Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Hybrid Welded Joints with Laser and CO₂-Shielded Arc

With the objective of reducing the operating costs, argon-rich shielding gas was replaced by 100% CO₂ gas in hybrid laser-arc welding of shipbuilding steel. The welding parameters were optimized to obtain buried-arc transfer in order to mitigate spatter formation. Sound butt joints could be successfully produced for plates of 14 and 17 mm thickness in one welding pass. Subsequently, the welded joints were subjected to different tests to evaluate the influence of CO₂ shielding gas on the mechanical properties of the welded joints. All tensile-tested specimens failed in the base material, indicating the higher strength of the welded joints. The impact toughness of the welded joints, measured at −20 °C, reached approximately 76% of that of the base material, which was well above the limit set by the relevant standard. The microstructure of the fusion zone consisted of grain boundary ferrite and acicular ferrite uniformly over the plate thickness except for the joint root where the microstructure was chiefly ferrite with an aligned second phase. This resulted in higher hardness in the root region compared with the top and middle parts of the fusion zone.