Materials and Design 56 (2014) 258–263

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Resistance spot welding of AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel: Phase

transformations and mechanical properties
M. Alizadeh-Sh a, S.P.H. Marashi a,⇑, M. Pouranvari b
a
Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
b
Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Department, Dezful Branch, Islamic Azad University, Dezful, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The paper aims at investigating the process–microstructure–performance relationship in resistance spot
Received 5 September 2013 welding of AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel. The phase transformations which occur during weld thermal
Accepted 12 November 2013 cycle were analyzed in details, based on the physical metallurgy of welding of the ferritic stainless steels.
Available online 20 November 2013
It was found that the microstructure of the fusion zone and the heat affected zone is influenced by dif-
ferent phenomena including grain growth, martensite formation and carbide precipitation. The effects
Keywords: of welding cycle on the mechanical properties of the spot welds in terms of peak load, energy absorption
Resistance spot welding
and failure mode are discussed.
Phase transformation
Ferritic steel
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Failure mode

1. Introduction
Nowadays, ferritic stainless steels (FSSs) are widely accepted for
the use in structural frameworks and body paneling of buses and
coaches [1]. The microstructure of FSSs can be either fully ferritic
or a mixture of ferrite and martensite where martensite sits at
the grain boundaries [2]. The fully ferritic microstructure can be
achieved by suppressing the austenite formation at elevated tem-
peratures. Grain boundary martensite can be formed either by aus-
tenite solid state transformation or during the last stage of
solidification. The austenite solid state transformation is the com-
mon path in AISI 430 FSS [2]. The physical metallurgy and micro-
structure of this steel can be explained using the pseudo-binary
diagram at 17% Cr shown in Fig. 1. Accordingly, d-ferrite is the first
phase to solidify followed by some transformation from d-ferrite to
austenite during cooling. Under equilibrium cooling condition this
austenite phase will transform to a-ferrite and Cr23C6 carbides;
however, non-equilibrium cooling condition (such as welding pro-
cesses) results in the formation of martensite phase [2].
Fusion welding of ferritic stainless steels (FSSs) is accompanied
by undesirable grain growth and precipitation of derogatory sec-
ondary phases particularly sigma phase in the heat affected zone
and the fusion zone of the weldment, which results in the low
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Depart-
ment, Amirkabir University of Technology, P.O. Box: 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran. Tel.:
+98 21 64542910; fax: +98 21 88522421.
E-mail address: pmarashi@aut.ac.ir (S.P.H. Marashi).
toughness and ductility [2,3]. Grain growth and formation of the
sigma phase can be controlled by applying processes which involve
low heat input including laser beam welding, pulsed current gas
tungsten arc welding and solid state welding processes [3,4].
Lakshminarayanan and Balasubramanian [5] reported the forma-
tion of fine dendritic and equiaxed grains in the weld metal of
409 M FSS during laser beam welding showing a higher tensile
strength and impact toughness of weld metal compared to the base
metal. According to Bilgin and Meran [3], friction stir welding of
AISI 430 FSS results in an decrease in the grain size in the weld me-
tal by a factor of 4.
Resistance spot welding (RSW) is the main joining process in
automotive industry. This welding method is a low heat input pro-
cess in which the heat is produced by resistance of the parts being
welded, as well as the interfaces, to the flow of localized current
[6]. The cooling rates of RSW are extremely high (in the order of
1000–10,000 °C/s) [7]; therefore, it can be used as a suitable weld-
ing method for decreasing grain growth and preventing the forma-
tion of derogatory secondary phases which makes it a promising
candidate for welding of FSSs.
Automobile structural assemblies contain a few thousand of
spot welds. Therefore, the quality, performance and the failure
characteristics of resistance spot welds are important for deter-
mining the durability and safety design of the vehicles, as they
transfer the load through the structure during a crash [8,9]. There-
fore, the aim of the present research is investigating the metallur-
gical and mechanical properties of resistance spot welded AISI 430
FSS.

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2013.11.022
 M. Alizadeh-Sh et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 258–263 259

2. Experimental procedure

The 1.2 mm thick AISI 430 FSS sheets were used as the base me-
tal. The chemical composition of the base metal was determined
using a standard spark emission spectrometer (quantometer).
The tensile properties of the base metal were determined using a
standard tensile test in accordance to ASTM: E8M. Table 1 shows
the chemical composition and tensile properties of the base metal.
Welding process was performed by a 120 kVA ac pedestal type
resistance spot welding machine, controlled by a Programmable
Logic Controller (PLC). Welding was conducted at the constant
electrode pressure of 4 bar using a 45° truncated cone Resistance
Welding Manufacturing Alliance (RWMA) Class two electrodes
having the face diameter of 8 mm. The welding current was in-
creased from 7 to 11 kA with an increment of 0.5 kA. Throughout
the process, squeeze time, welding time and holding time were
Fig. 1. Fe–Cr–C pseudo-binary diagram at 17% Cr [2]. kept constant at 40, 12 and 20 cycles, respectively.
Tensile-shear test samples were prepared according to ANSI/
Table 1 AWS/SAE/D8.9-97 standard [10] and tested using an Instron uni-
Chemical composition and mechanical properties of the investigated AISI 430 ferritic versal testing machine at a cross head of 2 mm/min. Microstruc-
stainless steel. ture characterization of the fusion zone and heat affected zone
Chemical composition (wt.%) Mechanical was conducted by performing standard metallography procedure
properties and the specimens were etched by Kalling’s No. 1 (33 ml H2O,
C Mn Si Cr Ni Mo Al Fe YS UTS EL 1.5 g CuCl2, 33 ml HCl, 33 ml Ethanol). The fusion zone size was
(MPa) (MPa) (%) measured on the metallographic cross sections. Fracture surface
0.05 0.48 0.28 16.9 0.16 0.2 0.011 Base 330 490 33 of the samples were studied by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM). Vickers microhardness test was performed 100 lm above
YS, yield strength; UTS, ultimate tensile strength; EL, elongation.

Fig. 2. (a) Typical macrostructure of AISI 430 resistance spot welds. (b) Base metal microstructure. (c) HAZ microstructure. (d) MTHAZ microstructure. (e) LTHAZ
microstructure. (f) Dispersion of precipitates in HTHAZ.
260 M. Alizadeh-Sh et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 258–263

sheet/sheet interface using an indenter load of 100 g to obtain hor-

izontal hardness profile.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Metallurgical characterization

The typical macrostructure of AISI 430 resistance spot weld

consisted of three distinct regions, namely, fusion zone (FZ), heat
affected zone (HAZ) and base metal (BM) is shown in Fig. 2a.
The chemical composition of investigated steel is superimposed
on the pseudo-binary diagram at 17% Cr (Fig. 1). As the
investigated AISI 430 was cold rolled and annealed, the fully fer-
ritic microstructure along with some carbides can be found in
the BM microstructure (Fig. 2b). The carbides were evenly distrib-
uted throughout the matrix. Fig. 2c shows the microstructure gra-
dient in the HAZ of the weld. Three phenomena dictate the
microstructure transformation in the HAZ including: grain growth,
martensite formation and precipitation. According to the tempera-
ture distribution, HAZ can be divided into three distinct metallur-
gical transformation zones, namely, high temperature HAZ
(HTHAZ), middle temperature HAZ (MTHAZ) and low temperature
HAZ (LTHAZ). The phase transformations in these zones are de-
tailed, as follows:

(1) HTHAZ: Based on the pseudo-binary diagram (Fig. 1), the

region next to FZ boundary that experiences temperatures
between approximately 1120–1480 °C shows fully d-ferrite
microstructure. Upon cooling, due to the high cooling rate
of RSW, the transformation of ferrite to austenite at elevated
temperature is suppressed and therefore, no martensite
phase is formed at the grain boundaries at this zone. The fer-
rite grain growth at this region can be quite dramatic,
because of the absence of elevated-temperature austenite. Fig. 3. Microstructure of FZ, (a) columnar grains of FZ, (b) fine dispersion of carbide
precipitates in FZ, (c) martensite formation along ferrite grain boundaries and (d)
Fig. 2d shows the microstructure of HTHAZ indicating these prediction microstructure on Balmforth diagram.
two phenomena (i.e. no martensite formation and dramatic
grain growth) as well as fine distribution of precipitates in
this zone.
(2) MTHAZ: By moving away from the FZ line the temperature
decreases to approximately 1000–1120 °C resulting in the
formation of MTHAZ with a mixture of ferritic and austenitic
microstructure. Thus, some transformation to austenite
occurs along the ferrite grain boundaries at this zone which
further transforms to martensite upon cooling. Austenite
formation at elevated temperatures plays an important role
in preventing the grain growth of AISI430; there will be no
grain growth along the grain boundaries once the austenite
starts to form which results in the pinning of the grain
boundaries (Fig. 2e).
(3) LTHAZ: According to Fig. 1, there is a narrow region lower
than d + c zone where, in addition to these phases, some car-
bide precipitation occurs. Fig. 2f shows the microstructure of
LTHAZ. As can be seen, the martensite phase is not formed Fig. 4. Typical hardness profile of AISI 430 resistance spot welds.
along ferrite grain boundaries.
(3) Martensite formation: Some martensite is present in the grain
Fig. 3a shows the microstructure of the FZ indicating columnar boundary of the ferritic grains. The martensite formation in
ferrite grains. According to Fig. 3a and b, the FZ exhibits some fea- the FZ of FSS can be predicted with Kaltenhauser ferrite fac-
tures as follows: tor (KFF) [11]:

(1) Grain growth: The average grain size of the FZ is approxi-
mately 11 times larger than that of the BM.
(2) Carbide precipitation: Extensive fine intragranular precipi-
tates can be found within the solidified grains. It is shown
that the chromium-rich carbides primarily precipitate in
unstabilized FSSs alloys such as AISI 430 [2].
KFF ¼ Cr þ 6Si þ 8Ti þ 4Mo þ 2Al  40ðC þ NÞ  2Mn  4Ni
Kaltenhauser determined that in medium-chromium alloys
such as AISI 430, this factor must exceed 17 to prevent martensite
formation in welds [2]. The KFF for the investigated AISI 430 is
calculated to be 15.08; therefore, it is expected to find martensite
in the FZ of the weld, as shown in Fig. 4b. The KFF does not pro-
 M. Alizadeh-Sh et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 258–263
Fig. 5. (a) A typical DPF mode sample, (b) macrographic image of DPF mode cross section, (c) a load–displacement diagram of the tensile-shear test, and (d) SEM image of
fracture surface.
vide any information about the amount of the martensite in
welds. The Balmforth diagram was developed to predict the
microstructure of ferritic and martensitic stainless steels weld
metals [2,12]. According to Fig. 3c, the Balmforth diagram pre-
dicts a ferritic microstructure with small amount of martensite
for the investigated steel, which is in accordance with metallo-
graphic observations (Fig. 3b).
(4) Precipitate-free zone: As can be seen in Fig. 3b, there are pre-
cipitate-free zones around the martensite layer in the FZ.
Formation of martensite layer is due to formation of austen-
ite phase at high temperature. Due to high solubility of ele-
vated-temperature austenite for carbon compared to the
low solubility of ferrite, the austenite phase acts as sink for
carbon at elevated temperature. Short-range diffusion of
carbon from the ferrite into the austenite reduces the local
concentration in the ferrite. Therefore, upon cooling through
the temperature range of carbide precipitation, there is little
or no driving force for carbide precipitation in a thin region
around the martensite layer in the FZ.
Fig. 4 represents the hardness profile across the FZ, HAZ and
BM. The heterogeneous hardness profile of the HAZ compared to
that of FZ and BM is a result of different transformations occurring
in this region of the weld. The lower value of the hardness in the
HTHAZ zone compared to the adjacent regions may be contributed
to the grain growth and also the absence of martensite at ferrite
grain boundaries. The size of the grains increases as we get closer
to the fusion line in HTHAZ and the hardness value decreases con-
sequently. As shown in Fig. 2b and d the volume fraction of precip-
itates in HTHAZ zone is higher than BM resulting in higher
hardness value. The maximum hardness obtained in MTHAZ is
due to the formation of martensite phase at ferrite grain bound-
aries combined with low grain size in this zone in comparison with
HTHAZ. The decrease in the amount of martensite phase by
approaching the BM, decreases the hardness value of MTHAZ. In
the LTHAZ, the hardness is decreased due to lack of the martensite
formation and also dispersion of coarse precipitates at this zone.
Although the grain size of FZ is larger than that of BM, its hardness
261
is higher due to the existence of finely dispersed carbides and also
the formation of martensite phase, as shown in Fig. 3b.
3.2. Failure mode
Failure mode of the weld, determined by examination of the
fracture surface, is an important index to quantitatively measure
the quality of the spot welds. Spot welds fail in two markedly dis-
tinct modes, namely, interfacial failure (IF) mode and pullout fail-
ure (PF) mode [13–15]. All the samples studied here failed in PF
mode and no interfacial failure was observed. Fig. 5a shows a typ-
ical double pullout failure (DPF) mode where the nugget with-
drawal from both sheets occurs. Typical cross section of DPF
mode is brought in Fig. 5b. In DPF mode, as the first crack propa-
gates around nugget, another crack (second crack) initiates and
propagates, both happening in the BM. These cracks cause two
sudden drop steps in load–displacement diagram; as shown in
Fig. 5c. It is well known that necking phenomenon occurs at the re-
gion with lower hardness; due to its lower resistance to plastic
deformation. According to Fig. 4 BM has lower hardness value in
comparison with different regions of HAZ. Therefore, the cracks
nucleate at neck regions that exist in BM. Fig. 5d illustrates the
SEM image of fracture surface of DPF mode confirming the pres-
ence of dimples; the dimples are characteristic of ductile fracture.
The elongated dimples are produced due to the high degree of rota-
tion of nugget during the tensile-shear test.
3.3. Mechanical properties
Mechanical properties of the welds were described in terms of
peak load (the maximum amount of load that a weld can tolerate)
and failure energy (measured as the area under the curve up to the
peak load) in Fig. 5c. The effect of welding current on FZ size is
shown in Fig. 6a. As can be noticed from the figure, the higher
the welding current is the larger the size of the FZ will be due to
the due to higher heat input.
The relationship between welding current and mechanical
properties of the weld in terms of peak load and failure energy is
shown in Fig. 6b. Both peak load and failure energy increase with
262 M. Alizadeh-Sh et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 258–263
Fig. 6. (a) The correlation between welding current and FZ size, (b) relationship
between welding current and mechanical properties, and (c) dependence of
mechanical properties to FZ size.
increasing welding current due to the increase in sheets’ bonding
area. The correlation between FZ size and mechanical properties
of welds is shown in Fig. 6c. As can be seen in the figure, both char-
acteristics of mechanical response of resistance spot welds in the
tensile-shear test are improved by increasing FZ size. Indeed, larger
FZ size provides larger bonding area between lap sheets. Therefore,
the nugget resistance towards rotation increases and hence more
force is required to reach the ultimate tensile stress of the failure
location in base metal for pullout failure mode.
It is interesting to note that according to the theoretical consid-
eration [16–18], the relationship between FZ size and peak load in
PF mode is linear, however, the results presented in Fig. 6c exhibits
some deviation from the linear relationship. Indeed, some other
factors such as electrode indentation depth, HAZ width, micro-
structure/hardness of the failure location can affect the load bear-
ing capacity of the spot welds. Therefore, the deviation of linear
relationship between peak load and FZ size can be related to the
above mentioned factors as well as experimental errors.
4. Conclusions
In summary, microstructure gradient and mechanical proper-
ties of resistance spot welded AISI 430 FSS were investigated.
The following conclusions can be drawn from this research:
(1) Fusion zone is featured by columnar ferrite grains and fine
dispersion of carbide precipitates with some amount of mar-
tensite phase at ferrite grain boundaries.
(2) The HAZ is divided to three distinct zones: high temperature
HAZ (corresponding to d-ferrite region of phase diagram),
medium temperature HAZ (corresponding to d + c region of
phase diagram) and low temperature HAZ (corresponding
to d + c + carbide region of phase diagram) based on the dif-
ferent metallurgical transformations that occur in each zone.
The HTHAZ exhibited a martensite-free ferritic microstruc-
ture with excessive grain coarsening due to the high temper-
ature experienced at this zone and the absence of the
elevated austenite to pin the grain boundaries. The MTHAZ
exhibiting the highest hardness in the HAZ shows ferrite-
martensite dual microstructure with limited grain growth
due to formation of c phase at grain boundaries. The LTHAZ
is featured by precipitation of fine Cr-carbides within ferrite
grains.
(3) All samples studied here failed in double pullout failure. It is
worth mentioning that despite the fact that grain growth
which occurred in FZ and HTHAZ, is a major problem accom-
panied with fusion welding of FSSs (that adversely affects
the mechanical properties), the fracture occurred at BM
instead. It was shown that the peak load and energy absorp-
tion of the welds were improved as the welding current
increases due to the formation of larger FZ size at higher
heat input.
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