Cracking of hardfacing alloy

In the manufacture of large capacity ore grabs, the bucket lips, made from BS4360 Grade 43A steel, ere hardfaced
on both sides of the be!elled edges in a lattice pattern" Si# grabs hardfaced in this manner ere put into ser!ice and
in four of these cracks appeared in the parent metal and eld metal, !arying in length from 30$%&0mm"
Inspection of other elded bucket lips before being put into ser!ice re!ealed isolated cases of cracking hich ere
considered to be unacceptable due to the risk of propagation" It as not possible to !ie the cracked bucket lips,
hich ere situated in 'alaysia, but four samples of ne bucket lips ere made a!ailable to ()I for elding
procedure tests so that a procedure could be de!eloped to produce elds free from cracks"
(o assess the tendency for cracking of the parent metal, bead on plate elds ere made ith & and 6mm diameter
lo alloy steel electrodes gi!ing martensitic eld deposits ith hardness of 400*+" )elds ere made ith lo and
high currents ith constant tra!el speeds so as to !ary the energy input" ,o preheating as used in this case" +isual
and magnetic particle inspection 4- hours after elding did not re!eal any cracking in either eld or parent metal"
Since some of the cracks found had occurred at positions here the edge of one eld had been remelted by the
ad.acent eld, it as suspected that the high hardenability of the lo alloy steel eld metal may ha!e initiated
cracking hich had propagated through the eld and parent plate during ser!ice" (o in!estigate this, double layer
elds ere made as ell as to eld runs side by side, and macrosections ere e#amined for the presence of cracks
in the remelted parts of the first elds deposited"
,o parent metal cracking as obser!ed and no cracking occurred in elds remelted by ad.acent eld beads" (he
hardness of the heat affected /ones of the first elds deposited as loered by %00 points by the tempering effect of
ad.acent eld beads" It as concluded that some additional causes of cracking as present that had been absent in
the procedure tests"
0ne possibility as that hen the bucket lips ere hardfaced on one side the contraction of these elds may ha!e
caused sufficient distortion to increase the restraint on the elds deposited on the second side" A further test as
carried out in hich the be!elled part of the bucket lip as hardfaced ith the elds deposited in a particular
se1uence"
(he first side as hardfaced and ithout interruption the re!erse side as then elded" A short time after elding,
trans!erse cracks ere seen in elds numbered % and 4 on the first side elded" (herefore, it appeared that the
restraint caused by contraction of the second side elded as sufficient to cause hydrogen induced cracking of
elds on the first side hich by this time could ha!e cooled to the temperature at hich susceptibility to cracking
occurs" If the problem had in!ol!ed solidification cracking hich occurs at higher temperatures, it ould ha!e been
elds on the second side that had cracked"
Additional tests shoed that cracking could be a!oided by to alternati!e procedures2
%" )eld first side and allo the elds to cool to room temperature before elding the re!erse side"
3" 4reheat the parent plate to 30056 before elding, hich ould allo elding of the re!erse side ithout
interruption"
(his case illustrates hy elding procedure tests should replicate precisely the elding se1uence that occurs in
production"
6opyright 7 300%, ()I 8td