Experimental Investigations on Activated-TIG Welding of Inconel 625 and AISI 304 Alloys

Activated-TIG (A-TIG) welding is an offshoot of gas tungsten arc welding process (GTAW), which uses a flux, applied over the faying surface before carrying out welding. It results in increased joint penetration and depth-to-width ratio. In this present investigation, Inconel 625 and AISI 304 are welded individually and together using A-TIG process. Owing to their high resistance to corrosion and wear, those materials are commonly used in marine and ship building applications. The process parameters are fixed based on a number of experimental trials and the welding is carried out using the optimized parameters. Investigations on the weldments such as tensile strength and microstructure are carried out and presented. When compared to GTAW process, results show that the weldments exhibit better mechanical and metallurgical properties while welded using A-TIG process. It is also imperative from the results that A-TIG process is a good contender for dissimilar joints as well.