Application of Robotic Welding Technology to the Continuity Plate Weld Within a Steel Built-up Box Column in Buildings

This paper presents a study to investigate the feasibility of using robotic welding technologies to weld the continuity plate and the column flange plate during manufacturing steel built-up box columns in buildings. Specimens designed to emulate the key components in the steel beam-to-column moment connections for Special moment frame were fabricated and welded using a proposed automated procedure that performs multi-layer, multi-pass welding for thick steel plates. Effects of controlling parameters on robotic welding results that includes the manner of bead stacking, wire feed speed, travel speed, working angle, arc voltage, the path of the welding pass, and the methods to start and finish welding passes were investigated. The quality of the welded products was assessed by visual inspection and ultrasonic testing (UT). Further mechanical tests including tensile tests, bending tests, and cyclic loading tests were carried out on selected welded products that passed the UT examination. The test results indicated that the robotic welds showed no visible damage or cracks, met requirements specified in the AWS specification, and exhibited satisfactory strength and ductility.