Effect of plasma preheating on weld quality and tool life during friction stir welding of DH36 steel

Friction stir welding (FSW) of high strength materials is challenging due to high tool cost and low tool life. To address this issue, the present investigation deals with an alternative of plasma-assisted friction stir welding (PFSW) of DH36 steel with WC-10%Co tool. Plasma preheating current (13 A, 15 A, and 17 A) was varied by keeping other FSW parameters as constant. During the FSW and PFSW process, force measurement and thermal history aided in a deep understanding of the process, tool degradation mechanisms, accompanied by the mechanical and microstructural characterization of the welded joints. The stir zone hardness was increased from 140 HV0.5 to about 267 HV0.5. The yield and tensile strength of weld increased from 385 MPa and 514 MPa to about 391 MPa and 539 MPa, respectively. Weld joint elongation (%) was increased from ~10% of weld 1 to ~13.89% of weld 4. During PFSW, the process temperature was increased, the cooling rate was lowered, and the weld bead was widened. The results also revealed that the plasma-assisted weld resulted in polygonal ([Formula: see text]) and allotriomorphic ferrite as the major constituents in the stir zone. Pearlite dissolution and spheroidization were observed in the ICHAZ and SCHAZ, respectively. Additionally, the plasma preheating reduced the tungsten tool’s wear by 58% compared to FSW.

Remote Fibre Laser Welding of Advanced High Strength Martensitic Steel

The study presents the results of remote robotic laser welding of advanced high strength Docol® 1200 M martensitic steel. One mm thick samples were welded in a lap joint configuration using a special clamping system. Welding was done using a continuous-wave (CW) fibre laser with a constant welding power of 300 W and constant focus diameter Ø 1.8 mm. Welding was done using 12 different welding speeds in the range from 0.15 to 1 m/min, whereas the inclination angle was kept constant at 0°. The influence of various welding speeds and linear heat inputs during welding on microstructural changes were examined by the occurrence of acicular and allotriomorphic ferrite or martensite. Results revealed big influence of the clamping system on the accumulation of the laser beam energy, heat sink and consequently weld size and geometry, as well as its microstructure and joint strength. Tensile-shear strength, microstructure and hardness results confirmed laser power of 300 W and 0.6 m/min welding speed as the optimal parameters, at which a martensitic structure was obtained in the weld. The width of the heat affected zone (HAZ) in this case is 1100 μm.

Microstructures and Properties of HAZ of JB800 Bainite Steel

JB800 steel has grain boundary allotriomorphic ferrite and granular bainite (FGBA/BG), and it is a kind of high strength low alloy steels, which has simple produce procedure, lower cost and excelled property. The law of microstructure transformation in CGHAZ, hardness, and impact toughness in HAZ of JB800 steel were studied by means of thermal simulation. The test results show that under the general condition of welding process (t8/5=5~50s), microstructure of CGHAZ is composed of mixture microstructure of Martensite and Bainite and with the increase of cooling rate, the content of Martensite will decrease, but that of Bainite will increase; when t8/5 is 20s, CGHAZ zone have better impact toughness, which is composed of 95% Martensite and 5% Bainite. Therefore t8/5 should be controlled at about 20s to get better impact toughness.

Charpy Impact Properties of Grain Boundary Allotriomorphic Ferrite and Granular Bainite Duplex Microstructure

A new type of high strength and low cost bainitic steel with ultra-low carbon content and high Si content has been developed on the basis of Mn-series air-cooling bainitic steels. The tensile properties of YS>690MPa and the impact toughness of AKV>60J at-40°C were obtained by controlling the processing parameters. This was attributed to the formation of the grain boundary allotriomorphic ferrite (FGBA) and the granular bainite (GB) with different shape of M/A islands. The high strength due to the inter-lath lamellar M/A islands or retained austenite companying with high dislocated bainitic ferrite laths of average 300nm width. The effect of microstructure on the impact crack initiation and propagation was studied. The results showed that crack initiation occurred in two different types of sites: at interphase boundaries of bainite ferrite (BF) and M/A islands, at grain boundaries. The FGBA and bainite ferrite (BF) both had blunting effect on microcrack tip to reduce the crack propagation path. Because of the presence of FGBA, the unit crack path was short, at less than 5μm. The blunting effect of BF could be enhanced by the M/A islands, which force the cracks change the propagation path and reduce the unit crack path to less than the size of bainite packets. The mechanism of low temperature microcrack origin of the ultra-low carbon bainitic (ULCB) steel with the microstructure of the FGBA and GB was also discussed.

Influence of Austenite Grain Size on the Crystallography of Allotriomorphic Ferrite in a Low Carbon Steel

The influence of prior austenite grain size on the crystallography of allotriomorphic ferrite is investigated in a low carbon steel. The results show that as the prior austenite grain size decreasing, the fraction of allotriomorphic ferrites that do not keep K-S orientation relationship with any surrounding prior austenite grains is increased. It is observed that such ferrites usually form at the grain edges or grain corners. It is known that with the grain size decreasing, the fraction of grain edges and corners increases. It is suggested that the free energy of the defects at such nucleation sites is higher than that at grain faces, and the nucleation barrier of ferrite is lower. As a result, the possibility for the ferrite to form that does not have orientation relationship with all surrounding austenite grains is increased at such sites.

Influence of Allotriomorphic Ferrite under Different Growth Modes on the Variant Selection of Bainite in a Low Carbon Steel

A Fe-0.05C-2.94Mn-1.87Si steel is heat treated using a two-stage isothermal holding process to obtain allotriomorphic ferrite and bainite. Two kinds of allotriomorphic ferrite are obtained, one with only carbon partitioning and the other, alloying element partitioning. It is observed that the allotriomorphic ferrite stimulates the adjacent bainite to select the similar variant on the side where near K-S relationship is maintained between ferrite and prior austenite. The longer the border length of the allotriomorphic ferrite, the larger the stimulated bainite area. The statistical measurement shows that the alltriomorhpic ferrite with alloying element partitioning stimulates such bainite variant selection as well as that with only carbon partitioning.