EFFECTS OF COPPER IN THE WELDING OF MILD STEEL AND LOW ALLOY STEELS.

The second part of the article deals with the effects of copper on impact properties, hardness, fatigue strength, corrosion resistance, and creep. It is shown that the main advantages of copper additives in welding consumables lie in the possibility of obtaining strength and yield point/UTS ratio increases without any sacrifice in ductility or notch toughness and in improving resistance to atmospheric corrosion. For nuclear applications, however, copper (and phosphorus) above trace level concentrations render the weld metal prone to fast neutron irradiation embrittlement and therefore copper must be ruled out for these applications. 14 refs.