Hardness joint distribution as a function of the bevel angle in stainless steel joints

Metal welding is a widely studied area for the development of more resistant structures in the automotive, aircraft, nuclear, food, and oil and gas industry. Particularly, the study of the joints has attracted attention since it represents the weakest part of an assembly. The joint quality depends on many parameters such as the input parameters in the welding, the materials ' chemical composition, and the geometry and thickness of the elements. Besides, sometimes the welded structures do not have the same longitudinal axis and thickness, therefore the bevel angle used may affect the quality of the joint. In this way, this investigation is focused on 304 stainless steel welds varying the bevel angle according to standard D1.6. The samples were joined using the gas metal arc welding process with 308 stainless steel as filler metal. The hardness, defects, and discontinuities in the welding zone were studied through microhardness and metallographic image analysis.