Investigations on the structure – property relationships of PCGTA welds involving Inconel 718 and AISI 430

The present investigation deals with the weldability, structure – property relationship of dissimilar metallurgical joints involving Nickel based superalloy Inconel 718 and ferritic stainless steel AISI 430 using pulsed current gas tungsten welding (PCGTAW) process employing ER2553 and ERNiCrMo-4 filler wires. NDT analysis and macrostructure examination corroborated for defect free weldments. Microstructure studies revealed the presence of unmixed zone at the weld interface of Inconel 718 whereas grain coarsening effect was observed at the heat effected zone (HAZ) of AISI 430. Both cellular and equiaxed dendrites were dominated at the fusion zone of ERNiCrMo-4 weldment; whereas different types of ferrite morphologies such as delta and widmanstätten ferrite were observed at the cap and middle zones of ER2553 fusion zone respectively. It was opined that the tensile failures occurred at the parent metal of AISI 430 for both the fillers. Charpy V-notch studies showed that ERNiCrMo-4 weldment exhibited better impact toughness than ER2553 weldment. Similarly the bend test also recommended the use of ERNiCrMo-4 filler due to the acquaintance of excellent bending strength and soundness. This study also addressed the structure – property relationships of these weldments. The outcomes of the study would be highly beneficial to the nuclear, aerospace and petrochemical industries.