Open Access

Hochfeste und -warmfeste Legierungen nehmen in vielen Bereichen des Maschinen- und Anlagenbaus eine immer größere Rolle ein, deren Wirtschaftlichkeit und Effizienz durch eine kostensparende und präzise fügetechnische und abtragende Fertigung bestimmt wird. Komponenten aus modernen hochfesten Werkstoffen erfordern aufgrund ihres spezifischen Legierungskonzeptes und Gefüges und der oft hohen thermo-mechanischen Belastungen speziell adaptierte Fertigungsabläufe. Der Beitrag stellt einige Themenschwerpunkte vor, bei denen fertigungsbedingte Beanspruchungen und Eigenschaftsdegradationen an hochinnovativen Werkstoffen optimiert und wirtschaftliche Fertigungsbedingungen untersucht werden.

Die Beschaffung und Verarbeitung von Werkstoffen für hochbelastete Komponenten sind meist kostenintensiv. Bestrebungen zur Kosten- und Ressourceneffizienz führen zu komplexeren Strukturen bzw. Konturen, sodass generative Fertigungsschritte zur Bauteilreparatur und -fertigung deutliche ökonomische Vorteile bieten. Hierfür sind generative und abtragende Fertigungsschritte komplementär und gezielt aufeinander abzustimmen, um beanspruchungsgerechte Funktionsflächen herzustellen.

In dieser Präsentation werden die neuesten Herausforderungen und der Stand des Fachbereiches 9.2 für die Mitarbeit im AK des HGF "Bau wissenschaftlicher Geräte" dargestellt.

The application of high-strength fine-grained structural steels with yield stress ≥ 690 MPa permits significant weight reductions and cost savings. Since welding is the major joining technology, e.g. in mobile crane industry, the sustainable and economical application of these grades depends on the load-bearing capacity and safety of the welds. An economical processing of high-strength steels is determined above all by the avoidance of cold cracking, apart from achieving demand-oriented mechanical properlies in the weid area. High tensile residual stresses are disadvantageaus regarding the cold cracking resistance and strength of welded components. Furthermore, high restraints commonly appearing in component welds increase residual stresses. Hence, in this research the influences of heat control on residual stresses and the overall structural Ioad of welded structures were quantified. The relationship between the weid thermal cycle and the resulting residual stress under additional shrinkage restraint was analysed by a successive augmentation of the restraint intensity. This was achieved by systematic low Ioad and component weid tests. lt was observed that the heat control significantly affects the local residual stresses and the overall structural Ioad of welded structures. A high interpass temperature increases the global and local welding stresses in particular. Moreover, the transferability of experimental welding results obtained from small specimens according to applicable codes to real component geometries was investigated. With the help of these findings it is possible to improve existing heat control concepts for high-strength steel welding.

The successful energy transition in Germany will require offshore wind turbines with outputs >10 MW in the future. To achieve these high outputs, turbines far from coast are required with large subsea jacket structures (30 m up to 50 m) and tall towers (up to 200 m). High-strength steels with a yield strength up to 500 MPa and wall thicknesses up to 150 mm are increasingly being used for these structures. This plac-es high demands on welding manufacturing, especially for high-strength offshore steels. During the manu-facturing process detected defects by NDT require localized repair of welds by gouging and rewelding. Due to a lack of investigations, there are no repair concepts and information in standards and guidelines, par-ticularly for high-strength thick plate joints made of high-strength offshore steels. However, these are ur-gently needed to enable manufacturers, especially SMEs, to carry out safe and economical repairs. There-fore, BAM started the FOSTA project P1629 (IGF 01IF22746N) to investigate the stress-optimized repair (local gouging and welding) of high-strength thick plate joints made of offshore grades in the yield strength range off 355 to 460 MPa and similar weld metal with controlled high-performance GMAW pro-cesses and optimized narrow gouging grooves. The experimental analyses take into account the complex interaction of process, material, and design-related influences on the formation of weld induced stresses and the special microstructure of high-strength fine-grain structural steels. Welding-related material degra-dation and crack-critical residual tensile stresses need to be avoided to ensure high component safety and performance. A reduction in residual stress in the presence of high restraint conditions can be achieved by adapted heat control (if no disassembly measures are possible). The repair process involves manual thermal gouging, which allows the groove configuration to be modi-fied. Modern welding processes using high frequency arc control provide deep root penetration and focused energy input capable of welding narrow seams. A comparison was made between the traditional weld con-figuration with a wide 45° groove and transition arc welding and a narrow 30° groove with modern welding process. Even in the case of free shrinkage specimens, the narrow groove weld exhibits a significant reduc-tion of residual stresses, cf. Figure 1, especially in the HAZ and toward the adjacent base material. This can be attributed to the lower weld metal volume needed and the reduction of heat input per layer due to the controlled arc process. For the purposes of this comparison, the same weld seam build-up (but different number of layers) has been applied to both seam configurations. Note that in industrial application (manu-al welding), the wider groove would be welded with several off-center weld beads with conventional weld-ing process. In this analysis this would cause asymmetric effects regarding the residual stress state, diffi-cult to compare to each other. Component-related welding experiments on special testing equipment, adapted process and heat control concepts along with variable groove configurations will be developed and recommendations for guidelines elaborated. This is the prerequisite for fully utilizing the strength potential of high-strength steels and making a valuable contribution to the energy transition in Germany, especially for steel-processing SMEs.