Sorelmetal

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Suggestions for Ductile Iron Production

ADVANCES IN WELDING DUCTILE IRON TO STEEL

by Martin Gagn, Sorelmetal Technical Services

The complex shapes produced by the casting process have enabled Ductile Iron castings to replace numerous steel fabrications. Nevertheless, there are applications where a casting becomes part of a fabrication, which may imply joining different parts by welding Ductile Iron to steel. For example, a Ductile Iron casting could replace a complex steel fabrication and be welded to a section of the assembly which requires the properties of steel. Such practices have unfortunately found limited applications in the industry due to the inherent limitation created by the formation of carbides during solidification of the welded area. However, recent development at Linde Gas (AGA) in Sweden, to which Rio Tinto was associated, opens new avenues for welding Ductile Iron to steel. Procedures developed by the American Welding Society recommend, for Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), the use of high nickel rods with short arc-

metal transfer and pure argon as shielding gas, resulting in relatively low productivity. However, experimental work has shown that optimum results are achieved when using a special variant of high performance GMAW metal transfer in combination with a shielding gas containing both argon and helium with small amounts of some oxidizing components. Figure 1 compares the microhardness profiles across welds obtained a) with usual procedures and b) with optimized procedures. The new welding procedures resulted in the decrease of the hardness of the Ductile Iron / weld interface from 600 VHN to 300 VHN. Microstructural examination related such a decrease to the limited formation of carbides in the fusion zone and the reduction of the thickness of this zone from ~ 0.6 mm to ~ 0.2-0.3 mm. Comparable results were achieved with ferritic and pearlitic Ductile Irons.

STEEL

D.I.

STEEL

D.I.

a) non-optimized

b) optimized

Figure 1. Microhardness Profiles of Welded Specimens.

TABLE 1 CHARPY V-NOTCHED IMPACT RESISTANCE (+ 20C) MATERIAL Weld Parent Metal Interface Parent Metal Weld Parent Metal Interface (Literature (1))
(1) Iron Casting Engineering Handbook, AFS, 2003.

FERRITIC DUCTILE IRON 11 20 J 12 14 J 8 12 J

PEARLITIC DUCTILE IRON 59J Not available 34J

Charpy V-notched impact tests were performed on welded ferritic and pearlitic Ductile Irons. As seen in the table above, the toughness of the weld - Ductile Iron interface is nearly doubled with respect to typical values reported in literature. More information on the properties of the welds can be found in the technical paper jointly published by Linde Gas and Rio Tinto, which is referenced below. During the experimental program, a variety of plate and tube geometries were welded, Figure 2. As seen in this figure, a candidate component currently fabricated of a welded assembly of preformed steel to

which steel tubes are welded, as shown in Figure 2, is the rear axle of a heavy vehicle; the objective was to replace the costly preformed steel section of the axle by a Ductile Iron casting, to which steel tubes would be welded. The Ductile Iron-to-steel welding technology was successfully developed on prototype parts, meeting all customers requirements. For more details, ask your Sorelmetal Technical Services metallurgist, or your Sorelmetal agent for a copy of the technical paper (see below) published on this technology or contact us via our website www.sorelmetal.com.

Figure 2. Examples of Ductile Iron-to-Steel Welded Assemblies. Technical Paper: M. Gagn, S. Leclerc, S. Helgee, N. Stenbacka and J. Tani, Welding Ductile Iron to Steel: A Reality , AFS Transactions, vol. 114, 2006.

July 2006