General welding characteristics of the various types of ferrous metals are as follows:
Wrought iron is ideally forged but may be welded by other methods if the base metal is thoroughly fused. Slag melts first and may confuse unwary operators.
Low-carbon iron and steels (0.30%C or less) are readily welded and require no preheating or subsequent annealing unless residual stresses are to be removed.
Medium-carbon steels (0.30 to 0.50%C) can be welded by the various fusion processes. In some cases, especially in steel with more than 0.40% carbon, preheating and subsequent heat treatment may be necessary.
High-carbon steels (0.50 to 0.90%C) are more difficult to weld and, especially in arc welding, may have to be preheated to at least 500F and subsequently heated between 1200 and 1450F. For gas welding, a carburizing flame is often used. Care must be taken not to destroy the heat treatment to which high-carbon steels may have been subjected.
Tool steels (0.80 to 1.50%C) are difficult to weld. Preheating, postannealing, heat treatment, special welding rods, and great care are necessary for successful welding.
Welding of structural steels is governed by the American Welding Society Structural Welding Code, AWS D1.1, the American Institute of Steel Construction Specification for the Design, Fabrication and Erection of Structural Steel for Buildings, or a local building code. AWS D1.1 specifies tests to be used in qualifying welders and types of welds. The AISC Specification and many building codes require, in general, that only qualified welds be used and that they be made only by qualified welders.
Structural steels may be welded by shielded metal arc, submerged arc, gas metal arc, flux-cored arc, electroslag, electrogas, or stud-welding processes.
Shielded-metal-arc welding fuses parts to be joined by the heat of an electric arc struck between a coated metal electrode and the material being joined, or base metal. The electrode supplies filler material for making the weld, gas for shielding the molten metal from the air, and flux for refining this metal.
Submerged-arc welding fuses the parts to be joined by the heat of an electric arc struck between a bare metal electrode and base metal. The weld is shielded from the air by flux. The electrode or a supplementary welding rod supplies metal filler for making the weld.
Gas-metal-arc welding produces fusion by the heat of an electric arc struck between a filler-metal electrode and base metal, while the molten metal is shielded by a gas or mixture of gas and flux. For structural steels, the gas may be argon, argon with oxygen, or carbon dioxide.
Electroslag welding uses a molten slag to melt filler metal and surfaces of the base metal and thus make a weld. The slag, electrically conductive, is maintained molten by its resistance to an electric current that flows between an electrode and the base metal. The process is suitable only for welding in the vertical position.
Moving, water-cooled shoes are used to contain and shape the weld surface. The slag shields the molten metal.
Electrogas welding is similar to the electroslag process. The electrogas process, however, maintains an electric arc continuously, uses an inert gas for shielding, and the electrode provides flux.
Stud welding is used to fuse metal studs or similar parts to other steel parts by the heat of an electric arc. A welding gun is usually used to establish and control the arc, and to apply pressure to the parts to be joined. At the end to be welded, the stud is equipped with a ceramic ferrule, which contains flux and which also partly shields the weld when molten.
Preheating before welding reduces the risk of brittle failure. Initially, its main effect is to lower the temperature gradient between the weld and adjoining base metal. This makes cracking during cooling less likely and gives entrapped hydrogen, a possible source of embrittlement, a chance to escape. A later effect of preheating is improved ductility and notch toughness of base and weld metals and lower transition temperature of weld. When, however, welding processes that deposit weld metal low in hydrogen are used and suitable moisture control is maintained, the need for preheat can be eliminated. Such processes include use of lowhydrogen electrodes and inert-arc and submerged-arc welding.
Rapid cooling of a weld can have an adverse effect. One reason that arc strikes that do not deposit weld metal are dangerous is that the heated metal cools very fast. This causes severe embrittlement. Such arc strikes should be completely removed.
The material should be preheated, to prevent local hardening, and weld metal should be deposited to fill the depression.
Pronounced segregation in base metal may cause welds to crack under certain fabricating conditions. These include use of high-heat-input electrodes, such as the 1â„4-in E6020, and deposition of large beads at slow speeds, as in automatic welding.
Cracking due to segregation, however, is rare with the degree of segregation normally occurring in hot-rolled carbon-steel plates.
Welds sometimes are peened to prevent cracking or distortion, though there are better ways of achieving these objectives. Specifications often prohibit peening of the first and last weld passes. Peening of the first pass may crack or punch through the weld. Peening of the last pass makes inspection for cracks difficult. But peening is undesirable because it considerably reduces toughness and impact properties of the weld metal. (The adverse effects, however, are eliminated by a covering weld layer.) The effectiveness of peening in preventing cracking is open to question. And for preventing distortion, special welding sequences and procedures are simpler and easier.
Failures in service rarely, if ever, occur in properly made welds of adequate design. If a fracture occurs, it is initiated at a notchlike defect. Notches occur for various reasons. The toe of a weld may from a natural notch. The weld may contain flaws that act as notches. A welding-arc strike in the base metal may have an embrittling effect, especially if weld metal is not deposited. A crack started at such notches will propagate along a path determined by local stresses and notch toughness of adjacent material.
Weldability of structural steels is influenced by their chemical content. Carbon, manganese, silicon, nickel, chromium, and copper, for example, tend to have an adverse effect, whereas molybdenum and vanadium may be beneficial. To relate the influence of chemical content on structural steel properties to weldability, the use of a carbon equivalent has been proposed. One formula suggested is
Carbon equivalent appears to be related to the maximum rate at which a weld and adjacent base metal may be cooled after welding without underbead cracking occurring. The higher the carbon equivalent, the lower will be the allowable cooling rate. Also, the higher the carbon equivalent, the more important use of lowhydrogen electrodes and preheating becomes.
