Shielded Metal Arc Welding

Principles
 Shielded Metal Arc Welding
(SMAW)
• Manual arc welding
– Heat for welding generated by electric arc
established between flux-covered consumable
metal rod (electrode) and work
• Called stick electrode welding
• Combustion and decomposition of electrode
creases gaseous shield
– Protects electrode tip, weld puddle, arc, and highly
heated work from atmospheric contamination
• Additional shielding provided by covering of molten
slag (flux)
SMAW

American Welding Society

 Process Capability

• Shielded metal arc welding one of most used

of various electric arc welding processes
 SMAW Advantages

• Equipment less complex, more portable and

less costly
• Can be done indoors or outdoors, in any
location and any position
• Electrodes available to match properties and
strength of most base metals
– Not used for welding softer metals
– Not as efficient in deposition
 Welding Process

• Electric arc started by striking work with

electrode
• Heat of arc melts electrode and surface of base
metal
• Tiny globules of molten metal form on tip of
electrode and transferred by arc into molten
pool on work surface
• After weld started, arc moved along work

11 - 6
Major defects in this process
are

Undercutting,
Incomplete penetration,
incomplete fusion,
Porosity,
Slag Inclusions, Cracks, burn
through.
The SMAW process can not
be used on steel thinner than
about 3mm

discontinuous process it is
only suitable for manual
operation.

It is very widely used in

fabrication shops and for on
site steel construction work.
The flux covering the electrode melts during welding. 

gas and slag to shield the arc and molten weld pool. 

The flux also provides a method of adding scavengers,

deoxidizers, and alloying elements to the weld metal.
 Case Study-4

Pi-Cheng Tung, Ming-Chang Wu, Yean-Ren Hwang, “An image-guided

mobile robotic welding system for SMAW repair processes”, International
Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 44 (2004) 1223–1233.

shortage of skilled technicians .

manual operator - not easy to apply in hazardous areas .

An image-guided mobile robotic welding system is developed.

CCD cameras, a five-axis SCORBOT-ER VII robot and SMAW equipment

on a mobile vehicle.

The control system determines the feeding velocity

effectively perform SMAW operations resulting in good quality welding.

GTAW and GMAW are not suitable - poor mobility
 Case Study-5

G. Madhusudhan Reddy, T. Mohandas, K.K. Papukutty, “Effect of welding

process on the ballistic performance of high-strength low-alloy steel
weldments”, Journal of Materials Processing Technology 74 (1998) 27–35.

 projectile penetration of the various zones in the weldments of a high-

strength low-alloy steel.

A comparison has been made : SMAW; GTAW; FCAW).

ballistic limit has been found to be highest in the case of the SMAW
weld and least in respect of FCAW welds.
SMAW and FCAW:
columnar grains

FCAW- larger

GTAW: equi-axed grains

The weld region

comprised austenite, ferrite
and martensite
 Acicular martensite ferrite formation in this case (Fig. 7a).

austenite, carbides and ferrite constituents (Fig.6bFig. 7bFig. 8b),

decomposition in HAZ is more in the HAZ of GTAW than for SMAW

and FCAW (compare Figs. 6 and 8).