The need for aluminum in the industrial world is growing
rapidly, especially in the shipping industry. Welding is a very important
process for the construction and manufacturing industry in Indonesia. The results of the welded joint also affect the strength
of the construction against the load, so the cooling process for the welding
results is important. The choice of cooling media greatly influences the
hardness of the welding material. This research aims to determine the effect of
seawater, oil and coolant cooling media on GMAW welding results of aluminum
materials on microstructure, hardness values and corrosion rates.
This research is experimental research.
The method used is a quantitative method. In this research, 6061 aluminum
plates were GMAW welded with ER 5356 electrodes with a diameter of 1.2 mm,
using a current of 130 A underhand welding position (1G) with cooling media of
sea water, oil and coolant, then the specimens were cut and microstructure
tests were carried out. hardness test and corrosion rate test. Experimental
data were analyzed using SPSS using one way anova and t-test.
The results of this research show
that the fastest cooling rate and highest hardness value are seawater cooling media
with a cooling rate of 24.72 ˚C/minute and a hardness value of 59.3 HV. In the
rate results, the lowest corrosion rate value for the coolant cooling media is
0.261 mmpy. Thus, it can be concluded that the faster the cooling rate, the
higher the resulting hardness value, this is shown by the results of the
microstructure with a Mg2 Si content that is smoother and more evenly
distributed in the weld metal area. Quenching media has an influence on the
corrosion rate because the cooling process can affect the microstructure and
corrosive properties of the material. The lower the corrosion rate value of a
material, the better its corrosion resistance properties.
Keywords : A luminium 6061 , cooling medium , microstructure
test, hardness test, corrosion rate test