Mixing of metal in the pool when welding with an immersed tungsten electrode

When producing important structures of aircraft made of VT20 titanium alloy, it is important to examine the reference specimens to determine the quality of welded joints produced by welding with an immersed tungsten electrode (WITE). According to the large amount of data assembled over a period of several years, there is a clear tendency for decreasing the content of nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen in the welded joint in comparison with the parent metal. Evidently, this unique effect of self-cleaning (self-refining) of the weld metal in WITE can be used to explain the high strength characteristics of the welded joints, regardless of their large grain size.