FCAW process to avoid the use of post weld heat treatment

Post weld heat treatment (PWHT) is the most common technique employed for relieving residual stresses after general repair welding. Besides, the primary purpose of reducing the effect of stresses induced by welding, PWHT is also intended to temper the metallurgical structure of the heat-affected zone (HAZ). Unfortunately, there are significant difficulties in carrying out post weld heat treatment such as; the complexity of weld geometry, the possibility of distortion in the case of any mechanical loads, difficulty in heating symmetrically, and also PWHT may cause degradation of the material properties (especially creep and tensile strength in the case of multi PWHT cycles). Most of the repairs in industry are performed with manual metal arc welding (MMAW), however, the benefits of the flux cored arc welding (FCAW) process have been appreciated by industry for many years. Guidelines in the current welding standards in addressing the issue of temper bead welding (TBW) when fully automated flux cored arc welding is used are very limited. This paper reports research work carried out to investigate, whether a fully automated flux cored arc welding process with bead tempering can be used in repair welding instead of manual metal arc welding in order to eliminate the use of post weld heat treatment. The paper also examines different percentages of bead overlaps and studies their effects on the mechanical properties as well as the microstructures. The results show that desirable microstructures and hardness values can be obtained using flux cored arc welding when 70% bead overlap is used. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.