INTEGRATED ROBOTIC WELDING AND TESTS FOR CJP GROOVE WELDS OF A CONTINUITY PLATE TO A STEEL BOX COLUMN
Journal
World Conference on Earthquake Engineering proceedings
Journal Volume
2024
ISSN
30065933
Date Issued
2024
Author(s)
Abstract
Steel built-up box columns are widely used for high-rise buildings in Asia because of good earthquake resistance in horizontal and axial loadings. Continuity plates are welded inside the box column at the beam flange levels to transfer beam moment to the column. The welding quality of the continuity plate has a significant effect on the seismic performance of the building. However, the weld of the continuity plates inside the column was still conducted by professional welders in Taiwan. This is caused by the customized requirement of steel columns in each building design and the poor fit-up in construction, which results in a highly variable working condition for the welding of continuity plates. Moreover, the steel welding industry is facing a shortage of welders due to an unfavorable working condition and rising of labor cost in construction. Therefore, applying a robotic welding technology to the continuity plate inside the box column is an alternative solution for the steel construction industry. A significant obstacle in robotic welding is how to trace the geometric variability caused by manufacturing and assembly errors. Furthermore, the control of welding parameters and environmental factors is also crucial. In this research, an integrated robotic GMAW process was developed for multi-layer, multi-pass complete-joint penetration (CJP) groove welds between the continuity plate and the steel built-up box column. More than 120 small-scale steel specimens were manufactured to emulate different welding conditions on site by using robotic welding. The objective was to develop a database that establishes the influence of different welding parameters (i.e., voltage, current, travel speed, wire feed speed, angle, and arc length) on the CJP welding and to develop a robotic welding procedure for different assembly and inter-pass welding tolerances. The proposed robotic welding procedure has been developed to provide a reliable welding quality that meets the requirements of AWS (2013) for steel special moment frames in a seismic area based on the ultrasonic (UT) examination and mechanical tests.
Publisher
International Association for Earthquake Engineering
Type
conference paper