Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter provides the information about the related literatures and studies on

the topics connected and concerned with the research problem. The topics presented

below tackle the facts on welding position, main types of welding positions, and

familiarization of these welding positions that would strengthen the concept of the study.

In addition, the chapter provides the conceptual framework.

Welding Position

A welding position is a technique by which a welder joins the metals in the

positions or angles. The welding position is very important as it affects the flow of

molten filler material. It’s desirable that the welding operator understands the types of

welding positions to smoothly accomplish the task. Also, at a certain position of the

welder different welding processes are performed. ( Dey, 2022 ).

Welding positions are the posture at which a welder must utilize toward the

workpiece to be welded. Due to gravity, welding positions affects the flow of the molten

electrode to the workpiece. For a good weld to be achieved, a welder is expected to

have knowledge of various welding positions that will suit a specific operation.

(StudentLesson, 2020)

Allows the welder to join metal in the position in which specifics components

would be used. Often this can be on the ceiling, in a corner, or on the floor. Techniques
have been developed to allows welding in any position. Some welding processes have

all position capabilities, while others may be uses in only one or two positions. All

welding can be classified accords to the position of the work pieces or the position of

the welded joint on the plate, or the classes being welded. (Gupta, 2021)

According to the definition of welding position above, it supposed that welding

position is classified as joining metals in position. Welding positions affects how the

outcome of molten filler material will be. Understanding and familiarizing these positions

will help to perform the task successfully.

Main Types of Welding Position

Techniques have been developed to allow welding in any position. Some welding

processes have all-position capabilities, while others may be used in only one or two

positions. All welding can be classified according to the position of the work piece or

the position of the welded joint on the plates or sections being welded. The American

Welding Society has defined the four basic welding positions as shown below.
 A number is used to define the position, and an F for Fillet or G for groove refers

to the type of weld. An architect’s blueprints would indicate the welding symbol.1 refers

to a flat position – either 1F or 1G. 2 refers to a horizontal position – either 2F or 2G.

3 is a vertical position – either 3F or 3G. 4 is an overhead position – either 4F or 4G.

( Grill, 2022 ).

Types of welding positions like 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and 6G/6GR is beneficial for

students, welders, educators, and other professionals. Welding positions play the main

role in the certification process for welders. They may be tested for positions starting

from 1G to 6G both for the fillet and groove welds. (Welding Info, 2022)

Flat Welding Position

According to the welding tutorial by Abano (2021), The easiest type to perform is

the flat position, which is also sometimes called the downhand position. It involves

welding on the top side of the joint. In this position, the molten metal is drawn downward

into the joint. The result is a faster and easier weld. In 1F, the number 1 refers to the flat

position, while the letter F stands for a fillet weld.

The head of the welder remains above the test coupon and the weld face is

approximately horizontal. The flat welding position is easier and faster and the molten

metal is drawn downward. A flat welding position is also known as a down-hand welding

position.(Dev, 2022). The axis of a weld is a line through the length of the weld,

perpendicular to the cross-section at its center of gravity. (Grill, 2022)

angle, and position of the welding flame above the molten puddle should be carefully

maintained. The welding torch should be adjusted to give the proper type of flame for

the particular metal being welded. Narrow bead welds are made by raising and lowering

the welding flare with a slight circular motion while progressing forward. The tip should

form an angle of approximately 45 degrees with the plate surface. The flame will be

pointed in the welding direction. To increase the depth of fusion, either increase the

angle between the tip and the plate surface or decrease the welding speed. The puddle

size should not be too large because this will cause the flame to burn through the plate.

A properly made bead weld, without a filler rod, will be slightly below the upper surface

of the plate. A bead weld with a filler rod shows a buildup on the surface. A small puddle

should be formed on the surface when making a bead weld with a welding rod. The

welding rod is inserted into the puddle, and the base plate and rod are melted together.

The torch should be moved slightly from side to side to obtain good fusion. The size of

the bead can be controlled by varying the speed of welding and the amount of metal

deposited from the welding rod. Several types of joints are used to make butt welds in

the flat position. Tack welds should be used to keep the plates aligned. The lighter

sheets should be spaced to allow for weld metal contraction and thus prevent warpage.

The welding rod and torch tip position in making a flat position butt joint. The motion of

the flame should be controlled to melt the sidewalls of the plates and enough of the

welding rod to produce a puddle of the desired size. A molten puddle of a given size can

be carried along the joint by oscillating the torch tip. This will ensure both complete

penetration and sufficient filler metal to provide some reinforcement at the weld. Care
should be taken not to overheat the molten puddle. This will result in burning the metal,

porosity, and low strength in the completed weld. (Grill, 2022)

Horizontal Welding Position

In the horizontal welding position, the weld axis is almost horizontal. As

compared to a flat welding position, this is a more difficult position for welding. Welding

position 2F is for a fillet weld where the welding is performed on the upper side of a

horizontal surface and against an approximately vertical surface keeping to welding

torch at a 45-degree angle. Welding position 2G is for a groove weld when the welding

face lies in an approximately vertical plane with the weld axis in a horizontal plane.

(Dev, 2022)

For a fillet weld, welding is performed on the upper side of an approximately

horizontal surface and against an approximately vertical surface. For a groove weld, the

face of the weld lies in an approximately vertical plane. Butt welding is a little more

difficult to master than flat position. This is due to the tendency of molten metal to flow

to the lower side of the joint. The heat from the torch rises to the upper side of the joint.

The combination of these opposing factors makes it difficult to apply a uniform deposit

to this joint. Align the plates and tack weld at both ends. The torch should move with a

slight oscillation up and down to distribute the heat equally to both sides of the joint,

thereby holding the molten metal in a plastic state. This prevents excessive flow of the

metal to the lower side of the joint and permits faster solidification of the weld metal. A

joint in a horizontal position will require considerably more practice than the previous
techniques. It is, however, important that the technique be mastered before passing on

to other types of weld positions. (Grill, 2022).

Vertical Welding Position

In vertical position welding, the axis of the weld is approximately vertical. When

welding is done on a vertical surface, the molten metal tends to run downward and pile

up. The flow of metal can be controlled by pointing the flame upward at a 45-degree

angle to the plate and holding the rod between the flame and the molten puddle. The

manipulation of the torch and the filler rod keeps the metal from sagging or falling and

ensures good penetration and fusion at the joint. Both the torch and the welding rod

should be oscillated to deposit a uniform bead. The welding rod should be held slightly

above the centerline of the joint, and the welding flame should sweep the molten metal

across the joint to distribute it evenly. Butt joints welded in the vertical position should

be prepared for welding in the same manner required for welding in the flat position.

(Grill, 2022).

The weld axis is almost vertical. Both the weld and the plate will lie vertically. For

welding vertical surfaces, the molten metal runs downward by gravity and pile up.

Welding in an upward or downhill vertical position can resolve this problem. Also, by

pointing the flame upward at around a 45-degree angle to the plate, the metal flow can

be controlled. Welding position 3G is used for groove weld and 3F is used for fillet

welding. (Dey,2022).
 Overhead Welding Position

Overhead welding is performed from the underside of a joint. In overhead

welding, the metal deposited tends to drop or sag on the plate, causing the bead to

have a high crown. The molten puddle should be kept small to overcome this difficulty,

and enough filler metal should be added to obtain good fusion with some reinforcement

at the bead. If the puddle becomes too large, the flame should be removed for an

instant to permit the weld metal to freeze. When welding light sheets, the puddle size

can be controlled by applying the heat equally to the base metal and filler rod. The

flame should be directed to melt both edges of the joint. Sufficient filler metal should be

added to maintain an adequate puddle with enough reinforcement. The welding flame

should support the molten metal, and small welding avoids burning done from one

distribute it along the joint. Only a small puddle is required, so a rod should be used.

Care should be taken to control the heat through the plates. This is particularly

important when welding is side only. (Grill, 2022).

When the welding is done from the underside of the joint, it is known as the

overhead welding position. It’s the most difficult position for a welder to work and the

most complicated one. Welding Position 4G refers to the groove welding and 4F

indicates fillet welding. In overhead welding positions, the metal deposited tends to drop

or sag on the plate that results in a bead with a high crown. To get rid of this difficulty,

the molten puddle should be kept small. When the puddle becomes too large, one can

remove the flame momentarily for molten metal to cool. (Dey, 2022).
 Familiarization of Welding Positions

The welding position significantly affects the mechanical properties of the weld

metal, in particular the notched impact strength. This showed a comprehensive

comparison of the mechanical properties of the weldments produced in vertical up (PF)

and flat (PA) positions. C-Mn low alloy weld metal had a reduced impact toughness in

PF position compared to PA position. For the stainless weld metals (austenitic and

duplex grades), the influence of the welding position on the impact toughness is exactly

the opposite. The paper provides an explanation of this behaviour. The focus is on the

flux cored wires with a rutile fast freezing slag. The slag properties, weld metal

microstructure, delta ferrite contents for duplex steel (2209) and austenitic (308L)

weldments, as well as the effect of weld position on the direction of weld grain growth

are discussed. For comparison, carbon-manganese-rutile cored wires with fast freezing

slag are used.

Positional welding is a common challenge in many manufacturing practices and

the welding position can affect the mechanical properties of welded joints during manual

metal arc welding. This work uses tensile tests to investigate the mechanical properties

of welded joints, aiming to test the hypothesis of the influence of welding position on

tensile strength, total displacement before rupture and plastic displacement before

rupture. This hypothesis was tested for three different coated electrodes (AWS E6010,

AWS E6013 and AWS E7018) and three welding positions (1G, 3G and 4G), accounting

for nine types of specimens. For each type of specimen, ten repetitions were carried

out. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The welded joints
using the welding position 1G presented higher rupture load and larger total

displacement before rupture than the other positions.

One of challenging position in the welding process is a vertical-position due to

the difficulty. Compared to a horizontal-position, arc welding on the vertical-position is

much more difficult because the metal transfer is influenced by the gravity force.

Moreover, the gravity force leads to the welding quality decreased that caused by

welding fault. To detect the welding fault, the method has still been used based on off-

line method which has many disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is the welding

fault detection can be performed after the welding process finished. Therefore to deal

with this problem, this study is proposed the new algorithm based on Mahalanobis

Distance (MD) method for on-line monitoring system. The experimental was carried out

with 3 different setting of welding current in order to find out the optimal setting. From

the experimental result, it proved that developed algorithm could achieved the highest

welding quality at 250A welding current setting which the welding quality is 98.98% for

the start section and 98.96% at the middle section. By additional experiment, It was

verified that the developed algorithm based on optimized welding current could

determine the good quality of weld.

In this study of the effects of two welding positions included in flat and upward

vertical on the mechanical properties and microstructure of high strength weld metal

deposited with shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) using an electrode of ASME SFA

5.5-96 E9018B3 type have been investigated. The aim of the present work is to study

the effects of these two welding positions for a weld metal alloyed with 1%Mo, 2%Cr,

0.79%Mn, and 0.08% C in the stress relieved condition. For studying mechanical
properties Tensile, Impact and hardness experiments have been conducted; meanwhile

chemical analysis and microstructure studying have been carried out on specimens.

The results show that welding position does not have any significant effect on tensile

and hardness of the weld metal but in vertical position welding metal toughness is lower

than toughness in flat position in all temperatures. Transition temperature of ductile

fracture to brittle fracture is -50 °C for E9018B3 in welding of high strength micro alloyed

steels.

Choice of the process will depend on the material to be joined, its thickness and

the welding position. In most cases several processes will meet the basic requirements

of the application and the final choice will depend on practical considerations (e.g.

availability of equipment and operators), limitations imposed by codes (see below) and

economics. The choice of process will determine the number of control parameters

which need to be considered and the nature of the control relationships. Computer

software designed to simplify welding procedure selection is also available.

It is necessary to gain knowledge of how the welding positions can influence the

keyhole and weld pool behavior in order to better control the laser weld quality. In the

present study, a computational fluid mechanics (CFD) model was constructed to

simulate the laser-welding process of the titanium alloy Ti6Al4V, with which the keyhole

stability and the fluid flow characteristics in weld pool were studied for four welding

positions, i.e., flat welding, horizontal welding, vertical-up welding, and vertical-down

welding. Results showed that the stability of the keyhole was the best in flat welding, the

worst in horizontal welding, and moderate in vertical welding positions. Increasing heat
input (the ratio of laser power to welding speed) could increase the keyhole stability.

When the small heat input was used, the dimensions and flow patterns of weld pools

were similar for different welding positions. When the heat input was increased, the

weld pool size was increased, and the fluid flow in the weld pool became turbulent. The

influences of gravity became significant when a large heat input was used, especially for

laser welding with vertical positions. Too high a heat input in vertical-up laser welding

would lead to oscillation and separation of molten metal around the keyhole, and in turn

result in burn-through holes in the laser weld. Based on the present study, moderate

heat input was suggested in positional laser welding to generate a stable keyhole and,

meanwhile, to guarantee good weld quality.

Framework

The review of literature in this study shows that welding position is a technique

that helps the welder to join metals in an angles or positions. Welding position is very

important as it affects the flow of molten filler material. There were four main types of

welding positions namely flat welding position, horizontal welding position, vertical

welding position and overhead welding position. Understanding different types of

welding positions can make the welder be successful on their projects. All welding can

be classified according to the position of the work piece or the position of the welded

joint on the plates or sections being welded. A number is also used to easily define the

position, and an F for Fillet or G for groove refers to the type of weld. We see that these

symbols can be seen in architect’s blueprints and would indicate the welding symbol.

We have 1 that refers to a flat position, either 1F or 1G. We have 2 that refers to a
horizontal position, either 2F or 2G. We have 3 that refers to vertical position, either 3F

or 3G. Lastly, we have 4 that refers to an overhead position, either 4F or 4G.

Considerable research studies, suggest that welding positions can entirely affect

how the outcome of the metal will be. Individuals that familiarized welding positions

successfully conduct various studies to determine their goals. When students

understand how welding positions is done correctly, they may find the conduct of

SMAW Lab effective.