The role of shielding gas on mechanical, metallurgical and corrosion properties of corten steel welded joints of Railway Coaches using GMAW

This analysis lays emphasis on finding a suitable combination of shielding gas for welding underframe members such as sole bar of Railway Coaches made of corten steel; for improved mechanical, metallurgical and corrosion properties of welds using copper coated solid MIG/MAG welding filler wire size 1.2 mm conforming to AWS/SFA 5.18 ER 70 S in Semi-automatic GMAW process. Solid filler wire is preferred by welders due to less fumes, practically no slag and easy manipulation of welding torch with smooth wire flow during corrosion repair attention, when compared to Flux cored wire. Three joints using Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) with shielding gases viz., Pure CO2, (80% Ar – 20% CO2 ) and (90% Ar – 10% CO2 ) were made from test pieces cut from Sole bar material of Railway Coach. Study of Mechanical properties such as tensile strength, hardness and toughness revealed that welded joint made using shielding gas (80% Ar – 20% CO2 ) has better Mechanical properties compared to the other two shielding gases and comparable to that of Parent metal. Type of Shielding gas used has influence on the chemical composition and macro & micro structures. The Tafel extrapolation study of freshly ground samples in 3.5% NaCl solution revealed that the welded joint made using shielding gas (80% Ar – 20% CO2 ) has also better corrosion resistance which is comparable to the Parent metal as well as similar commercial steels.

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Opracowanie ze środków MNiSW w ramach umowy 812/P-DUN/2016 na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.