Shielding Gas Oxygen and Nitrogen Content Effects in the Case of Duplex Stainless Steel Welding

The duplex stainless steels show improved localized corrosion resistance and strength comparing to the austenitic stainless steels. All of the duplex stainless steels solidify as pure ferrite and the double microstructure is evolving during the solid-state, diffusion driven phase transformation. In this research nitrogen and oxygen containing argon-based shielding gases were used. It was found that the nitrogen and oxygen addition significantly increased the weld metal austenite content, up to +27%. The oxygen addition also improved the weld dissolved oxygen content with up to +0.09%, and the weld penetration depth with up to +3.3 mm.