Evaluation of the Shielding Gas Influence on the Weldability of Ferritic Stainless Steel

The use of stainless steels has been nowadays widespread in a number of industrial sectors. They usually offer exceptional performance regarding mechanical and corrosion properties, but according to Lee et al. (2008) stainless steels are considered as high cost materials as far as solutions for structural engineering are concerned. However, this material group can provide aesthetic characteristics as well as outstanding versatility, easy cleaning and maintenance conditions. Nevertheless, there are still plentiful possibilities for applying stainless steels in new situations or improving their use in current applications due to their appealing visual aspect and durability. In the automotive industry, for instance, parts of the exhaustion system are in general composed of tubes and blanks (stamped metal sheets) that usually are welded and have ferritic stainless steels as the main base material. According to Alves et al. (2002), the main ferritic stainless steels used in the hot portion of automotive exhaustion systems are the AISI 409 and 441. On the other hand, in the cold portion the AISI 409, 439 and 436 are normally utilized. Faria (2006) states that automotive exhaustion systems went through a number of changes along the last 20 years as a consequence of more restrict pollution policies, needs for longer durability and higher engine efficiencies as well as requirements for reduction in weight and costs. Stainless steels used in the hot parts of automotive exhaustion systems, according to Sekita et al. (2004), must be refractory, which can be accomplished by niobium additions, high levels of molybdenum and optimized silicon presence. The same authors also mention the importance of having a good formability in such hot parts. The market for stainless steels has experienced constant growth because of their excellent properties and continuous improvement in manufacturing of these materials, especially when issues like increase in process productivity and reduction in costs are taken into consideration. However, recently there has been a sharp increase in the international prices of alloying elements largely used in stainless steels, mainly nickel and molybdenum. As a result, the most traditional stainless steels class (austenitic) went through severe price rise worldwide. Fortunately, the ferritic class, which contains no nickel, emerges as an alternative for some applications, but sometimes some drawbacks have to be figured out before replacing the austenitic class.


Introduction
The use of stainless steels has been nowadays widespread in a number of industrial sectors.They usually offer exceptional performance regarding mechanical and corrosion properties, but according to Lee et al. (2008) stainless steels are considered as high cost materials as far as solutions for structural engineering are concerned.However, this material group can provide aesthetic characteristics as well as outstanding versatility, easy cleaning and maintenance conditions.Nevertheless, there are still plentiful possibilities for applying stainless steels in new situations or improving their use in current applications due to their appealing visual aspect and durability.In the automotive industry, for instance, parts of the exhaustion system are in general composed of tubes and blanks (stamped metal sheets) that usually are welded and have ferritic stainless steels as the main base material.According to Alves et al. (2002), the main ferritic stainless steels used in the hot portion of automotive exhaustion systems are the AISI 409 and 441.On the other hand, in the cold portion the AISI 409, 439 and 436 are normally utilized.Faria (2006) states that automotive exhaustion systems went through a number of changes along the last 20 years as a consequence of more restrict pollution policies, needs for longer durability and higher engine efficiencies as well as requirements for reduction in weight and costs.Stainless steels used in the hot parts of automotive exhaustion systems, according to Sekita et al. (2004), must be refractory, which can be accomplished by niobium additions, high levels of molybdenum and optimized silicon presence.The same authors also mention the importance of having a good formability in such hot parts.The market for stainless steels has experienced constant growth because of their excellent properties and continuous improvement in manufacturing of these materials, especially when issues like increase in process productivity and reduction in costs are taken into consideration.However, recently there has been a sharp increase in the international prices of alloying elements largely used in stainless steels, mainly nickel and molybdenum.As a result, the most traditional stainless steels class (austenitic) went through severe price rise worldwide.Fortunately, the ferritic class, which contains no nickel, emerges as an alternative for some applications, but sometimes some drawbacks have to be figured out before replacing the austenitic class.
regarding the weld beads produced with the ER430Ti and ER430LNb wires.The weld bead appearance resulted from the ER430Ti utilization was significantly inferior (lower wettability and poor superficial quality).This fact was mainly linked to the ER430Ti superficial roughness, which resulted in an irregular feeding.In spite of the references presented so far, there is still lack of information concerning the weldability of ferritic stainless steels.Concerning the welding of the ferritic stainless steels, Stenbacka & Persson (1992) mention that GMA welding of stainless steels is commonly carried out shielded by argon with low levels of an oxidant (O 2 or CO 2 ).According to them, the presence of oxidizing components blended with argon promotes arc stability and metal transfer improvement.The advantage of the CO 2 addition in the shielding gas mixture would be cost reduction related, yet metal transfer is strongly affected.The same authors believe that a small amount of CO 2 added to argon should be used for short-circuiting transfer.According to Chae et al. (2008), the addition of CO 2 to argon improves the wettability of the weld bead, improving the weld quality.However, Strassburg (1976) claims that an increase in the proportion of oxidizing elements in the shielding gas increases the loss of molybdenum, chromium and niobium.Lundvist (1980), states that the addition of CO 2 in the shielding gas result in carbon absorption and also in oxidation of the deposited metal.The negative aspect related to carbon incorporation into the weld pool is that the content of ferrite in the weld bead might get lower; as carbon is a strong austenite producer at high temperatures, during cooling, martensite might form along the ferritic grain boundaries, impairing the tenacity of the welded joint.There have been some studies about the shielding gas used for welding austenitic stainless steels.Tusek & Suban (2000), for instance, studied the effect of hydrogen in argon as the shielding gas for arc welding of this stainless steel class.When GMA welding was used, the hydrogen addition to argon increases melting rate and melting efficiency of the arc, but the increase is much smaller than in GTA welding.Durgutlu (2004) reported the effect of hydrogen added to argon during GTA welding of 316L austenitic stainless steel plates.In this case, the mean grain size in the weld bead increased with rising hydrogen contents.In addition, the weld bead penetration depth and width increased as the hydrogen content was raised.Gülenç et al. (2005) studied GMA welding of 304L stainless steel samples and observed that the toughness of the weld beads increases with rising Hydrogen amount added to argon and with increase in the welding current level.Liao & Chen (1998) examined how the miscrostructure and mechanical properties of 304 stainless steel welds are influenced by mixtures of carbon dioxide (2 to 20%) in argon.They detected that spattering increases, notch toughness is affected by the delta-ferrite amount and oxidation potential, specially at room temperature with increase in the CO 2 content.Despite the facts discussed so far, the volume of information available in the current literature about GMA welding with ferritic stainless steels wires is still very scarce, mainly in relation to the shielding gas effect on the welded joints.Thus, this manuscript aims to analyze the metallurgical characteristics of a ferritic stainless steel weldments by studying the influence of the shielding gas (argon by itself and blended with O 2 or CO 2 ) on the chemical composition, microstructure, hardness and ductility of the weld beads.It is expected that a broader insight of the subject can help users and developers in the pursuit of more productive and safe welded structures (optimized filler metal and gas selection).

Materials and experimental procedure
In this study two different types of wires for GMA welding, namely ER430Ti and ER430LNb (both with a diameter of 1.0 mm), were used to assess the influence of stabilizing elements on the weld bead microstructure produced.The chemical composition of each wire is shown in Table 1.Each wire was combined with different shielding gases to evaluate any influence of the arc atmosphere on the weld bead chemical composition.The welded samples consisted of beads deposited side by side and in layers on the surface of 6-mm-thick plates previously cut in 40x40 mm from a UNS 43932 bi-stabilized ferritic stainless steel.The chemical composition of the base metal is presented in The effectiveness of metal transfer from the wire to the weld pool and so the influence of the wire on the weld bead microstructure are mainly governed by the wire and shielding gas chemical compositions and by the type and stability of the metal transfer.The microstructure, and consequent properties, of the resultant weld bead also dependents on the volume of the weld pool and on the heat input produced, which in turn will govern the thermal cycle (weld zone cooling rate from the fusion temperature).Thus, in order to have a fair comparison of welding conditions under different wire and shielding gas combinations, first of all it is necessary to find welding settings as similar as possible to each other for all the experiments.These settings are not usually the same, since the optimized situation is different for each combination of wire and shielding gas used and their pursuit is typically a complicate task due to the quantity of variables involved in GMA welding.Thus, to have such similar welding conditions, some approaches were applied to the experiments.In order that the same metal transfer mode was achieved for all the situations, in this case the short-circuit one, the arc was kept short by using a constant voltage power supply and by setting the arc voltage always at 20 V. The welding current is probably the most important parameter that controls heat in the arc and its delivery to the weld pool.Consequently, the current level should be virtually the same for all the samples.This intent was accomplished by appropriately setting the wire feed speed and varying the contact tip-to-work piece distance between 12 and 18 mm.The welding current accepted range was 170 ± 2 A. The WFS values set for both ER430Ti and ER430LNb wires was 7.6 m/min.As a way to reach approximately the same weld pool volume and the same heat input for all the samples, the deposition rates, for a given current level, were managed to be equivalent.This was possible by making the ratio between the wire feed speeds and the welding travel speeds constant throughout the tests.The welding travel speed was set at 20 cm/min.Filho et al. (2010) and Ferreira Filho andFerraresi (2008, 2010) show in details that the welding conditions and the weld bead shapes were quite similar for all the situations evaluated.The equivalency in welding conditions and weld bead shapes is crucial to avoid influence on the metallurgical formations other than that one exerted by the wire and shielding gas combination.More straightforward approaches for the experimental procedure, like just setting the same welding parameters for each combination of gas and wire, would be unfair and also lead to misjudgments.With the welding conditions already defined, welding samples, for each combination of wire and shielding gas, were finally produced with four layers of weld beads.The characterization of the deposited molten wire in each welded sample was carried out in the central part of the cross section taken from the last weld bead of the last deposited layer.Chemical analysis of the deposits was carried out with a Solaris CCD optical emission spectrometer (one measurement for each specimen).The resultant microstructures were characterized by using a Leica DMRXP optical microscope (cross sections etched by Vilella's reagent).Samples consisted of 2-mm-thick sheets previously cut in 50x100 mm from a UNS 43932 bi-stabilized ferritic stainless steel were square butt welded with a 3 mm gap in addition as an approach to assess a situation commonly found in automotive exhaustion systems.These complementary samples allowed taking into account the effect of weld bead dilution on the resultant microstructures and mechanical properties for the different shielding gas and wire combinations evaluated.

Weld bead chemical composition
Table 3 shows the chemical composition of the weld beads produced with the different combinations of wires and shielding gases.As seen, using only argon, the weld bead composition was similar to that one of the wire in each case (Table 1).This was expected to happen considering the fact that argon is an inert gas and the small difference found is probably related to sampling and measurement intrinsic errors.On the other hand, perceptible differences in the content of carbon, silicon, manganese, titanium and niobium took place when O 2 or CO 2 were present in the shielding gas.
Figures 1 and 2 graphically shows the changes in the percentage of carbon in the metal deposit according to the shielding gas used respectively to ER430Ti and ER430LNb.It can be noticed that with the increase in the CO 2 gas content there was a proportional increase in carbon in the weld bead, fact also observed by Lundvist (1980) and by Liao & Chen (1998).It is worth noting that with the ER430LNb wire the carbon presence was significantly larger (0.094% for 8% of CO 2 content, for instance).The ER430Ti wire led to a much lower value (0.046% for 8% of CO 2 content, for instance).respectively show the changes in silicon percentage in the weld bead depending on the shielding gas used to ER430Ti and ER430LNb.Note that the amount of these two elements decreased in the weld beads produced with both wires as the O 2 or CO 2 content in the gas mixture was raised.This fact can be explained by the deoxidizing function of such elements.
Once more the effect with the ER430Ti wire was less evident.The contents of manganese and silicon in the weld bead were much higher for the titanium alloyed wire than for the other one, which is a direct consequence of the larger presence of such elements in this wire.(2001).The presence of martensite and precipitates inside the grains increased as the shielding gas became more oxidizing.As seen before in Figure 1, there was an increase in carbon content in the weld pool with the presence of CO 2 .This fact suggests that the severe drop in titanium amount with the increase of CO 2 contents in the shielding gas (Figure 7) is the responsible for martensite formation (it is known that titanium picks up carbon to form precipitates, retaining ferritic phases and avoiding by that martensite formation).
The microstructures of the weld beads with ER430LNb, Figures 9(b) to 13(b), were also composed of a ferritic matrix, with columnar and coarse grains.However, no presence of martensite is observed, regardless of the content of CO 2 in the shielding gas.This might be explained, despite the carbon absorption when CO 2 was used (Figure 2), by a lower content of carbon in the wire.Even so, the grains were as coarse as those found with ER430Ti wire.This fact can be explained by the Titanium precipitates high thermal stability during welding, especially after high heat inputs, as verified by Wang & Wang (2008).Niobium does not present the same grain growth effect as titanium does.It was not possible to observe changes in the precipitate quantities as the shielding gas was varied.

Weld microstructure in the square butt joints
Based on the base and filler metals chemical compositions (Table 1 and 2, respectively) and in a dilution level of 39% (mean level for all shielding gases used), the microstructures and chemical compositions were estimated through Schaeffler diagrams for the case of weld beads produced using the ER430Ti wire (Figure 14 and 15).As seen in Figure 14, the ER430Ti filler metal is located in the ferrite-martensite region, whilst the base metal falls in the ferritic region.The weld bead is located on the border between the ferritic and ferritic-martensitic regions, that is, carbon additions might lead to martensite formation in the fusion zone.Also from the diagram, the weld beads are estimated to have 0.070% of carbon, 0.79% of silicon, 0.46% manganese, 17.29% of chromium, 0.33% of nickel and 0.07% of niobium.Applying the Schaeffler diagram methodology also to the samples welded with the ER430LNb wire (Figure 15), just ferritic microstructure was estimated to take place in the fusion zone.Concerning the chemical composition, the weld beads in this case are expected to have 0.023% of carbon, 0.12% of silicon, 0.35% of manganese, 17.49% of chromium, 0.38% of nickel and 0.37% of niobium.In the ER430Ti wire case (Figures 16(a) a 19 (a)), a ferritic matrix with titanium precipitates was observed in all grains, structure also observed by Madeira (2007) using SEM.Throughout the images it is possible to notice the increase in the amount of precipitates all around as the CO 2 content in the gas was raised.This fact is due to the increase in the presence of carbon in the fusion zone.It is worth saying that large carbon amounts can also form chromium precipitates, which decrease the corrosion resistance of the weld beads.The estimations carried out by Schaeffler diagrams, in which titanium is not taking into account, showed the presence of ferrite and martensite along the grain boundaries in the microstructures.However, this was not the case of the weld beads produced using up to 8% of CO 2 .This fact shows that titanium, up to this level of CO 2 , was successful as a stabilizing element.
In the ER430LNb wire case (Figures 16 (b) a 19 (b)), a ferritic matrix with probably Nb precipitates formed in all grains.Despite it was not measured, an increase in the number of precipitates is visually verified as the CO 2 content in the gas was raised, but not as remarkable as for the ER430Ti wire case.The increase in the presence of C in the fusion zone is likely the reason for the increasing number of precipitates in the ER430LNb case as well.As martensite was not observed along the grain boundaries with shielding gases with up to 8% of CO 2 in the weld beads produced in the square butt joints (with dilution), but it was found in the weld beads with dilution from 4% of CO 2 and using the ER430Ti wire, an extra shielding gas containing 25% of CO 2 was assessed for both wires.
As showed in Figure 20 (a), for the ER430Ti case, besides the formation of ferritic matrix and precipitates, there is also martensite formed along the grain boundaries when 25% of CO 2 is used in the shielding gas.In this case, the titanium present in the wire was unable to cause an adequate stabilization and the free carbon leads to transformation of austenite into martensite during the weld bead cooling.For the ER430LNb wire case (Figure 20 (b)), there was not martensite present in the weld beads even with the use of such level of CO 2 .
In this case, the niobium in this wire was able to stabilize the carbon for all the shielding gases.

Welded joints microhardness
Table 4 presents the microhardness values measured in the ferritic matrix for the ER430Ti and ER430LNb wires.Table 5 shows the microhardness values measured in the martensite formations in the weld beads produced with the ER430Ti wire and with Ar+25%CO 2 as the shielding gas.Table 5. Microhardness values measured in the martensite formations in the fusion zone.
Figures 21 and 22 show graphically, for the ER430Ti wires ER430LNb respectively, the microhardness values observed in the fusion zones versus the shielding gas used.The microhardness values taken from the ferritic matrix of the weld beads produced with the ER430Ti wire and with argon and Ar+2%O 2 as shielding gases were very similar to those measured in the base metal ferritic matrix.With the addition of CO 2 in the shielding gas there was a significant rise in the microhardness levels, which was probably due to the large number of Ti precipitates present, as seen in Figures 16 to 20.With Ar+25%CO 2 , martensite was formed along the grain boundaries, which is put in evidence by the elevated microhardness levels observed in this case.Cardoso (2003) observed a microhardness value close to 350 HV 2.5 with the use of Ar+8%CO 2 .According to him, such level of hardness would cause decrease in the union toughness.As microhardness values of magnitudes close to this level were found on the martensite region in the weld beads produced with the ER430Ti wire, loss of toughness in such weld beads is also expected to take place.The microhardness values measured in the ferritic matrix of the weld beads produced with the ER430LNb wire were very close to the values found in the base metal ferritic matrix.In general, no major variation in the microhardness levels were noticed as the shielding gas was changed in this case.Table 6 presents the values of the maximum loads supported by the samples and also the punch displacements and energies absorbed during the stampability tests of weld beads produced using the ER430Ti wire.Tests were carried out for loads applied both on the weld face and root.Figures 25 to 27 graphically present the trends found in the stampability tests of the samples welded with the ER430Ti wire.As seen, in general the evolution of the parameters analyzed was similar to each other and always lower than the value found for the base metal.This fact was also observed by Hunter & Eagar (1980), Sawhill & Bond (1976) and Redmond (1977).There was also a decreased in the values of the maximum loads supported by the samples, punch displacements and energies absorbed during the stampability tests as the CO 2 percentage in the shielding gas was increased, which was more evident for 25% of CO 2 .

Shielding gas
When the CO 2 content in the shielding gas was increased in the welded samples produced with the ER430Ti wire there was an increase in the microhardness levels (Figure 21), decrease in the grain size and increase in the number of precipitates (Figures 16 to 20).For the case of 25% of CO 2 in particular, there was formation of martensite.All these factors justify the decrease in the levels of the stampability parameters assessed and so the decrease in the welded joints ductility.
Madeira & Modenesi (2010) also observed falls in the ductility of welded joints when they used the ER430Ti wire with an active shielding gas.They referred to the content of carbon, nitrogen and titanium in the fusion zone as the responsible for the fragilization of the joints as these elements form precipitates along the grains.However, the results found here are opposite to those presented by Washko & Grubb (1991), who state that the presence of titanium in the weld beads minimize the loss of ductility.Considering the high presence of carbon in the ER430Ti wire (Table 1) and the high levels of carbon getting into the fusion zone from the CO 2 added to the shielding gas, the titanium present in this filler metal does not offer adequate stabilization.Table 7 presents the values of the maximum loads supported by the samples and also the punch displacements and energies absorbed during the stampability tests of weld beads produced using the ER430LNb wire.As for the ER430Ti wire case, the tests were carried out for loads applied both on the face and root of the weld beads.Taking into account the results of the stampability tests, it is possible to consider that the increase in the CO 2 content in the shielding gas decreases the ductility of the welded joints if the ER430Ti wire is used.If the ER430LNb wire is utilized instead, it performs a better stabilization of the C present and the result is that no significant variations are recorded for the welded joints ductility even with the high levels of CO 2 added to the shielding gas.

Conclusions
Considering the conditions and results presented in this chapter, the conclusions can be summarized as:  For the ER430Ti and ER430LNb wires, the addition of CO 2 in the shielding gas promotes an increase in the quantity of carbon and a decrease in the amount of manganese, silicon, and also in the stabilizing elements (titanium and niobium, respectively);  In the welded layers (without dilution), the titanium present in the ER430Ti wire was insufficient to avoid the formation of martensite in the fusion zone with the use of levels of CO 2 higher than 4%.Also without dilution in the welded joint, but using the ER430LNb wire, martensite did not form with shielding gases with up to 8% of CO 2 ;  In the weld beads produced in square butt joints using the ER430Ti wire, martensite was only noticed for the weld beads produced with 25% of CO 2 .Also in square butt joints but using the with ER430LNb, the stabilization was effective and no martensite formation was verified even for such level of CO 2 ;  An increase in hardness and therefore a fall in the ductility of the welded joints took place for the ER430Ti wire.This fact was not recorded for the weld beads produced with the ER430LNb wire. Therefore, the ER430LNb was the best wire utilized for the selected conditions.In face of the conclusions, this manuscript shows the importance of correct stabilization of a filler metal in welding.Besides that, the shielding gas may play a decisive role in the ductility of welded joints, so as in the microstructures formed.As verified, it is possible to utilize ferritic stainless steel filler metals in welding approaches for ferritic stainless steel components by using low-cost shielding gases and at the same time preserve the joint properties.This shows that the tendency of using austenitic stainless steel filler metals with high-cost shielding gases for ferritic stainless steel welded components might be equivocated.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Carbon presence in the weld beads versus shielding gas used for the ER430Ti wire.

Fig. 2 .
Fig. 2. Carbon presence in the weld beads versus shielding gas used for the ER430LNb wire.

Figures 3
Figures 3 and 4 respectively show the changes in manganese percentage in the weld bead depending on the shielding gas used to ER430Ti and ER430LNb.Figures5 and 6respectively show the changes in silicon percentage in the weld bead depending on the shielding gas used to ER430Ti and ER430LNb.Note that the amount of these two elements decreased in the weld beads produced with both wires as the O 2 or CO 2 content in the gas mixture was raised.This fact can be explained by the deoxidizing function of such elements.Once more the effect with the ER430Ti wire was less evident.The contents of manganese and silicon in the weld bead were much higher for the titanium alloyed wire than for the other one, which is a direct consequence of the larger presence of such elements in this wire.

Fig. 6 .
Fig. 6.Silicon presence in the weld beads versus shielding gas used for the ER430LNb wire.Finally, Figure7shows the changes in the percentage of Ti in the weld bead when the ER430Ti wire was used and Figure8illustrates the changes in the presence of Nb in the weld bead with the use of the ER430LNb wire.The loss of Ti in the weld bead composition is more significant than the loss of Nb, especially when the weld pool is shielded by Ar+8%CO 2 .

Fig. 8 .
Fig. 8. Niobium presence in the weld beads versus shielding gas used for the ER430LNb wire.

Fig. 14 .
Fig. 14.Schaeffler diagram applied to the samples produced with the ER430Ti wire.

Fig. 15 .
Fig. 15.Schaeffler diagram applied to the samples produced with the ER430LNb wire.Figures 16 to 19 present the fusion zone microstructure produced by the ER430Ti and ER430LNb wires for, respectively, Ar, Ar+2%O2, Ar+4%CO2 and Ar+8%CO2 as shielding gases.In the ER430Ti wire case (Figures16(a) a 19 (a)), a ferritic matrix with titanium precipitates was observed in all grains, structure also observed byMadeira (2007) using SEM.Throughout the images it is possible to notice the increase in the amount of precipitates all around as the CO 2 content in the gas was raised.This fact is due to the increase in the presence of carbon in the fusion zone.It is worth saying that large carbon amounts can also form chromium precipitates, which decrease the corrosion resistance of the weld beads.The estimations carried out by Schaeffler diagrams, in which titanium is not taking into account, showed the presence of ferrite and martensite along the grain boundaries in the microstructures.However, this was not the case of the weld beads produced using up to 8% of CO 2 .This fact shows that titanium, up to this level of CO 2 , was successful as a stabilizing element.In the ER430LNb wire case (Figures16 (b) a 19 (b)), a ferritic matrix with probably Nb precipitates formed in all grains.Despite it was not measured, an increase in the number of precipitates is visually verified as the CO 2 content in the gas was raised, but not as remarkable as for the ER430Ti wire case.The increase in the presence of C in the fusion zone is likely the reason for the increasing number of precipitates in the ER430LNb case as well.

Fig. 16 .
Fig. 16.Fusion zone produced with Ar as shielding gas and with the ER430Ti wire (a) and with the ER430LNb wire (b) (() ferritic matrix, (P) titanium or niobium precipitates).

Fig. 21 .
Fig. 21.Microhardness values in the fusion zone of the weld beads produced with the ER430Ti wire versus the shielding gas used.

Fig. 22 .
Fig. 22. Microhardness values in the fusion zone of the weld beads produced with the ER430LNb wire versus the shielding gas used.

Fig. 25 .
Fig. 25.Maximum loads supported by the samples produced with the ER430Ti wire versus the shielding gas used.

Fig. 26 .
Fig. 26.Punch displacement in the samples produced with the ER430Ti wire versus the shielding gas used.

Fig. 27 .
Fig. 27.Energy absorbed by the samples produced with the ER430Ti wire versus the shielding gas used.

Figures
Figures 25 to 27 graphically present the trends found in the stampability tests of the samples welded with the ER430LNb wire.With this wire no significant variations in the parameters assessed was recorded.The dispersion in the results for each shielding gas might have occurred due to possible fragilization in the weld beads that was not perceived during the visual analyses of the samples.

Fig. 28 .
Fig. 28.Maximum loads supported by the samples produced with the ER430LNb wire versus the shielding gas used.

Fig. 29 .
Fig. 29.Punch displacement in the samples produced with the ER430LNb wire versus the shielding gas used.

Fig. 30 .
Fig. 30.Energy absorbed by the samples produced with the ER430LNb wire versus the shielding gas used.

Table 2 .
This ferritic stainless steel is usually applied in automotive plants.

Table 4 .
Microhardness values measured in the weld beads produced with the ER430Ti and ER430LNb wires.

Table 6 .
Values of the maximum loads supported by the samples, punch displacements and energies absorbed during the stampability tests of weld beads produced using the ER430Ti wire.

Table 7 .
Values of the maximum loads supported by the samples, punch displacements and energies absorbed during the stampability tests of weld beads produced using the ER430LNb wire.