Submerged arc welding of different grades of steels is widely used in industry. In the present work, an attempt has been made to optimize the weld bead width and weld bead hardness of submerged arc welded joints of mild steel plates using Taguchi Method. Experimentation has been conducted using L 9 experimental design where welding current (A), arc voltage (V) and welding speed (m/min) are considered as variable process parameters. Optimised input parameter setting for maximum weld bead

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... and weld bead width are welding current =250 A, Arc Voltage =30V and welding speed = 1.2 m/min respectively. Significant improvement in weld quality has been achieved with optimized parameter setting. Arc voltage is found to affect the weld quality most significantly in the operating range of process parameters. IndexTerms-submerged arc welding, optimization, Taguchi method, weld bead hardness, weld bead width