IMPROVEMENT OF GAS TUNGSTEN ARC WELDABILITY FOR FERRlTIC STAINLESS STEELS

Ferritic stainless steels would be the most important alloys under the chloride environment. They are a cheaper alternative to austenitic stainless steels [1]. The present study is related to gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) characteristics of Type 444 stainless steels. The heat of welding leads to grain coarsening in the HAZ and in the weld metal of ferritic stainless steels because they solidify directly from the liquid to the ferritc phase without any intermediate phase transformation. It is therefore recommended that these alloys be welded with a low heat input and at high welding speeds. Attempts to improve weldability were made by using of direct current straight polarity (DCSP) and pulsed current GTAW processes in this study. Measuring weld bead, grain size and Erichsen test were performed and the effects of heat input, pulse frequency on the weld metal and HAZ were studied. The main results were obtained as followings: decreasing heat input was effective to control the width of weld both in DCSP welding and in pulsed current welding; pulsed current welding was found to refine the grain size effectively and the finest grain size was found at the frequency of 150Hz in pulsed current welding; it was found that decreasing heat input also refine the HAZs effectively and the frequency had no different effect on HAZ at the same heat input; the ductility could be improved effectively in pulsed current welding.