Study and prevention of cracking during weld-repair of heat-resistant cast steels

Heat-resistant cast steels are highly sensitive to cracking as they are weld-repaired because of their very low ductility. To prevent weld-repair cracking of three different heat-resistant cast steels used for the manufacturing of superplastic forming (SPF) dies, the effect of various welding parameters, such as the choice of the filler material, the number of weld passes and the pre-heating temperature has been investigated. The choice of an appropriate filler metal and the pre-heating to 400 °C of the material prior to welding drastically lower the propensity to cracking, but remain unable to eliminate cracks entirely. To further reduce weld-repair cracking and hopefully prevent it completely, a buttering technique has been developed. Buttering of the base metal surface with nickel alloys before weld-repair has been shown to prevent cracking of the base metal, but results in some hot-cracking of the buttering layer itself. On the other hand, buttering with Ni–Fe alloys, less sensitive to hot-cracking, results in crack-free weld-repairs.