Over the past decade, laser beam welding has significantly evolved and established itself as an efficient tool in the industry. Solidification cracking and the weldability of materials have been highly contentious issues for many years. Today, there are many self and externally loaded tests to investigate the hot cracking resistance of steels. The purpose of this paper is to compare the susceptibility of three stainless steel grades to hot cracking by using an externally loaded hot cracking test (CTW) and a self-restraint test in accordance with SEP-220-3. The repeatability and effectiveness of the results are discussed. The experimental results are widely dispersed, implying a low predictive value for the self-restraint test. On the other hand, the results from the externally loaded test exhibit excellent repeatability and provide a quantitative characterization of the susceptibility of steels to hot cracking.
One trend in today’s structural design for automobiles is towards application of stainless Steel in addition to traditional carbon Steel. This is mainly due to the advantages offered by stainless steel to the designer, i.e. its high corrosion resistance, heat resistance, strength and formability. Welding of austenitic stainless steel involves a high risk of solidification cracking due to low melting eutectics containing different kinds of impurities and to accumulated strain behind the weld pooi in the mushy zone. As a result, the quality of stainless steel welded joints will greatly be affected which may give cause for safety concerns. The intention of this study was to investigate the hot cracking sensitivity of laser welded fully austenitic stainless steels and to determine the critical local strain and strain rate from the formation of solidification cracks. C02-laser welding experiments were conducted using the steel X8CrMnNi19-6-3 (Nirosta H400). Solidification cracking susceptibility was examined with the help of the Controlled Tensile Weldability (CTW) Test developed by BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin. The critical strain and strain rate of solidification cracking was measured at the surface of the workpiece directed to the laser beam in the close vicinity of the weld pool by using the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique and diode laser as the illuminating source.