Development of materials used in the power industry for the production of USC boilers poses new challenges. The introduction of new alloying agents intended at obtaining the best possible mechanical properties, including creep resistance, affects the fabricability of new steel grades. All new materials have to undergo a lot of tests, particularly as regards bending and welding processes, with the aim of enabling the development of technologies ensuring failure-free production and assembly of boiler components. Martensitic steels containing 9% Cr, used in the production of steam superheaters shall have good creep resistance and, at the same time, low oxidation resistance at a temperature above 600°C. In turn, steels with a 12% Cr content, for example, VM12-SHC or X20CrMoV12-1 are characterized by significantly higher oxidation resistance but have lower strength at higher temperatures, which translates to their limited application in the production of modern USC and A-USC boilers.X20CrMoV12-1 was withdrawn from most of the power plants across Europe and VM12-SHC was supposed to replace it, but unfortunately, it failed in regards of creep properties. To fulfill the gap a new creep strength-enhanced ferritic steel for service in supercritical and ultra-supercritical boiler applications was developed by Tenaris and named Thor™115 (Tenaris High Oxidation Resistance). This publication covers the experience obtained during first steps of fabrication which includes cold bending and TIG welding of homogenous joints.
Welding of Joints in New Generation Martensitic Steel THOR®115