Cu-Ni welding – part 3:

Cracking & porosity in Cu-

Ni welding!
Date: August 18, 2019Author: Thanh ( QC ) Nguyen Le0 Comments

Porosities defect come from:

1.Contamination will change the chemical structure of the alloy, and this can lead
to porosity, as well as reduce the corrosive resistance of the alloy.
This means that fabrication, as well as welding, should be done in a Copper-nickel
environment only, and all materials must be handled with care so that they do not
become dirty with oils, liquids and other contaminants that can be applied to the
surface through touch.

When welding, grease, and paint must be clear off all surfaces, and all marks and signs
from permanent markers, pencils and crayons have to be removed. It is advised you
use a stainless-steel brush to clean surfaces properly. Grinding discs should be alloy
specific and not interchanged between different metals.

All pipe openings have to be protected to prevent any contaminants entering them or
covering a surface area before welding.

2. Do not perform autogenous welding, this will result in porous weld joints, due
to the structure of the Cu-Ni alloy that contains no deoxidizers / due to a deficiency
in deoxidants in the alloys, porosity is a problem and they cannot be welded
autogenously. A highly deoxidised filler metal needs to be used.

3. Don’t use a long arc: this will reduce the quality of the weld resulting in porosity
as a result of the weld reacting with the atmosphere. Arcs should be kept short, too
long an arc length may permit atmospheric contamination.

4. Most of the consumables contain small parts of titanium which are added to enable
reaction with the nitrogen and oxygen-rich atmosphere. Porosity after welding is
usually due to an excessively long arc during welding., bad surface cleaning,
moisture on the weld during the preparation, or when using unclean or wet
electrodes.

5. As mentioned above, porosity when welding either grade can be a problem and
to reduce the risk the filler metals contain substantial amounts (around 0.5%)
titanium. Cleanliness of weld preparations and filler wires is also important, as is the
use of high purity shielding gas.

6. Weld preparations may need to have the tenacious oxide films removed by belt
or disc sanding and should be thoroughly degreased with commercially available
solvents. Stainless steel wire brushes and stainless steel wire wool are also useful.

7. Depositing a pore-free root pass can be particularly difficult. Insufficient filler

metal coupled with a large amount of dilution from the parent metal may result in
unacceptable porosity. Copious amounts of filler metal and a larger than normal root
gap (~2-3mm) will reduce porosity to acceptable levels

8. Other causes of porosity may be associated with inadequate gas shielding. When
TIG welding, use as large a diameter ceramic as possible, together with a gas lens. As
mentioned above, a large a ceramic shroud equipped with a gas lens is recommended
to give the most effective gas shield.

9. Shielding gas: Argon or argon with small amounts of hydrogen (1- 5%) are the
appropriate shield gases with the Ar/H mixtures providing higher heat input. Above
about 6mm thickness, TIG welding is generally replaced by the higher deposition rate
MIG process, although mechanised/automated systems such as orbital TIG are very
cost effective.

10. Purging gas: a root purge of argon is recommended when welding a TIG root run
and the next couple of fill passes.
Cracking defect come from:
1.Contamination will change the chemical structure of the alloy, and this can lead
to cracking and porosity, as well as reduce the corrosive resistance of the alloy

2. Interpass temperature: the interpass temperature below 150°C to assure no

micro fissuring. To reduce further the risk of hot fissuring the interpass temperature
should be limited to 150OC.
3. When welding different metals together, such as steel to Copper-nickel the
consumable will have 65% nickel content. This is used to assure a higher iron dilution
from the steel during welding and prevents cracking.

4. Both the alloys are sensitive to hot cracking. As with the other nickel alloys the
main culprit is sulphur but lead, phosphorus and carbon will also have and adverse
effect. Cleanliness, as discussed above, is therefore crucial and all grease, oil, marker
crayon, paint etc must be removed from the weld preparation and the adjacent areas
before welding.

Document refer:

https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/job-knowledge/copper-nickel-
alloys-113

https://www.shshihang.com/copper-nickel-welding-guide/