Laser welding for 30Cr3 ultra-high-strength steel

In this paper, a disk laser welding was developed to join 3-mm thin-Sect. 30Cr3 ultra-high-strength steel which was widely used in aerospace. The microstructure and mechanical properties of welded joint were investigated in detail. The results indicated that the recommended laser linear energy range were between 150 and 165 J/mm to guarantee that the melting width was up to 1 mm as well as less oxidation, spatter, and depression on the weld. Meanwhile, for the as-welded (AW) condition, the base metal (BM) consisted of ferrite matrix with distributing small spherical carbides, also known as spherical pearlite. While, the fine grained region, coarse grained region, and weld metal were all composed of martensite. However, the partially transformed region mainly consisted martensite with a little of spherical pearlite. Meanwhile, the average grain sizes of weld metal, HAZ, and base metal were 1.3 & mu;m, 1.5 & mu;m, and 1.8 & mu;m, respectively. However, for the post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) condition, the whole welded joint was all composed of tempered martensite, and the average grain size of welded joint was about 1.7 & mu;m. The tensile strength of the welded joint was higher than that of the base metal both in the AW and PWHT condition as all the fracture with shrinkage occurred in the BM of the specimens. Additionally, the average yield strength of the AW and PWHT are about 600 MPa and 1700 MPa, respectively.