MICROSTRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL

ANALYSIS OF TIG WELDED JOINT BETWEEN

Ti6Al4V AND COMMERCIALLY PURE TITANIUM
Deepak Kumar, Dr. Mohd. Zaheer Khan Yusufzai
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi-221005

Need for the Study Working parameters Conclusions

• Titanium and its alloys are one of the Parameters Specimen 1 Specimen 2 Specimen 3 • Surface discoloration gives a
Welding Current 192 202 216
most widely used groups of material (A) good indication of the degree of
in engineering applications, and a lot Welding Voltage 20 20 20 atmospheric contamination.
(V) Under perfect shielding
of improvement is needed in the
Welding Speed 2 3 4
area of its welding. ( mm/sec ) conditions the weld is bright and
Current type DCSP DCSP DCSP silvery in appearance.
• Titanium grade 9 alloy which is Electrode 2.4 2.4 2.4
Discoloration at the outer edges
compromise between both of these diameter of the HAZ is not generally
( mm )
alloys but is very costly and used in significant and may be ignored.
aerospace industry. So, welding of Results As contamination increases the
these two alloy together can be a color changes from silver to a
Width of weld Width of weld Color of weld Area of fusion
substitute for titanium grade 9 alloy. bead (Front) bead (Back) bead zone ( inch2 ) light straw color, then dark
( mm ) (mm) brown, dark blue, light blue, grey
Major challenges in TIG Specimen 1 15 7 Silver 0.04 and finally a powdery white.
welding of titanium Specimen 2 13 5 Brown 0.03
• Titanium is a reactive metal; it burns Specimen 3
• As heat input increases, the
11 5 Silver 0.02
in pure oxygen at 600°C and in fusion zone and HAZ area also
Tabular representation of results obtained from welded joint
nitrogen at around 800°C. Oxygen increase. Significant grain
and nitrogen also diffuses into coarsening is found in the HAZs
titanium at temperatures above of all the joints.
400°C raising the tensile strength
but embrittling the metals. • Extent of grain coarsening
increases with increasing heat
• In the form of a powder or metal Image representing preparation of sample for metallographic study from input. Near to the fusion
shavings titanium also constitutes a
welded joint boundary the size of the grains in
fire hazard. the HAZ of the joints is found to
be relatively coarser at high heat
• The drawbacks of GTAW are the input and finer at low heat input.
high heat input leading to distortion,
porosity from trapped shielding • A significant grain coarsening
gases and low welding speeds due size is noticed in the fusion zone
to the limited power of the torch and which consists of parallel alpha
wide arc leading to low penetration. cells in different orientation
bounded by beta phase and in
Approach/Methods Optical microscopic image of Optical microscopic image of CP
HAZ, equiaxed grains had grown
Ti6Al4V Titanium larger in size compared to grains
• Specimens of both alloys are cut in
Macroscopic image of welded specimen in base metal .As a result, the
dimension of 100mm*50mm*3mm.
Fusion zone degree of grain coarsening
decreases as one move from the
• Before welding all the edges are Ti6Al4V CP Titanium
fusion zone to the base metal.
thoroughly cleaned mechanically
and chemically in order to avoid Future Scope
any source of contamination like
Ductility of welded zone
rust, scale, dust, oil, moisture etc.
decreases compared to base
metal which is not desirable so a
• After tackling the sheets together,
suitable filler metal having proper
titanium sheets are welded by TIG
compatibility with these two
welding in butt joint along
metals can be used to increase
longitudinal direction using TIG
its ductility.
welding machine with air cooled
Optical microscopic image of indicated parts of fusion zone
torch head, (SUPRA TIG 400). 500 References
Numerical control unit is used for 475
450

controlling the travel speed.

425
400
• A.B. Short et. al, Gas tungsten arc welding of
375
α+β titanium alloys: a review. Material Science
Experimental Set-up
350
325 and Technology. Volume 25, Issue 3, 309-324,
HV

300
275 (2009)
250
225 • A. Karpagaraj, N. Sivashanmugam, K.
200
175 Sankaranarayansamay, Some studies on
150
125 mechanical properties and microstructural
100
75
characterization of automated TIG welding of
50
25
thin commercially pure titanium sheets.
0 Materials Science & Engineering. Volume A640,
-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8
180-189, (2015)
Distance in mm
Sample 1 Sample 3 Sample 2
Microhardness variation with distance from weld
centre