MECHANICAL AND METALLURGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF TIG WELDED HIGH TEMPERATURE MATERIALS

Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding is a commonly used welding technique due to its versatility and ease that can be maintained in almost all type of working conditions. Stainless Steel possessing high strength and toughness is usually known to offer major challenges during its welding. The current study presents some fundamental observations on the effect of TIG welding process on the mechanical and metallurgical properties such as hardness, microstructure and tensile strength of the high temperature material Stainless steel 310. The TIG welding is selected in this investigation due to its wide range of applications over the high temperature materials. The welding was done on specimens with different process parameters like welding current, shielding gas. The mechanical properties like tensile, Vickers hardness test have been carried out for the weld samples. Microstructure studies have been carried out for Base Metal (BM), Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) and Weld Zone (WZ). From these test results, the welding properties were compared and the optimal parametric point was found.