A study on the arc characteristics of underwater wet welding process

To control the underwater wet welding quality, an arc sensor was used to obtain electrical information of underwater wet welding, and the information was analyzed to find the characteristics that could reflect the arc stability. Short-circuit time and frequency distributions were compared between underwater wet weld and CO₂ weld; sensitivity analysis method was used to find the factors that influenced the welding quality. Experiment results showed that the arc stability of underwater wet weld was worse than CO₂ weld, and arc voltage and weld speed played important roles in underwater wet weld quality. Sensitivity model for underwater wet weld arc stability was constructed; factors that had important influences on underwater wet welding quality were investigated, and this laid the foundation for controlling the underwater wet welding process quality.