Selection of Filler Metal for TIG Welding a Seamless Tube between AISI304 and AISI316L Stainless Steel

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the filler metal selection for TIG welding which could produce a high strength of a joint between AISI304 and AISI316 stainless steel and to study an effect of welding parameter on joint properties. The results can be summarized that an increase of welding current results in an increase of both the tensile strength and the elongation of a tube butt joint produced by 3 types of filler metals. The optimized filler metal for welding the tube butt joint between AISI304 and AISI316L to obtain a tensile strength of 607 MPa was ER309LSi filler metal. This ER309LSi filler metal also produced the joint that showed 5% and 3% higher tensile strength than that of ER316LSi and ER316L, respectively. The fracture location of the tensile test specimen was found at the center line of the weld metal when the welding current was 80-100 A. However, the fracture location was shifted to the AISI316L side when the welding current was increased and was also showed the larger deformed trace around the fracture area. The average hardness of the weld metal produced by ER319LSi filler metal showed the highest hardness among 3 filler metals and was directly related to gain the highest strength of the joint.