Experimental Analysis on the Variable Polarity Plasma Arc Pressure

Arc pressure is one of the key factors for variable polarity plasma arc(VPPA) and welding pool formation. In this paper, VPPA pressure is measured by pressure transducer and U-tube barometer methods, and advantages and disadvantages of the two methods are compared. The effects of welding parameters, including with straight polarity(SP) current, reverse polarity(RP) current, time ratio of SP to RP, plasma gas flow rate, on VPPA pressure are investigated by using an orthogonal design. The experimental results indicate that the influencing degree of the welding parameters are in the order of plasma gas flow rate, SP current, time ratio of SP to RP, RP current. These results are important to researches of VPPA welding process and its mechanism. The physics behavior of VPPA is taken into account when the above influence mechanisms are analyzed. Firstly, according to the mechanism of the cooling compression to the arc, the compression to VPPA is enhanced with the increase of plasma gas flow, so the VPPA pressure would increase obviously. Secondly, although the temperature of VPPA is as a function of the welding current, the radius of VPPA is also enhanced. So the effects of SP current on VPPA pressure are inferior to the effects of plasma gas flow. Thirdly, VPPA pressure increases as a function of time ratio of SP to RP because the frequency of welding current influences the arc pressure to the some degree; Finally, the RP intervals are farther less than the SP intervals, so the influence to the pressure is minimal.