The influence of aluminium additions to tubular cored welding electrodes on the microstructure and toughness of as-deposited C-Mn-Ni weld metal

TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 407/1989

By D J Abson

Background

A project has been undertaken on weld metal for C-Mn and microalloyed steels deposited using semi-automatic continuous wire processes, studying the factors influencing microstructure and toughness. In the present work, the effect was examined of varying the Al:O ratio in as-deposited weld metal.

Bead-in-buttered-groove welds were produced with both a commercial metal-cored wire and an experimental basic flux-cored wire, based on a commercial product, in which varying amounts of Al (or Fe-Al) and Al₂O₃ had been added to the core. Examination was carried out of the microstructure, inclusion composition, strength and Charpy toughness of the resultant weld metal.