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Metals and how to weld them ...Welding nickel alloys Before I get in too deep, I have been asked for the parameters for the welds in the video..here they are..**the 15-5ph stainless joint was ,050" thick and with a .030-.050" gap took 40-45 amps.**the inconel 718 joint was .032" thick and only took 23-25 amps**the 4130 chromoly was .048" thick and required 45-50 amps**no pulse was used, just straight current on a miller syncrowave 250.**I was using an oversize cup 15/16" with a gas lens and screen diffuser with 35cfh and the tungsten extended about 3/4" to allow the camera to get the arc.Ok, exactly what are nickel alloys?Most technical guides define nickel alloys as metals that contain more nickel than anything else.Some books state that nickel alloys contain more than 50% nickel.The nickel alloys we will talk about today have more than 50% nickel. Like:Inconel 718 --- 19Cr 3Mo .9Ti 5.1Cb .5Al 18Fe balance NiInconel 625 --- 21.5Cr 9Mo 3.7Cb balance NiInconel 82 --- 20Cr 2.5Cb 3.2Mn balance NiHastelloy X --- 22Cr 1.5Co 9Mo .6W 18.5Fe balance NiNichrome V --- 20 Cr balance NiWaspaloy --- 19.5Cr 13.5Co 4Mo 3Ti 1.4Al .006B balance NiHASTELLOY S --- 16Cr 15Mo .3Al .06La balance NiC263 --- 20Cr 20Co 6Mo 2.2Ti .45Al balance NiAs you can see all the nickel alloys listed above contain more than 50% nickel.Some of them contain fairly large amounts of iron but some of them dont contain any iron all Properties of nickel alloys:Low conductivity this is why nickel alloyed with chromium is often used for heating elements. Because of a low conductivity heating elements made from nickel alloys get red hot quickly when electric current is applied.Resistance to oxidation and scaling nickel alloys can be heated to red hot temperatures repeatedly without scaling.Corrosion resistance nickel alloys dont rust and are very corrosion resistant to certain acids and alkaline solutions.Strength and hardness - alloy additions of aluminum and titanium allow some heat treatable nickel alloys to be strengthened substantially by heat treatment.Nickel alloys will not harden from heating and quenching. Only certain nickel alloys can be hardened by heat treatment and it involves holding the metal at an elevated and controlled temperature for a long time. This heat treatment is known as aging or precipitation hardening.The two main properties of nickel alloys that most determine what welding techniques to use are:1. Low thermal conductivity2. Sluggish puddleA low thermal conductivity means that heat does not dissipate easily. Another way of saying that is that heat builds up very easily. Stainless steels have low thermal conductivity also and we know one of the tricks to prevent heat build up is to get in , and get out you know, dont fart around .hit it, get moving, and get out.Chill blocks to pull the heat out are good for stainless, and good for nickel alloys too.The sluggish puddle is another property of nickel alloys , especially when tig welding. That is why aerospace welders who tig weld nickel alloys often use an oversized tig cup. The extra argon shielding you get with a big cup helps keep the hot tip of the filler rod shielded and that keeps the puddle more fluid. A more fluid puddle needs less amperage to move the puddle. Less amperage means less heat input, less distortion, less likelihood for cracking, and less heat affected zone.all good things.3 of the most widely used nickel alloys in the aerospace industry are :1. Inconel 713c turbine blades2. Inconel 718 engine cases, compressor blades3. Hastelloy X hot section parts like burner cans that operate at red hot temperatures and withstand thousands of heating and cooling cycles.In other industries like power generation, nickel alloys have another application.Cladding.Tons upon tons of inconel 625 welding wire are used each year to weld cladding on steel boiler tubes to extend their life. Inconel 625 is one of the most widely used nickel alloy filler metals becauseIt works.Inconel 625 welding wire is used routinely to weld layers of heat and corrosion resistance cladding on less corrosion resistant steel .It stands to reason that if inconel 625 can be used to clad steel or chromium steel boiler tubes, it is also a good choice as a welding rod for welding steel to other metals.Another property of nickel is that it remains soft and ductile after the weld is done.Nickel welding rods will not harden by heating and quenching. No matter what the base alloy is, a nickel welding deposit will not be hard and brittle.Thats some useful information.So lets recap.We know now that nickel alloys have a low thermal conductivity, resist scaling and oxidation at elevated temperatures, will not harden--even when used to weld carbon steel or cast iron, and we know that nickel alloys can retain these properties even when subjected to multiple heating and cooling cycles.With these properties, it makes perfect sense that inconel 625 would be used for cladding boiler tubes in power plants.

TIP TIG superior nickel weld quality than traditional TIG weldsIf you want all position, defect free alloy welds at superior quality than conventional TIG, Pulsed MIG or the flux cored process and you would like to produce all position weld deposition rates equal to pulsed MIG and flux cored, consider the TIP TIG process. A five minute TIP TIG demo will show any weld professional that when welding in any weld position, thin or thick metals, any alloys and any weld, clad or brazed application, the TIP TIG process is the world's most cost effective process for producing defect free welds.

THE NORTH AMERICAN, PATENT PENDING, ADVANCED TIP TIG PROCESS, IS THE WORLD'S MOST EFFECTIVE WELD, CLAD AND BRAZING PROCESS. TIP TIG IS AN EASY PROCESS TO USE AND ALWAYS DELIVERS SUPERIOR WELD QUALITY THAN TRADITIONAL TIG / PLASMA WELDS. THE BONUS FOR THE WELD SHOP IS WHILE GETTING THE ULTIMATE IN TIG WELD QUALITY, YOU ARE GETTING IT 4 TO 8 TIMES FASTER THAN A TIG WELD:

The manual or automated semiautomatic TIP TIG process can be used with either TIG - Plasma or a laser. TIP TIG will always result in superior weld / clad quality and superior mechanical properties. It does not matter what the application, the weld position, or the alloy to be welded is, TIP TIG will deliver the ultimate attainable weld quality on all Carbon Steels, Stainless, Aluminum, Inconel, Titanium, Hastelloy, Stellite, Duplex, Low and High Alloy Steels, Tool Steels and Cast Steel welds and clad applications.

The Fossil and Nuclear industry will never attain the construction weld quality or productivity (10 to 40 times faster than manual TIG) that the ATT manual and automated weld process can deliver. Oil Platforms - Ship Yards - Naval Vessels and Submarines - The Space and Aircraft Industries - Cryogenic Vessels - Petro Chemical - Refining - Waste to Energy - Industrial Processing - Pulp and Paper - Military Equipment - Medical Equipment - Food and Beverage, none of the North American industries have in their weld shops a weld process that can deliver the weld quality / productivity attainable from the easy to use, semiautomatic ATT process.

Why be concerned about the skilled welder shortage when the moderate priced TIP TIG process is easy to use on the most difficult applications. PQR's will be easy to produce as two simple amp / wire feed weld procedures will weld most of your manual or automated applications. It takes about one hour to learn the one handed TIP TIG techniques. TIP TIG will dramatically reduce your weld rework costs and reduce your product liability concerns as it always will deliver the optimum in weld quality. There is no weld smoke issues and no concerns for spatter. In contrast to most other process it will provide less weld heat input. . If highly cost effective, defect free alloy welds with superior weld appearance are important to you. Click for TIP TIG weld information.

To watch the worlds best process weld on a pipe orbital head copy the following link and note the untouched pipe weld quality and unique multi-pass color without interpass temp control which indicates the very low weld heat. http://youtu.be/byBer6EWy7s

When MIG welding nickel alloys, the welder would note many similarities to welding carbon steels. Nickel has similar mechanical properties to carbon steels, it's the nickel crystalline and metallurgical structure that's very different from iron.

In contrast to carbon steels, when welding nickel, the nickel does not undergo a crystalline / phase change up to its melt temp.To change the grain size requires cold working and annealing. Nickel has great solubility for elements that's why we see alloys such as Nickel - Chrome, Nickel - Iron,

Nickel - Copper, Nickel - Moly and other commercial alloys. In small amounts carbon, manganese, silicon, aluminum and columbian are added, some of the these have a positive influence on the weld and some have a negative influence.

Manganese in the range of 3 to 9 percent is added to nickel copper alloys to improve crack resistance.

Titanium is sometimes added to the filler metals as a deoxidizer for weld porosity reduction.

ED'S MIG GAS FOR NICKEL ALLOYS: Typically straight argon is the gas of choice, and when more weld energy is required argon with 40% helium have been use for MIG and pulsed MIG.

Note for those that having been using gas mixes with Argon - < 30% helium, the weld energy benefits will be minuscule from that helium content, and that's why the 40% helium is recommended. Also be aware that with pulsed MIG, you can tweak the pulsed parameters to put more weld energy in the pulsed droplets, so you won't need the helium mix. I did this many times when establishing cladding procedures for the power and waste management industries.

For decades CO2 or oxygen in the MIG gas was not recommended for Nickel alloys as these alloys are very sensitive to oxidation. In the eighties while carrying out MIG gas research I discovered the value of a small amount of CO2 for MIG welding nickel alloys. Visit the MIG gas section at this site for the gas data. With MIG Nickel alloys, the addition of 0.5 to 1 percent (max) CO2 to argon not only improves the arc stability it will also allow the use of higher, more spray transfer wire feed rates.

INFO ON COMMON NICKEL ALLOYS

Nickel. Solid Solution. 200 series, typically not strengthened by heat treat.

Nickel 200 - 201 used food and chemical processing equipment and pipes. The 201 is used on applications over 600F. Nickel 201 99.5% nickel - Nickel. Precipitation Hardenable. 300 series. Strengthened by heat treatment.Nickel Copper Alloys. Solid Solution. 400 series. High strength. High toughness and great corrosion resistance. 405 is free machining. 405 = 66.% Ni - 31% Cu - 1.25% Fe - 1% Mn.Nickel. Copper Precipitation Hardenable. 500 series. These alloys (K-500) are strengthened with Al and Ti. Used when high strength / hardness and corrosion resistance required. K500 66.5% Ni - 28% Cu - 3% Al.

Nickel Chrome. Solid Solution. 600 series.These are the common alloys we see in use today. 600 - 601 - 625, Good corrosion resistance at high temperature.Good resistance to chloride-ion stress corrosion cracking and corrosion from high purity water. Used in reactors, power plant water wall cladding etc.Alloy 625 good MIG weldability, using pulsed or spray transfer.625 = 61% Ni - 21.5% Cr - 9% Mo - 3.65% Cb - 2.5% Fe -Nickel Chrome. Precipitation Hardenable. 700 series. Strengthen by Al - Ti - Cb additions. Common alloys 713 c - 706 - 718 - X750 - U500 - U700 - R41 - Astoloy - Waspaloy. When Cb is used for strengthening rather than Al - Ti the weldability is improved. Gas Turbines and Aircraft parts. X750 = 73% Ni - 15.5% Cr - 7% Fe - 2.5% - Ti -0.95% Cb.

Nickel Iron Chrome. Solid Solution. 800 series. Common alloys are 800 and 825 and 20Cb. Alloy 800 is used typically in high temp applications, has good carburization / oxidation resistance. The 825 and 20 Cb in strong corrosive situations, good resistance to chloride-ion stress corrosion cracking and reducing acids.825 = 42% Cr - 30% Fe - 21.5% Cr - 35 Mo - 2.5% Cu - 0.9% Ti

Nickel Iron Chrome. Precipitation Hardenable. 900 series. Most common 901 (Incoloy 901). Welds similar to X750, mostly used for forgings that are not welded.901 = 42.7% Ni - 34% Fe - 13.5% Cr -6.2% Mo - 2.5% Ti.

Nickel Moly Alloys. Known as Hastelloy B - N - W. Contains 16 - 28% Mo with some Chrome and iron. B used for hydrochloric acids. N for molten fluoride salts, W for dissimilar metals with good corrosion and oxidation resistance.

Nickel Chrome Moly Alloys. Known as Hastelloy. C - C276 - F - G -X. Alloy C good corrosion and high temp properties. C-276 lower carbon and silicon than C to reduce grain boundary precipitates enables the alloy to be used in as weld condition.

Nickel Silicon Alloy. Hastelloy D. This is a cast alloy with good resistance to sulfuric acid at all temperatures.

Base AlloyAWS Filler Metals. Need more info contact Haynes Alloys. Kokomo IN.

Nickel 200 ERNi 3

Monel 400 ERNi Cu 7

Inconel 600ERNiCr-3 -- ERNiCrFe 6

Inconel 718 718

Inconel X-750 718

For dissimilar applications think about minimum weld dilutionShort circuit and the pulsed mode are recommended for cladding. For nickel chrome welds on carbon steels ERNiCr-3 is a common consumable.

Inconel 600 - 800 to steel or stainless / monel 400.ERNiCr -3 - ERNiCrFe-6

WELDING TIPS, NINE PERCENT NICKEL. CRYOGENIC APPLICATIONS.A common application in which austenitic stainless and 9% nickel steels is in the construction of cryogenic, liquefied natural gas (LNG) containers. These containers can carry liquid argon, natural gas, helium, oxygen, nitrogen etc. These liquid gases are usually in an approximate temp range of -300 to -450F. Carbon steels and alloy steels have poor toughness and ductility at low temperatures. The alloy steels with nickel, austenitic steels typically 304 - 304L 316 - 316L - 347 and aluminum alloys all have excellent low temperature toughness. Please note, TIP TIG will provide superior weld quality than traditional TIG or any MIG transfer mode.

Strict welding regulations are applied to welding cryogenic applications. The weld metal properties should contain low nitrogen, low ferrite, low carbon and high nickel. Filler metals such as Nickel Chrome Molybdenum, Nickel Chrome Iron or high alloy austenitic electrodes.

The Nickel alloy consumables have a coefficient of thermal expansion that is close to the 9% nickel this reduces the risk of thermal fatigue in applications subject to thermal cycling. Typically the mechanical properties of nine percent nickel will be higher than those of the weld consumables utilized. This requires special consideration to weld qualification tests. Note that with the 30X in centrast to the 30XL (low carbon grades).

The higher the carbon content the lower the impact toughness.Shop built stainless steel cryo vessels in the USA are built to ASME Boiler Pressure Vessel Code Section V111. Field erected vessels may use the API 620 Q. Austenitic stainless accounts for the majority of metals used for cryo applications. The rest of the applications use 5 to 9% nickel or aluminum. Where high strength is required nine nickel may be chosen instead of an austenitic steel. Its important to remember that nine percent nickel is an alloy that can rust.

WELDING TIPS FOR NINE PERCENT NICKEL.

The best possible weld process would TIP TIG.Keep the carbon in the rage 700 F, welds that contain high nickel to chrome ratios can be sensitive to sulfur corrosion. This risk is reduced with filler metals that have higher chrome / moly. Alloys 625 / 671. The 671 is AWS (ERNiCr-4 rod)

[] The 625filler, EniCrMo-3 rod , MIG and flux cored wire should be restricted to applications