Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 1–8 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Materials Processing Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec Metallurgical, wear and fatigue performance of Inconel 625 weld claddings Sandeep Singh Sandhu a , A.S. Shahi b,∗ a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Quest Infosys Foundation Group of Institutions, Jhanjeri, Mohali 140307 Punjab, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology, Deemed University, Longowal, Sangrur 148106 Punjab, India a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 27 August 2015 Received in revised form 5 January 2016 Accepted 12 February 2016 Available online 15 February 2016 Keywords: Weld surfacing Inconel 625 Bead geometry parameters Wear Fatigue a b s t r a c t 25 mm thick AISI 304L austenitic stainless steel rolled plates were cladded with single layer Inconel 625 clad beads using Shielded metal arc welding process (SMAW). Different claddings were produced using four levels of welding currents with two types of electrode manipulation techniques (stringer and weaving). Productive clad beads having deposits with greater width and reinforcement with low base metal dilution were achieved using low welding current with electrode weaving technique. Low welding current and electrode weaving combination also resulted into narrowing of the fusion boundary zone. Two body abrasion wear studies carried out on the clad deposits using pin-on-disc technique showed that claddings with low base metal dilution possessed better wear resistance as compared to the claddings with high levels of dilution.High cycle fatigue studies revealed that Inconel 625 overlays having a higher clad content possessed better fatigue strength as compared to those containing a lower clad content. Fractography of the fatigue fractured surfaces using SEM further showed that high fatigue strength of the specimens possessing richer composition of Inconel 625 was indicated by the presence of high density striations. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Inconel 625, a nickel based superalloy has been widely used for various cladding applications in critical industries like aerospace, heat exchangers, chemical industry, electrochemical industry, power generation plants, turbines, industrial boilers (Mohammadi Zahrani and Alfantazi, 2014), components of pressurized water reactors like reactor core and control rod (Shankar et al., 2001) and bellow material of nuclear power plants (Hu et al., 2010). Out of emerging technologies laser aided direct metal deposition based on new additive manufacturing principle has been reported to achieve Inconel clads free from cracks, bonding errors or porosity (Dinda et al., 2009). New repair technologies like laser cladding have been shown to be superior than the traditional TIG cladding used as a main repair tool for gas turbine components (Sexton et al., 2002). Comparative studies have been reported where laser surface modi- fied Inconel 625 alloy has been shown to be better performer under seawater corrosion conditions than the surfaces injected with tung- ∗ Corresponding author. Fax: +91 1672280057. E-mail addresses: ersandeepsandhu@yahoo.com (S.S. Sandhu), ashahisliet@yahoo.co.in (A.S. Shahi). sten carbide (WC) and titanium carbide (TiC) particles (Cooper et al., 1996). Studies on padded welds of Inconel 625 have been reported to be more resistant than steel when subjected to high tempera- ture corrosion environments (Adamiec, 2009). Studies on corrosion and fatigue behavior of stainless steel HVOF surfaces coated with Inconel 625 alloy show that plain as well as welded stainless steels surfaces showed similar behavior under axial fatigue testing conditions, whereas coating microstructure and grit embedment dominate the fatigue behavior of such coatings (Al-Fadhli et al., 2006). (Borowski et al., 2009) modified the properties of Inconel 625 by glow discharge assisted nitriding and found that diffusion type chromium nitride layer improved its friction wear resistance, fatigue strength and corrosion resistance. Another study involving comparison of corrosion resistance between laser cladded Inconel 625 deposits, wrought and the substrate 304L shows that multiple bead layers by virtue of low dilution show better corrosion per- formance than the single beads (Abioye et al., 2015). However no such studies on Inconel 625 weld claddings have been reported where the effects of using variable welding heat input and using arc manipulation techniques on the metallurgical aspects, wear behav- ior and fatigue performance of Inconel 625 have been studied. So to cover this important research gap, the focus of the present work was to investigate the influence of different welding currents as http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2016.02.010 0924-0136/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.