Development of welding technique to suppress the microsegregation in the aerospace grade alloy 80A by conventional current pulsing technique

Alloy 80 A is prone to hot cracking during conventional arc welding process. Microsegregation of alloying element Cr lead to the formation of M23C6 carbide phase during solidification of fusion zone, and it contributes to hot cracking. The current study employs different welding techniques and filler wires to minimize the microsegregation. The weldments were fabricated by Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) and Pulsed Current Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (PCGTAW) techniques using filler wires 263 and ERNiCrMo-3. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) reveals the existence of secondary phase in the interdendritic region for all the weldments. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis reports that PCGTAW eliminates microsegregation of Cr precipitate and suppress Nb and Mo precipitates better when compared to GTAW. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis indicate the presence of M23C6 Cr and Mo-rich carbide phase in GTA weldment of 263 filler wire. Whereas in PCGTAW, NiCrCoMo phase is observed. In both GTAW and PCGTAW of ERNiCrMo-3, the intermetallic phases Ni8Nb and Cr2Ti are observed. The tensile test was conducted to assess the strength and ductility of the weldments. The results of the PCGTAW weldments have improved compared to their respective GTAW weldments.