The effect of welding parameter on mechanical properties and macrostructure of AA1100 using autogenous TIG welding

In this paper, an autogenous tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding was performed to understand the characteristic effect of butt joint weld on AA1100 under various parameters. The effect of TIG current and welding speed was selected to study the mechanical properties, porosity, and macrostructure of the weld metal (WM). Based on experimental results, the top bead width (TBW) will increase directly proportional to the increased of welding current. Furthermore, welding current and welding speed affected the strength drop in the heat-affected zone (HAZ). More heat added will result in a deeper drop in strength. Mechanical properties result showed that the tensile strength reduced by 40 - 45% and the hardness reduction in the WM and HAZ area from the base metal (BM) was 17.3% and 27.7%, respectively. Subsequently, x-ray radiography images showed that there was no large porosity occur in all welding current. The macrostructure showed that the weld bead typically has the concavity shape or U-shaped geometry from a cross-sectional view.