AbstractThis paper investigates systematically the effect of pulse conditions, type of shielding gas, and wire composition on blowhole and spatter formation and on wire melting rate to obtain guidelines for selection of welding conditions. It was found that spatter formation can be reduced significantly by using a shielding gas of composition Ar + 2·4%O2+20% CO2for pulsed gas shielded metal arc (MAG) welding. It was also found that it is possible to reduce blowhole formation using pulsed MAG welding. However, blowhole formation is affected greatly by variations of pulse condition and by shielding gas composition.MST/1423