Comparison of the mechanical properties and microstructural evolution in the HAZ of HSLA DOMEX 700MC welded by gas metal arc welding and electron beam welding

High strength low alloyed steels are nowadays an important group of engineering materials, with numerous industrial applications. Properly chosen chemical composition together with the thermomechanical processing allow to reach high mechanical properties, while the carbon content is maintained low. Resulting microstructure is therefore sensitive to the amount of the heat introduced to the metal during welding. During welding procedure, softening phenomenon can occur in the heat affected zones and it could lead to the degradation of the mechanical properties of the final joint. Nowadays, welding technologies based on the high energy electron beam are able to produce weld joints with very narrow heat affected zone. In this study, authors compare mechanical properties and the microstructural evolution in the heat affected zone of the GMAW and EB welded joint of the DOMEX 700MC HSLA steel. The carried out experiments showed that both evaluated technologies are able to produce joints with appropriate mechanical properties. Welded joints made by the EBW technique showed slightly better mechanical properties of the whole joint, as a result of the narrower HAZ