Tig Welding of Dissimilar Steel: A Review

Abstract

Dissimilar welding of metals has gained lots of interest from researchers worldwide due to its numerous benefits. The fact that dissimilar weld joints are projected to give more versatility in the production and design of industrial and commercial components cannot be disputed. This paper presents a review of the recent works done on TIG welding of dissimilar steel with the focus on properties, structure, and performance relationships. It also includes the influence of welding parameters on the quality of joints. The papers for investigation in this work were considered from 2012 to date. A total of 29 research papers were chosen for our consideration after an in-depth examination of several such papers. There is a growing need for dissimilar welding of steel due to its various benefits such as the production of lightweight machine parts, production of less expensive engineering components with acceptable corrosion resistance, high strength, and recyclability in the power generation, chemical, petrochemical, and automotive industries. Welding of dissimilar steels is very challenging due to the dissimilarities in their chemical, physical, and metallurgical properties. Although other welding processes such as solid-state welding processes and some fusion welding techniques such as laser welding and electron beam welding have produced high-quality dissimilar steel joints, their application has been limited due to their high cost. Consequently, the TIG welding technique has been widely employed for welding of dissimilar materials because of its low cost, stability, and high quality of weld produced. In TIG welding, process parameters such as the current, gas flow rate, voltage, welding speed play a vital role in the standard of the weld produced. Several types of research have proved successful TIG welding of dissimilar steel with reliable joint performance as illustrated in this study. The review concluded that TIG welding of dissimilar steel is capable of producing joints with acceptable properties in the production and manufacturing industry.