In the arc welding, spatters attached around the bead of base metal. The adhered spatters lower the surface quality of the welding product. Therefore, it is very important to remove the spatters from the welding product. In general, wire brushes of bevel type or cup type have been used to remove the spatters. However, the adherent force of spatters on base metal is not constant. Then, the removal force, which is needed to remove the adhered spatters, is not also constant. Moreover, spatters are scattered on the base metal. Therefore, in order to remove the spatters by the brush, it is very important to clear the relationship between brushing conditions and the removal behavior of spatters.
In this study, the removal forces of the adhered spatters are measured by using the removal tool to which strain gages attached. The shapes of the adhered spatters are also measured. Moreover, the force that is applied to the spatter in the brushing has been measured by using a model spatter. The shape of the model spatter is very similar to that of the adhered spatter. A steel plate with scale is used as a base metal. In brushing the metal, the pushing force of the brush is 29.4 N and the holding angle, that is the angle between the brush and base metal, is 15, 20, 25, or 30 degrees.
As the result, it is indicated that the applied force to the model spatter in the brushing increases with the height of model spatter proportionally. The holding angle of the wire brush has little influence on the applied force to the model spatter. When the temperature of base metal is less than about 450 K, most of the removal shear forces of spatters are less than about 50 N. In this case, all of the attached spatters can be removed by the brushing. However, when the temperature of the base metal become high, the removal shear force become large and it become hard to remove all of the adhered spatter.
