An experimental study on the optimization of tig welding parameters for 304 stainless steel.

Abstract

Welding is a widely used joining process in the manufacturing and mechanical engineering industries. Among the various welding techniques currently available, TIG welding is extensively applied for joining a wide range of materials. However, TIG welding of stainless steel presents several challenges due to the simultaneous influence of multiple process parameters, such as welding current, voltage, and welding speed. This study investigates the effects of welding conditions on weld quality. To achieve high-quality welds, effective control of the input welding parameters is essential. In this work, Taguchi and Grey Relational Analysis (TGRA) is employed to determine the optimal welding conditions for TIG welding of SUS304, thereby enabling the selection of an appropriate parameter combination. The experiments were designed based on the Taguchi method. The selected process parameters include welding speed (mm/min), welding current (A), and welding voltage (V), while weld penetration (mm) was considered as the response characteristic. After data collection, the experimental results were analyzed using Minitab 19 software to identify the optimal levels of the input parameters