Preventing molten copper penetration to steel grain boundaries during cladding through optimizing GTAW parameters and ferrite band formation.

This study investigated the effect of ferrite band formation for preventing the diffusion of molten copper (Cu) into steel grain boundaries. To this end, the gas tungsten arc welding method was exploited for cladding ERCuAl-A2 and ERCuSi-A filler metals on plain carbon steel. Then, microstructure, cracks, and ferrite bands were characterized and the conditions for the formation of 4.20 wt.% Si in the ferrite band were evaluated using the design of experiments methodology. The results indicated that when cladding with 7.60 wt.% Si takes place with minimum heat input (0.9 kJ/mm), the penetration of the molten Cu will not occur in the grain boundaries of the heat-affected zone in the presence of the %overlap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]