Stainless Steel Cracking When Welding

Is particularly relevant in terms of weld solidification cracking in type 304 stainless steel as they made annulus welds between types 304 and 304l coaxial tubes using pulsed laser beam welding and pulsed gas tungsten arc welding gtaw.

Stainless steel cracking when welding. Chromium and carbon content of the filler metal should generally match type 410. 55 amps sounds about right for the 1 16 wall if you are not sure what grade stainless its possible that it is 303 free machining which is not recommended for welding. The cracking susceptibility markedly in creased when the ferrite content ex ceeded 50 in weld metal deposited during gta welding with ar 1 0 vol h2shielding gas. Martensitic stainless steels are listed in table ii.

A convenient and commonly used shorthand identifying the individual alloy within the austenitic stainless steel group is the astm system. Prevention of cracking two general forms of cracking have been observed to occur in welded austenitic stainless steels. But it should not be used for critical applications and if you are testing at high pressures that might be the cause of the cracking. Welding austenitic stainless steel successfully is no more difficult than welding c mn steel mild steel successfully if one follows the rules which are well established.

Some of the pitfalls have been illustrated in this article and hopefully in future will be avoided. People do weld it. To ensure against this stress corrosion cracking in welded austenitic stainless steels is to anneal the types which contain regular carbon content and to stress relieve the stabilized and extra low carbon types. When austenitic stainless steels are heated within a temperature range of 427 to 870 c.

May produce a high incidence of cracking. The work by hochanadel et al. In the second in stance extensive cracking of type 300 series 304 316l stainless steel oc curred during the welding of pipe where the surface had been contaminated with zinc rich paint and zinc sulfide ore dust refs. Hydrogen cracking is also a big concern when welding stainless steel.

Or it is slowly cooled through the boundary as weld cool carbon is released from the solid solution mainly at the grain boundaries which intermittently unites with chromium to form rich chromium carbides. Hydrogen cracking in du plex stainless steel weld metal was ex amined using two laboratory cracking tests lb trc and wm sert testing. The cracking was found in both the weld metal and the pipe base metal adjacent to the weld. They have a tendency toward weld cracking on cooling when hard brittle martensite is formed.