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A standard laser-arc hybrid welding (S-LAHW) and LAHW with preplaced cut wire inside the groove before welding were studied and compared. The S-LAHW setup revealed problems with filler wire delivery to the root, resulting in substantial hardness increase due to bainitic-martensitic transformation. The applied finite element modeling confirmed significant cooling rate increase in the root area for deep penetration welds. Preplacement of cut wire prior to welding reduced hardness providing improved welds with higher homogeneity. This method was subsequently applied for multi-pass welding that revealed insufficient nucleation of acicular ferrite on non-metallic inclusions (NMIs). It is implied that a critical cooling rate has been exceeded where the NMIs become inactive, resulting in a microstructure consisting of a martensite and bainite mixture. This kind of microstructure is clearly harmful for the weld metal toughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation addresses laser-arc hybrid welding of 45 mm thick steel with variation in a wide range of process parameters. High volume fraction of acicular ferrite formed in the upper part of the weld metal regardless process parameters. Significantly lower fraction of acicular ferrite was found in the root due to substantially increased cooling rates and the inability to deliver filler wire to this region, resulting in bainite-martensite microstructures in the root. The delivery of filler wire to the root can be enhanced by increasing the air gap between the plates. Higher heat inputs reduce cooling rates in the root which create softer and ductile microstructures, at the expense of a much wider and coarser grained HAZ. The results obtained showed high fusion line and weld metal toughness at low temperature (−50 °C). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many years, the oil and gas industry has utilized superduplex stainless steels due to their high strength and excellent corrosion resistance. Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) was used with superduplex filler wire to create walls with different heat input. Due to the multiple heating and cooling cycles during layer deposition, brittle secondary phases may form such as intermetallic sigma (σ) phase. By inspecting deposited walls within wide range of heat inputs (0.40–0.87 kJ/mm), no intermetallic phases formed due to low inter-pass temperatures used, together with the high Ni content in the applied wire. Lower mechanical properties were observed with high heat inputs due to low ferrite volume fraction, precipitation of Cr nitrides and formation of secondary austenite. The walls showed good toughness values based on both Charpy V-notch and CTOD (crack tip opening displacement) testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]