Welding of titanium and stainless steel using the composite insert

The paper concerns the possibility of obtaining a lasting permanent joint of dissimilar metals: technically pure titanium and stainless steel using laser welding and an intermediate composite insert. The insert was a four-layer composition of plates of steel, copper, niobium, and titanium welded by explosion. The material layers used in the insert prevented the molten steel and titanium from mixing, which excluded the formation of brittle intermetallic compounds, such as FeTi and Fe2Ti. The optimization of explosion welding parameters provided a high quality of the four-layer composition and the absence of defects in the area of the joint of insert plates. The results of strength tests showed that values of the ultimate strength and yield of the permanent joint with the composite insert welded by explosion are comparable to the strength characteristics of titanium.