Parametric optimization of seam welding of stainless steel (SS 304) sheets

In the present study, seam welding process parameters were optimized for joining 306 stainless steel plates. Welding pressure, welding speed and welding temperature combinations were carefully selected with the objective of producing a weld joint with maximum impact strength and hardness. Taguchi technique was applied for optimizing the selected welding parameters. The factors used in this study consisted of pressure, welding speed and welding temperature, each of which had three levels in the study. L-27 orthogonal array and corresponding levels were selected according to the aforementioned factors and experimental tests were performed. Signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio was used to evaluate the experimental results. The results indicate that the welding speed has the greatest influence on impact strength, followed by welding pressure and temperature. Experiments have also been conducted to validate the optimized parameters.