Influence of welding processes on microstructure, tensile and impact properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy joints

Titanium alloys have been successfully applied for aerospace, ship and chemical industries because they possess many good characteristics such as high specific strength, superior corrosion resistance and excellent high temperature resistance. Though these alloys show reasonable weldability characteristics, the joint properties are greatly influenced by the welding processes. Weld thermal cycle of the processes will control the weld metal solidification and subsequent phase transformation and resultant microstructure. The welded joints of Ti-6Al-4V alloy were fabricated by gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), laser beam welding (LBW) and electron beam welding (EBW) processes. The joints fabricated by EBW process exhibit higher strength compared with the GTAW and LBW joints; but the joints by GTAW process exhibit higher impact toughness compared with the LBW and EBW joints. The resultant tensile and impact properties of the welded joints were correlated with the weld metal microstructures.