Use Of Segregation As A Weld Design Opportunity

When formulating welding consumables the weld metal designer must consider the metallurgical segregation processes and microstructural evolution steps resulting in the cooling of the weld deposit from its liquid state. The designer needs to systematically address each of the necessary steps in the metallurgical evolution to achieve the preferred optimum weld metal microstructure and properties. The selection of the optimal Rare Earth (RE) element addition to achieve intragranular precipitation of inoculants for acicular ferrite formation in high strength low alloy steel weld metal is introduced here to demonstrate the application of fundamentals of microstructure evolution.