Study of microstructure geometry and properties of laser beam welded joints made of S960QL structural steel and S304 corrosion-resistant steel

Contemporary grades of structural steels are produced using a very advanced thermo-mechanical treatment processes, so their properties strongly depend on the obtained structure. Corrosion-resistant austenitic steels have a high hot cracking tendency. Therefore, it is advantageous to use welding technologies, such as laser welding, that limit the size of the joint and its heat-affected zones and thus the deformations caused by the welding process. Laser welding is also characterized by small amount of heat transferred into the material during the process which limits the hot cracking tendency. During the tests, 8 samples made of S960QL steel and S304 steel, were prepared using a Trumpf TruDisk 3302 laser welding device. The produced samples were subjected to macro- and microscopy metallographic tests. Static tensile test and bend test were also performed as well as a hardness Vickers test under a load of 100N. Good quality joints were obtained, characterized by a small number of welding imperfections, small size of the weld and heat affected zone, as well as satisfactory mechanical properties.