Local structure of explosively welded titanium–stainless steel bimetal

Abstract Bimetals targeted for industrial applications are usually designed to combine the properties of two dissimilar metals, e.g. high strength, high hardness and low cost of steels with chemically resistive titanium. In this work the structure of one particular, but for industries very interesting, bimetallic system – Cr/Ni stainless steel clad with titanium has been studied. The material was prepared by explosion welding, a method capable of joining a wide variety of similar or dissimilar materials. Our analysis is based on X-ray micro-diffraction experimentation utilizing hard monochromatic X-rays focused down to micrometer size. In this way the bimetal in bulk form was analyzed and microstructural differences between the joined materials and their interface were determined.