Comparison of Hardness and Microstructures Produced Using GMAW and Hot-Wire TIG Mechanized Welding of High Strength Steels

For high productivity weld fabrication, gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is typically used since it offers a combination of high deposition rate and travel speed. Recent advances in power supply technologies have increased the deposition rates in hot-wire tungsten inert gas (HW-TIG) welding, such that it is possible to achieve parameters which may be comparable to those used in GMAW for pressure vessels and some pipeline applications. However, these two processes have drastically different deposition efficiencies and heat input characteristics. The purpose of the present study is to examine GMAW and HW-TIG bead-on-plate deposits in terms of mechanical properties, deposition rate, and heat affected zone (HAZ) thermal cycles when identical travel speed and wire feed speeds are applied with a ER90S-G filler metal. The results demonstrate that HW-TIG can be applied with comparable travel and wire feed speeds to GMAW, while providing a more uniform weld bead appearance. Based on weld metal microhardness values, it is suggested the effective heat input is lower in HW-TIG compared to GMAW, since the average hardness of the weld metal is slightly higher.