Ferritic Stainless Steel Welding with the A-TIG Process

The A-TIG welding process presents as main advantage the possibility of increase in the penetration depth using the same parameters as conventional TIG welding. Many researchers show the influence of the active flux on the weld geometry in austenitic stainless steel, however little it is known of the influence of this process in the weld fillet shape and metallurgic characteristics of the weld fillet in ferritic stainless steel. In this work different types of flux are applied with the objective to verify possible influences on the weld fillet in ferritic stainless steel welding, such its visual aspect, the microstructure, the hardness and resistance to the impact of the fusion zone. Bead on plate welds were made without metal filler Six types of flux had been used, and one flux was prepared in laboratory (DO) and the others five were commercial flux. The results indicate that the use of the flux allows increase in the penetration with significant changes in the aspect of the weld fillet. It was verified that the microstructure and the hardness of the weld fillet of this ferritic stainless steel was not been affected by the flux type. The result of the Charpy test in the metal base it was batter in the fusion zone