ABSTRACT
The Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) is the most widely used welding process in the small scale industries, because of its low cost, flexibility, portability and versatility. The SMAW welding parameters are the most important factors affecting the quality, productivity and cost of welding. The objective of this study is to develop the parameters for Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) to provide continuous and leak proof joints in 48mm diameter steel pipe with 3mm thickness during the process. The selected important welding parameter like welding current, welding speed, root gap and position of electrode based on field expert suggestion available literature and on scientific reasons. On the selected parameter sufficient number of trail runs is conducted as per Taguchi method because experimental optimization of any welding process is often very costly and time consuming. For each factor optimum range is fixed, further the range is split into 5 levels. So that the experiment have become 4 parameters (factors) each with 5 levels. Based on this, L31 (54) Orthogonal Array (OA) is selected. Experiments are conducted according to OA and results are obtained. The leak proof joints can be identified by these results under few specific operating conditions. Under these condition effect of noise are nullified and the contribution of each parameter towards the leak is also estimated by ANOVA.
