Development of new low transformation temperature welding consumable to prevent cold cracking in high strength steel welds

A low transformation temperature (LTT) welding consumable has been developed to prevent cold cracking in high strength steel welded joints without preheating. In the LTT welded joint, the residual tensile stress is reduced by martensitic expansion of weld metal formed by the LTT consumable. In the weld cracking tests, cold cracking in the LTT weld metal is successfully prevented under high restraint conditions, but cold cracking occurs at very low joint restraint strength in case the weld metal is fully martensitic. Chemical compositions of the consumable are designed to retain austenite in martensite in the newly developed weld metal to absorb the diffusible hydrogen into the austenite to prevent cold cracking. In the newly developed LTT weld metal, cold cracking is almost fully suppressed without preheating under every joint restraint condition.