Techno-economic Feasibility of Modified Pulse Arc Deposition on Thick Section of Quenched and Tempered Steel

Abstract

Quenched and Tempered (Q&T) steels welded structures that have numerous applications, particularly in the defence industry. However these steels are particularly prone to Hydrogen Assisted Cold Cracking (HACC) and require a highly-skilled welder to fabricate defect-free structures. This is due to the selection of the manual metal arc welding process of shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). The introduction of Modified Pulsed arc mode of depositions; a variation to Pulsed Arc deposition, has advanced deposition rates and can be employed by welders with a greater variation in skill. In this body of work, full strength butt welds are fabricated on 20mm, sections of Q&T AS/NZS 3597 Grade 700 steel under a high level of restraint using Modified Pulse Gas Metal Welding (GMAW-P) and conventional Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW). The study investigates the economic feasibly of the two modes of deposition and the propensity for cracking when welded under high restraint. The study concluded that modified GMAW-P achieved reduction of 63% in the ‘Arc-On' time and an 88% reduction in the total normalised fabrication time. However, due to the increased propensity to lack of fusion type defects, strict controls must be employed in optimising the welding procedure to mediate for such defects if GMAW-P is to provide a techno-economically beneficial alternative to conventional SMAW when welding Q&T steels.