Abstract
$CO_2$ gas shielded arc welding has been characterized with its harsh arc compared to Ar-based shielding gases and with its high level of spattere specially in welding current range of 250~300 amperes. In this range of welding current, the metal transfer mode showed to be changed from short circuit to globular with the increase of welding voltage resulting in so-called the transitional mode in which both modes of transfer appeared together. To characterize the transitional mode, the short circuit events were divided into two groups, i.e. normal short circuit (N.S.C) which has short circuit time $(t_s)$ over 2msec and instantaneous short circuit (I.S.C) of $t_s$$\leq$2msec. The experimental results showed that the number of N.S.C decreased almost linearly with the increase of welding voltage and appeared to be not related with spatter generation rate. However I.S.C became to be pronounced in the transitional condition and its number reached the maximum value at around 29.0 volts. Considering the relation with the spatter generation rate, it was found that the number of I.S.C had a very strong correlation with the spatter generation rate of the transitional condition. It was further demonstrated that spatter generation rate decreased quite linearly with the decrease of I.S.C frequency. It implies that I.S.C is the most important waveform factor controlling the spatter generation of the transitional mode, i.e. in the middle range of welding current. Based on these results, It was discussed that in the transitional mode the basic concept of waveform control for suppressing spatter generation would be different from the one applied for typical short circuit transfer mode of low welding current.
