Estimate of weldability of the hot work tool steels via the CCT diagrams

Abstract

Weldability represents a very complex property of a material that shows its ability to form a welded joint of certain characteristics, by application of the adequate welding procedure. It can be determined in several ways. The procedure of weldability estimate, based on the transformation diagrams of continuous cooling (CCT-diagrams) and the measured temperature cycles, is presented in this paper. The objective was to determine the weldability to be able to define the optimal hard-facing technology of the thermo stable steels. The temperature cycles were measured and then the obtained values for the critical cooling time t8/5 were entered into the CCT diagrams to estimate the hardness and microstructure of the welded joint's zones. Those two parameters are indicators of the steel's weldability. Experiments were conducted on the multi-layered hard-faced samples made of the steel for manufacturing of the forging dies.