The Innovative Post-Weld Finishing Method and Non-Standard Cutting Tool for Carrying Out this Method

Abstract The most common method of post-weld finishing is grinding with an abrasive tool. This finishing method leads to the occurrence of faults on the treated surface: locations missed or hardened twice, structural notches and stretching residual stress in the surface layer. The faults mentioned lead to the creation and development of ordinary as well as fatigue cracks, seizing or other damage. In addition, grinding is a process that often involves manual labour, which significantly increases the time required for finishing the procedure. Moreover, it is impossible to automate this process. Also, grinding is a process that is damaging for both people and the environment. In contrast to grinding and other processes of post-weld surface finishing, the innovative method, which is the subject of this article, does not have the faults and inconveniences of the previously mentioned techniques. The post-weld surface finishing method by moving of the innovative multi-edge cutting tool along the weld bead is presented in this article. In this method, machining allowance is treated as the weld bead height, which is flush-removed with the base material in one step during one pass of the cutting tool. The adjacent teeth height of changing and increasing according to the direction of feed and the difference in height between the first and last teeth are equal to the weld bead height. The number of cutting teeth necessary to flush-finish the weld bead with the base metal surface depends on the difference in the first and last teeth height and how it is divided. The tooth length is greater than half of the distance between the adjacent cutting teeth, which enables finishing the heterogeneous post-weld surface with many defects and increased hardness. The innovative method is characterised by short machining time of the weld bead and provides an accurate, efficient and economical process.