Plasma Stabilization and Control of Titanium Welding

The welding of titanium is of rapidly increasing importance to the Army, and this trend will accelerate as low-cost titanium becomes available. To facilitate the use of titanium in a growing set of applications, a rapid, reliable, and inexpensive joining process must be established. Gas metal arc welding is a highly desireable joining method because of high production rates and relatively low costs. However, the use of the gas metal arc welding process for the welding of titanium alloys has been principally limited by arc instability. Pulsed gas metal arc welding offers the possibility of successfully addressing arc instability, but much development work remains to optimize this process for widespread use. On this project, we will develop an innovative control system to stabilize and control the plasma in pulsed gas metal arc welding of titanium.