Sylvie F. Crowell – 2022 Steel Intern Scholar

This summer I had the opportunity to work with Lincoln Electric at their global headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Lincoln Electric is a world leader in the development and manufacturing of welding equipment. Most of their research and development (R&D) is in Cleveland and is split into two main divisions: welding machines and welding consumables (wires/electrodes, sticks, etc.). My placement was with the consumables R&D wire group where I conducted research into how to adjust formulations for flux-cored self-shielded electrodes to obtain desirable properties in the steel after welding with the electrodes. Unlike most other electrodes, flux-cored self-shielded electrodes do not require an inert shielding gas because the flux inside the electrode protects the weld metal during solidification.
Working directly with a team of other engineers on real projects that contribute to the company’s success helped me build my teamwork skills and get a feel for what it would be like to work in an industry setting as an engineer. Much of my work was directly applicable to my major of materials science and engineering. I used Thermo-Calc software to study phase diagrams and referenced industry standards and continuous cooling diagrams (CCT) to make predictions of chemistry-property relationships. I also conducted scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) on slag samples of several different design variations to study their microstructure and better understand how the slagging system for self-shielded electrodes may be affected by chemical changes to the design. To augment this experimental work, I analyzed large sets of historical data to identify trends based on chemistry variation and tensile strength within existing products. I also analyzed historical data on various gas metal arc welding (GMAW) wires to determine relationships between chemistry and resistivity which ultimately affects the droplet transfer to the weld. My work will directly contribute to future industry reports on the development of flux-cored electrodes and GMAW electrodes.Working with Lincoln Electric this summer has been a wonderful opportunity to hone my materials science research skills, expand my understanding of the engineering side of welding, and gain experience working on an engineering team for large-scale projects. I was able to develop my professional skills through attending several informational and networking events sponsored by Lincoln Electric as well. I would like to thank the Consumables Wire Group for making this internship an enjoyable and valuable learning experience!