arc voltage at the same reference voltage. The current is set by adjusting the
power supply.
Retract Arc Start
There are several ways to start the welding arc. One way is called retract starting. Retract
starting is possible only when the welding equipment is specifically adapted to this procedure.
It is used when frequent starts have to be made over a short time, and when the starting
position is particularly important. With this method the electrode wire is jogged or inched
down into the work. Make sure that you have good electrical contact with the workpiece and
the welding wire. Then cover the end of the wire with SAW flux and turn the welding current
on. As soon as the welding contactor (power source switch) closes, the wire retract starting
device in the equipment will momentarily reverse the wire feed motor, preventing the welding
wire from fusing to the work piece. As the wire retracts, it breaks contact with the work. Its
like opening a switch when the current is flowing.As soon as the arc is started, the wire feed
direction is changed automatically to feed the wire into the work piece and normal welding
begins.The starting conditions become critical if your work piece is light- gauge metal. The
wire must make only the lightest possible contact consistent with good electrical conductivity.
Also, the wire size must be chosen to permit operation at high current densities since the
higher the current density, the easier the start.
Steel-Wool Start
Another way to start a sub- merged-arc is called the steel-wool start. In this method, a small
piece of steel wool is rolled into a %-in.-diameter [9.5-mm] ball. The steel wool is placed on a
clean spot on the work piece. Then the electrode is jogged down (without welding power)
until it just touches the ball of steel wool, compressing it to half size.
The weld zone, wire electrode, and steel wool are all covered with flux and then the power
supply and the wire feeder are started simultaneously. Welding current flows through the
steel- wool ball and "fuses it away. The arc starts in the space left by the melted steel wool.
The steel-wool start is one of the most frequently used starting methods, particularly when the
starting time is only a small part of total setup and welding time.
Flying Starts
If the welding head is in motion before the power and wire feeder are on, the wire will drag
across the base metal. A frequently used starting method is to use a starting strip or piece of
extra metal temporarily welded to the leading edge of the joint, where the dragging electrode
wire will strike an arc as soon as the power and wire feeder are on. This is called a flying start
and its often used to start a sub-arc weld, leaving any welding defects that might occur at the
start of welding behind on the temporary starting strip.
A rather rigid mechanical welding-head carriage is needed for this type of start. Otherwise the
feeding electrode will merely lift the carriage instead of starting the arc by scratching the
workpiece.
Molten-Metal Starts

Molten-metal starts are very simple. Whenever there is a molten puddle of submerged arc
flux, a weld can be started by simply running the electrode wire into the puddle and turning
on the welding current and wire feed.
When two or more welding wires are separately fed into one weld puddle, as is sometimes the
case in multiple-electrode welding, it is only necessary for you to start one wire by some other
method to establish the puddle. The second wire will then start when they both are fed into the
molten puddle.
High-Frequency Starts
High-frequency starts require special equipment. Using this method we dont have to do anything except close the starting switch. High-frequency starting is particularly useful for
intermittent welding, or for welding at high production rates where a large number of starts is
required. When the welding wire approaches to within about 1.6 mm above the workpiece, a
high-frequency, high-voltage generator connected to the welding wire causes a spark to jump
from the wire to the workpiece. This spark produces an ionized path through which the
welding current can flow, and the welding action begins. AC submerged arc is usually started
in one of two ways. One way is to run the electrode into the plate at the welding speed and let
the short-circuit surge fuse off the wire, just as in MIG welding. Using this type of start, the
current can rise to several thousand amps in a fraction of a second.
VARIABLES AFFECTING WELD QUALITY
We have to set up several variables in SAW before you start if you want good quality welds.
These variables:
Welding current, wire diameter, and burn-off rates
Welding voltage
Welding speed
Flux width and depth
Mechanical adjustments
Welding Wire and Current
Welding current is the most influential variable in SAW. It controls the rate at which welding
wire is burned off, the depth of fusion, and the amount of base metal fused. If the current is
too high, the depth of fusion will be too great and the weld may melt through the backing. In
addition to this, the higher heat developed may extend the heat-affected zone of the adjacent
plate too much. Too high a current also means a waste of power and a waste of expensive
welding wire in the form of excessive welding metal reinforcement. If the current is too low,
there is not enough weld penetration into the workpiece and not enough weld reinforcement
on the joint.
Welding Voltage
Next in importance to welding current is the welding voltage. This is the electrical potential
difference between the tip of the welding wire and the surface of the molten weld metal. The
welding voltage varies with the length of the gap between the welding wire and the molten
weld metal. If the gap increases, the welding voltage increases; if the gap decreases, the

welding voltage decreases. The welding voltage has little effect on the amount of welding
wire deposited. Weld-metal deposition rates are determined mainly by your welding current.
The voltage determines the shape of the fusion zone and weld reinforcement. High welding
voltages produce wider, flatter, less deeply penetrating welds than low welding voltages.
Welding Speed
With any combination of welding current and voltage, the effects of changing the welding
speed conform to a general pattern. If the welding speed is increased:
Power or heat input per unit length of the weld is decreased.Less welding wire is used up per
unit length of weld.Consequently, there is less weld reinforcement.If the welding speed is decreased:Power or heat input per length of weld is increased.More welding wire is used up per
unit length of weld.Consequently, there is more weld reinforcement.
In addition to this pattern, welding speed may have another effect on the finished weld. Normally only welding current affects the penetration of the weld into the workpiece. However, if
the welding speed is decreased beyond a certain point, the penetration also will decrease. This
happens because a good portion of the molten weld puddle will be beneath the welding wire
and the penetrating force of the arc will be cushioned by the puddle. Conversely, if the speed
is increased beyond a certain point, the penetration of the weld into the joint will increase
since the welding wire moves ahead of the weld puddle.
Width and Depth of Flux
The width and depth of the layer of flux will affect the appearance and soundness of the
finished weld as well as the welding action itself. If the sub-arc flux layer is too deep, a rough,
ropey weld is likely to result. The gases generated during welding cannot easily escape
through high volumes of slag, and the surface of your molten metal will be irregular, distorted, and full of porosity. If the submerged arc flux layer is too shallow, our welding zone
will not be entirely submerged. Arc flashing and spattering will occur. The weld will have a
bad appearance and may be porous or oxidized. It is seldom that too narrow a layer of flux is
applied. The safest procedure is to apply a layer that is three times the width of the fused
portion. In large welds, a greater allowance for the width of the heat-affected zone has to be
made. A layer of flux that is too narrow messes up your normal sideways flow of weld metal,
resulting in reinforcement that is narrow, steep-sided, and poorly "faired (smoothed out) into
the base plate or edges of the weld joint. An optimum flux depth exists for any set of welding
conditions. This depth can be established by slowly increasing the flux layer until the welding
action is submerged and arc flashing no longer occurs. The gases will then puff up quietly
around the welding wire. Sometimes we can see the gases burning in the air. The unfused flux
can be removed a short distance behind the welding zone where the fused slag has solidified.
However, under certain conditions, we may not want to disturb the material until the heat has
become better distributed throughout the section. Its very important that no foreign material
gets into your flux. Submerged arc welding flux that has not fused into slag is picked up with
a broom, or often with a vacuum sweeper-like device that follows the welding head. To prevent impurities from getting into your reclaimed flux, a space about a foot wide should be
cleaned on either side of your welding zone before you lay the flux down. The recovered flux
should be passed through a screen with openings no larger than 3.2 mm before you reuse it to

get rid of fused pieces of slag. Submerged-arc flux is thoroughly dry when it is shipped to
you. If it becomes damp or wet, it should be dried in an electrode baking oven at 205C or
higher for several hours before being used. The smallest amount of moisture in the flux can
cause porosity or even hydrogen embrittlement in your weld.
Mechanical Adjustments
The position of our welding wire must be maintained to control the shape of the weld and
depth of penetration. The wire may be guided mechanically or manually adjusted as the weld
moves along. While the welding is going on, we should inspect the backing to see whether it
is tight up against the underside of the joint. If it isnt, too much metal may flow into the
space, resulting in reduced weld reinforcement on the top side of the joint, undercutting, and a
ruined weld.
Typical Operating Conditions
The contact points in the welding head that put current into the submerged arc wire must be
clean and in good condition if you are going to get these current values. Poor current transfer
between your welding wire and contacts will cause the wire to heat irregularly above the
welding zone. This condition should be corrected by cleaning or remachining the contact
points. When normal SAW conditions are used, there is a maximum welding current for every
vessel girth diameter. This current is the highest that can be used without having a weld-metal
run-out. It is affected by the welding speed and fluidity of the weld metal and its alloy
composition.
WELDING POWDERS
The powders which used for submerged arc welding do the same mission with coat at coated
electrode. It affects welding psychically and metallurgically. For psychically, the sprue which
occurs, protect welding bath from the air. It provide to a suitable form to seam and avoid it to
cool fast. For metallurgy, main metal and welding wire affects too. Main metal, welding wire
and powder affects seams chemical composition. These three things are three factors. We can
classify powders using at submerged arc welding like this:
a- For the aim of welding:
1- Fast welding powders
2- High penetration powders
3- Thin sheet metal powders
4- Gap filling powders
5- Filling weld powders
b- For producing type:
1-Molten powders
2-Sintered powders
3- Agglomerate powders
c- For chemical specialties:
1-Acid powders
2-Neutral powders
3-Base powders
d- For Manganese concentration:

1-High content manganese

2-Middle content manganese
3-Zero content manganese
Good welding powder has these specialties:
a) While welding arc should be safe. While using alternative current, powders must protect
arc from blowing out especially while passing from O point.
b) It should result with needed chemical composition, mechanic and technologic specialties.
The welding seam should have those specialties.
c) Suitable microstructure should be provided.
d) It would not have any crack or pore at welding seam.
e) When powders stored, their taking wet quantity should be low.
f) Powder should not include varies organic materials which can cause welding defects.
g) Sprue can exit from root passes and narrow spaces.
h) While welding, all of the reactions between solid, liquid and gas phase should be happen at
a short time before welding metal solidify.
THE ADVANTAGES OF SUBMERGED ARC WELDING:
1-High power of Welding and High Welding Speed:
The current intensity for submerged arc welding is normally 200 to 2000 Ampere. It can
change between that numbers. It can increase 3000 Ampere for increased wire method. Thus it
provides a big power for melting. Additionally, welding speed can be 6m/h to 300 m/h. So
submerged arc welding has the biggest power and highest speed difference to the other
welding methods.
2-Energy Saving:
For submerged arc welding most of the electrical energy is used for welding. So there is a
saving of a big energy. For electric arc welding with coated electrode 25% electrical energy
used for welding but for submerged arc welding 68% electrical energy used for welding.
3-Safe and clear view of welding seam:
Covering welding area with sprue provides safety solidification. Shape of three u welding
bath degazing is easier and the possibility of hardenability at passing area degrees. Molten
viscous sprue provides seam form smoothly and orderly. It doesnt let combustion chamfers at
the corners. At welding metal there is no joining mistake or sprue remaining. So there are
safer welding seams.
4-There is no effect of welder to the welding seam quality:
Submerged arc welding has electrical mechanic systems and controllers. With the help of
these things there is no welder factor. Thus we dont need qualified welders or workers. Also
welder that we have spends less energy.
5-High arc stabilization: With the help of sprue that vaporize at arc point protects arc. Thats
situation allows to use high current intensity. And high speeds for welding.
6-High Penetration:
Welding current instance is high. Therefore not with an opening edge we can weld meterials
at one pass 18 mm. If we open an edge with two pass we weld materials at 150 mm thickness.

7-Electrode saving:
There is no bounce loses at submerged arc welding. Also there is no electrode lose because we
use wire electrode.
THE DISADVANTAGES OF SUBMERGED ARC WELDING:

It needs expensive machines and equipments. Hence first investment is so high.

It is not suitable for thin sheet metals.
Although there are automatic machines which are for short and mixed shaped seams,
they havent got all the specialties of submerged arc welding. If we need to do lots of
mixed shaped seams we can use special machines but their abilities are limited.
It has good results for bearing position. For perpendicular position there are special
systems but electro sprue welding is better for this position. Hence they select that
method for perpendicular position. It is not possible to weld at ceil and cornice
position using submerged arc welding.

THE DEFECTS OF SUBMERGED ARC WELDING

LOW PENETRATION FOR WELDING:
Low penetration mistakes for welding seam causes from those factors:
- While welding second face work with low ampere.
- Very high speed of wire.
This mistake is the most dangerous mistake. It causes so much time loss and so many
material losses because we cut and grind welding area until it becomes clean.
CRACKS ON WELDING SEAM
Cracks on welding seams causes from those factors:
- If work piece is wet,
- The increase of silicon and manganese at seam,
- (At Seam) Early to be forced open,
- If work piece moves while welding.
These are the precautions to avoid cracks on welding seam:
- The space between two work pieces should not be less than 1 mm.
- Work piece can pull itself freely.
- Silicon and manganese constant shouldnt increase. We provide that with using short
powder.
- Work piece shouldnt be moved before welding seam solidifies.
- Arc tension should be high and welding speed should be slow.
PORE OCCURING:
Pores occurring at welding seam cause from those factors:
- If welding edges have paint, corrosion and oils on them,
- If powder is wet,
- If the powder includes materials that we dont want,
- If rays comes from arc,
- If welding wire is corrosive and dirty.
These are the precautions to avoid pores:
- Welding must be done with avoiding work piece from wet and not letting corrosion on
welding edges.

- We have to clean the edges of work piece from paint, corrosion and powders. We have to do
this carefully to clean it completely.
- After work piece is tacked, work piece must be welded. The time between these two
operations is maximum 1 day.
- Welds must be done with sintered welding powder.
- The position of powders should be let little lightening while welding.
INNER PART SPRUE LEAVINGS
These are the inner part sprue mistakes reasons:
- Tacks are not cleaned,
- High arc tension,
- High welding speed,
- The wire-welding edge problem,
These are the precautions to avoid inner part sprue leavings:
- Tacks which is on connection points should be cleaned carefully,
- Welding nozzle should have suitable angle and position,
- Arc tension must be degrees.
THE BURN UP SPACES AT WELD CORNERS
These are the reasons for that:
- Wrong working method,
- Wrong nozzle setting,
- Not setting welding edge right.
HOLES ON WELDING SEAMS:
Not to get a hole on welding seams:
- Current instance should be degrees,
- Arc tension should be increases,
- Welding speed should be increases,
- Groundings should be connective with sheet metal from two points.
QUICK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR LITTLE INFORMATION
1-What are the main specialties to be careful for welding and submerged arc welding?
While doing welding we should focus on some properties. For heavy industry we need
to weld quickly and get better results. So we use machines to be succeeded. Welding area is
important for our strategy. We choose wire for that area. I mean the wire must suits the
material. For example the material (sheet metal) St 52, St 37, St 44 we can select S6-2, S6-3,
S6-1 (wires). Additionally to that powder must suits them too. We can select powder 10.71 for
that example.
The effects of wires are different. For example, Using Sg 52 wire we can make root cleaning.
It has a submerged effect of 8-10 mm. The welding areas sizes are important for welding.
2- Can you give an example into practice with extra information?
We will tell an example for 4 mm wire S6-2, the material is St-52 sheet metal and the
powder quality is 10.71.
For the powder we do annealing 350 degrees with 120-150 C (temperature) powder to
preserving.
For the material 120-150 degrees annealing and we must clean the welding area.
We set the submerged arc welding machine to 550-600 Amper and 31-32 mm/s speed.

3- For preventing mistakes what should we do for submerged arc welding?

1) Materials must be tested. We call it lamination.
2) Wire and powder mustnt be moldy. Welding are must be cleaned.
3) Machines must be controlled regularly and workers should be careful.
4- What are the safety precautions?
We can use baret, safety belt, steel point boat, glasses, welding mask, and worker
clothes.
5- Are there different types of machines I mean for classification?
There are small, big, rail machine, tractor machine, two headed machine (with two wires).
Two headed is faster than the others but it has bad results. It cant pass tests so it doesnt use
on small areas.