In this article, Welding of AA2219 aluminium alloy using Gas tungsten arc welding process (GTAW) and evaluation of metallurgical, mechanical and corrosion properties of the joints are discussed. The weld samples were subjected to ageing process at the temperature range of 195°C for a period of 5 h to improve the properties. AA2219 aluminium plates of thickness of 25 mm were welded using gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process in double V butt joint configuration. The input parameters considered in this work are welding current, voltage and welding speed. Tensile strength and hardness were measured as performance characteristics. The variation in the properties were justified with the help of microstructures. The same procedures were repeated for post weld heat treated samples and a comparison was made between as weld condition and age treated conditions. The post weld heat samples had better tensile strength and hardness values on comparing with the as weld samples. Fracture surface obtained from the tensile tested specimen revealed ductile mode of failure.

Aluminium alloy AA2219 is a high strength alloy belonging to 2000 series. It has been widely used for aerospace applications, especially for construction of cryogenic fuel tank. However, arc welding of AA2219 material is very critical. The major problems that arise in arc welding of AA2219 are the adverse development of residual stresses and the re-distribution as well as dissolution of copper rich phase in the weld joint. These effects increase with increase in heat input. Thus, special attention was taken to especially thick section welding of AA2219-T87 aluminium alloy. Hence, the present work describes the 25 mm-thick AA2219-T87 aluminium alloy plate butt welded by GTAW and GMAW processes using multi-pass welding procedure in double V groove design. The transverse shrinkage, conventional mechanical and metallurgical properties of both the locations on weld joints were studied. It is observed that the fair copper rich cellular (CRC) network is on Side-A of both the weldments. Further, it is noticed that, the severity of weld thermal cycle near to the fusion line of HAZ is reduced due to low heat input in GTAW process which results in non dissolution of copper rich phase. Based on the mechanical and metallurgical properties it is inferred that GTAW process is used to improve the aforementioned characteristics of weld joints in comparison to GMAW process.