This article describes the process features, advantages, limitations, and applications of the flux cored arc welding (FCAW) as well as the equipment used in the process. Base metals, namely, carbon and low-alloy steels, stainless steels, and nickel-base alloys, welded by the FCAW process are reviewed. The article illustrates the manufacturing process for the electrodes used in FCAW and outlines the classification of carbon and low-alloy steel, stainless steel, and nickel-base electrodes.

In the flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) process, the heat for welding is produced by an electric arc between a continuous filler metal electrode and a workpiece. This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages and applications of the FCAW process. It schematically illustrates the semiautomatic FCAW equipment used in the gas-shielded FCAW process. The article discusses the manufacture of flux-cored electrodes and the classification of electrodes, such as carbon and low-alloy steel electrodes, stainless steel electrodes, and nickel-base electrodes. The functions of common core ingredients in FCAW electrodes are listed in a table.

The shielding gas used in an arc welding process has a significant influence on the overall performance of the welding system. These gases are argon, helium, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. This article discusses the shielding gas selection criteria for plasma arc welding, gas metal arc welding, and flux cored arc welding. It describes the basic properties of shielding gases, namely, dissociation, recombination, reactivity potential, oxidation potential, and gas purity. The article also provides information on the influence of the shielding gas on weld mechanical properties and self-shielded flux cored arc welding.

Fluxes are added to the welding environment to improve arc stability, provide a slag, add alloying elements, and refine the weld pool. This article discusses the effect of oxygen, which is an important chemical reagent to control the weld metal composition, microstructure, and properties. It provides information on the inclusions that form as a result of reactions between metallic alloy elements and nonmetallic tramp elements, or by mechanical entrapment of nonmetallic slag or refractory particles. The article reviews the considerations of flux formulation during shielded metal arc welding and flux cored arc welding (FCAW). It describes the types of fluxes used for submerged arc welding and FCAW as well as five essential groups of flux ingredients and their interactions.

Fluxes are added to the welding environment to improve arc stability, to provide a slag, to add alloying elements, and to refine the weld pool. This article describes the effect of oxygen that directly reacts with alloying elements to alter their effective role by reducing hardenability, promoting porosity, and producing inclusions. It proposes basicity index for welding as a measure of expected weld metal cleanliness and mechanical properties. The article discusses alloy modification in terms of slipping and binding agents, slag formation, and slag detachability. It reviews the types of fluxes for different arc welding processes, such as shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), and submerged arc welding (SAW).

Hardfacing refers to the deposition of a specially selected material onto a component in order to reduce wear in service as a preventative measure or return a worn component to its original dimensions as a repair procedure. This article provides information on various hardfacing materials, namely, iron-base overlays, chromium carbide-based overlays, nickel- and cobalt-base alloys, and tungsten carbide-based metal-matrix composite overlays. It discusses the types of hardfacing processes, such as arc welding processes, and laser cladded, oxyacetylene brazing and vacuum brazing processes. The arc welding processes include shielding metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding/flux cored arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, submerged arc welding, and plasma transferred arc welding. The article also reviews various factors influencing the selection of the appropriate hardfacing for specific applications.

This article describes some examples of the different welding processes for gray, ductile, and malleable irons. These processes include fusion welding, repair welding, shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding, flux cored arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, submerged arc welding, oxyfuel welding, and braze welding. The article discusses various special techniques, such as groove-face grooving, studding, joint design modifications, and peening, for improving the strength of a weld or its fitness for service. The article describes other fusion welding methods such as electrical resistance welding and thermite welding. It reviews thermal spraying processes, such as flame spraying, arc spraying, and plasma spraying, of a cast iron.

Arc welding methods can be classified into shielded metal arc welding, flux-cored arc welding, submerged arc welding, gas metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, plasma arc welding, plasma-metal inert gas (MIG) welding, and electroslag and electrogas welding. This article provides information on process capabilities, principles of operation, power sources, electrodes, shielding gases, flux, process variables, and advantages and disadvantages of these arc welding methods. It presents information about the arc welding procedures of hardenable carbon and alloy steels, cast irons, stainless steels, heat-resistant alloys, aluminum alloys, copper and copper alloys, magnesium alloys, nickel alloys, and titanium and titanium alloys.

This article discusses the susceptibility of carbon steels to hydrogen-induced cracking, solidification cracking, lamellar tearing, weld metal porosity, and heat-affected zone (HAZ) mechanical property variations. The composition and mechanical properties of selected carbon steels used in arc welding applications are listed in a table. The article presents process selection guidelines for arc welding carbon steels. It provides information on the shielded metal arc welding, gas-metal arc welding, and flux-cored arc welding, gas-tungsten arc and plasma arc welding, submerged arc welding, electrogas welding, electroslag welding, and stud arc welding.

This article contains a table that lists the properties of various fuel gases, namely, acetylene, hydrogen, methane, methyl acetylene propadiene, propane, propylene, and natural gas. It discusses shielding gases, their mixtures and uses in gas metal arc welding, flux cored arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, and plasma arc welding.

This article describes the classification of ferritic stainless steels. It reviews the metallurgical characteristics of various ferritic grades as well as the factors that influence their weldability. The article provides a discussion on various arc welding processes. These processes include gas-tungsten arc welding (GTAW), gas-metal arc welding (GMAW), flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), and plasma arc welding (PAW). The selection criteria for welding consumables are discussed. The article also explains the welding procedures associated with the ferritic stainless steels. It concludes with information on weld properties.

Electroslag welding (ESW) involves high energy input relative to other welding processes, resulting generally in inferior mechanical properties and specifically in lower toughness of the heat-affected zone. Electrogas welding (EGW) is a method of gas metal or flux cored arc welding, wherein an external gas is supplied to shield the arc, and molding shoes are used to confine the molten weld metal for vertical-position welding. This article describes the fundamentals, temperature relations, consumables, metallurgical and chemical reactions, and process development of ESW. The problems, quality control, and process applications of ESW and EGW are also discussed.

The shielding gas used in a welding process has a significant influence on the overall performance of the welding system. This article discusses the basic properties of a shielding gas in terms of ionization potential, thermal conductivity, dissociation and recombination, reactivity/oxidation potential, surface tension, gas purity, and gas density. It describes the characteristics of the components of a shielding gas blend. The article discusses the selection of shielding gas for gas-metal arc welding (GMAW), gas-tungsten arc welding (GTAW), and plasma arc welding (PAW), as well as the influence of shielding gas on weld mechanical properties. It concludes with a discussion on flux-cored arc welding.