IBP1665_12 SUPERDUPLEX STAINLESS STEEL CLADDING, BY USING AC SQUARE WAVE, SUBMERGED ARC WELDING OVERLAYING Carlos Faggiani1, Antonio

C Souza 2, Karine D Zaccari3, Sergio Brandi4

Copyright 2012, Instituto Brasileiro de Petrleo, Gs e Biocombustveis - IBP Este Trabalho Tcnico foi preparado para apresentao na Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012, realizado no perodo de 17 a 20 de setembro de 2012, no Rio de Janeiro. Este Trabalho Tcnico foi selecionado para apresentao pelo Comit Tcnico do evento, seguindo as informaes contidas no trabalho completo submetido pelo(s) autor(es). Os organizadores no iro traduzir ou corrigir os textos recebidos. O material conforme, apresentado, no necessariamente reflete as opinies do Instituto Brasileiro de Petrleo, Gs e Biocombustveis, Scios e Representantes. de conhecimento e aprovao do(s) autor(es) que este Trabalho Tcnico seja publicado nos Anais da Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012.

Resumo
A tecnologia de corrente alternada de onda quadrada foi recentemente disponibilizada para fontes de arco submerso. Esse modo de corrente possui um potencial muito grande para a melhora de desempenho dos metais depositados, principalmente quando tratamos de aos baixa ligas e aos especiais. Foram avaliados os depsitos de soldagem por revestimento de ao inoxidvel superduplex utilizando esse modo de corrente alternada e comparamos os resultados com o mtodo tradicional de soldagem por revestimento em arco submerso (corrente continua polaridade positiva). Os resultados do depsito de soldagem mostraram vantagens interessantes com a utilizao da corrente alternada de onda quadrada como baixa penetrao, menor altura de camada necessria para atender a composio qumica tpica dos aos inoxidveis superduplex, energia de soldagem controlada e menor tamanho de gro em relao ao deposito em corrente continua polaridade positiva.

Abstract
The alternate current square wave technology becomes recently available for Submerged Arc Welding. This welding method has a big and interesting potential to improve the microstructure quality and productivity, especially for low alloy and high alloys steels. Superduplex stainless steel cladding by using welding overlaying with alternate current and direct current deposits were evaluated and compared. The results showed interesting advantages of use the alternate current square wave technology such as reduced thickness layers to achieve the minimum chemical composition, low penetration, controlled heat input and reduced grain size when compared with direct current deposit.

1. Introduction
The cladding technique have been using for many years and have increased its application in Oil & Gas industry (Smith, 1992) mainly because of the costs savings with reducing the corrosion, wear rates and structural weight. Solid plates of high alloys like duplex and superduplex stainless steels have cost advantage up to 25mm. Over this thickness, usually cladding materials are cost effective alternatives, as showed at Picture 1. The duplex and superduplex stainless steels are the cost effective materials for the applications in piping, seawater systems, separators and heat exchanger at Oil platforms (Craig and Smith, 2011).

______________________________ 1 Engenheiro Qumico, Coordenador de Vendas LINCOLN ELECTRIC BRAZIL 2 Engenheiro de Soldagem, Gerente Tcnico LINCOLN ELECTRIC BRAZIL 3 Engenheira Qumica, Engenheira de Produto LINCOLN ELECTRIC BRAZIL 4 Doutor em Metalurgia, Professor UNIVERSIDADE DE SO PAULO

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012

Picture 1 Cost savings of cladding compared with solid plate. UR47N and UR 45N are duplex grades (Smith, 1992)

1.1 Superduplex Stainless Steels Duplex Stainless Steels (DSS) could be described as dual phase Ferritic-Austenitic stainless steel. The DSS solidifies in the ferric field and during cooling part of the ferrite transforms in austenite (Charles, 1995). The volume fraction of each phase is around 50% for wrought DSS. The DSS combines high mechanical properties (Rm values 80-120 KSi) with good corrosion resistance, mainly stress corrosion cracking and localized wet corrosion in chloride bearing medias. The chemical composition of the most common duplex grades types found in the Brazilian market is showed in Table 1. Table 1 Chemical composition of wrought duplex stainless steels. Source IMOA, 2009 Type Lean Duplex Duplex 22Cr and 25Cr Superduplex 25Cr UNS S32101 S32304 S31803 S32205 S32550 S32750 S32760 C 0,04 0,03 0,03 0,03 0,04 0,03 0,03 Cr 21,0-22,0 21,5-24,5 21,0-23,0 22,0-23,0 24,0-27,0 24,0-26,0 24,0-26,0 Ni 1,3-1,7 3,0-5,5 4,5-6,5 4,5-6,5 4,5-6,5 6,0-8,0 6,0-8,0 Mo 0,1-0,8 0,05-0,6 2,5-3,5 3,0-3,5 2,9-3,9 3,0-5,0 3,0-4,0 N 0,20-0,25 0,05-0,20 0,08-0,20 0,14-0,20 0,10-0,25 0,24-0,32 0,20-0,30 Mn 4,0-6,0 2,50 2,00 2,00 1,50 1,20 1,00 Cu 0,1-0,8 0,05-0,6 1,5-2,5 0,5 0,5-1,0 W 0,5-1,0

The duplex grades have low nickel when compared with austenitic stainless steels (usually, Ni content 8-30%) and Nitrogen bearing, that improves the austenitic reformation during the solidification, mainly for welding thermal cycles. Thus the final dual microstructure is given by the correct chemical composition balance of the stabilizing Autenite elements (Nickel, Manganese and Nitrogen) and Ferritic stabilizing elements (Chromium, Molybdenum, Tungsten), and of course using the correct thermal cycles during the fabrication to achieve the proportion of 50% of each phase. The classification of the duplex grades is given by the Pitting Resistance Equilavent Number (PREN) that was concepted in the mids of 80s to classify the pitting resistance in chloride environments. The PREN is defined as PREN = %Cr + 3,3xMo%+16xN%

The superduplex stainless steels (SDSS) are defined by PREN 40-45. The duplex grades are defined by PREN bellow 40 (IMOA, 2009). 1.2 Square Wave The inverter technology becomes available for submerged arc power sources recently. Although the weight reduction and electrical energy cost savings of the inverters power source, this technology makes possible the use of the Alternated Current in Square Wave (ACSW). The ACSW is formed by the inversion of the rectified currents positive 2

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012

e and negative, and different of conventional sine wave, there is no arc extinction. As a result, the arc is very stable with low variation in the voltage and current values. The ACSW could vary also the wave form, providing control of the penetration and the bead format. It is possible due the Waveform Control Technology, where you can provides precise control over AC frequency, balance (how much time will be in the positive portion) and offset (positive or negative amplitude). What will affect directly the characteristics of your weld bead, like penetration and shape. The Picture 2 shows the general concept of wave control technology.

Picture 2 General concept of the wave control technology The characteristic we can adjust at the ACSW are balance, offset and frequency. Adjusting these characteristics you can improve penetration, deposition rate, bead profile, adjusting the weld beads according to you needs. The Picture 3 show an example of improvement the deposition rate by using the AC current with wave modifications.

Picture 3 Deposition rate of 4,0mm wire with different set ups of square wave balance. Lincoln internal reports. The next topics will explain the effect of the welding bead and arc of each three adjustable characteristics. 1.2.1 - Wave Balance The wave balance refers to the time you spend in each portion of the wave. The control head will always adjust the positive portion of the wave. As an example, when the adjustment is 25%, means that 25% of the time the wave will be positive and 75% of the time, negative. The result of this adjustment will be low penetration and higher deposition rate. The result will be opposite when the wave is balanced for 75%. The Picture 4 shows the effect of the wave balance adjustment on the bead profile and penetration.

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012

Picture 4 Wave balance effect at the bead profile and its penetration 1.2.2 - Wave Offset The wave offset you adjust the wave to the positive or negative side. As the wave balance, to the offset the adjustment is over the positive side of the wave. For instance, when the offset setup is -25% means that 25% of the wave is positive and 75% of the wave is negative. As a result, you improve the deposition rate and give low penetration of the bead. The Picture 5 show the influence of the wave offset to the bead profile and penetration.

Picture 5- Wave offset effect at the bead profile and its penetration 1.2.3- Frequency The equipment standard setup gives 60Hz. However, it is possible to adjust the frequency from 20 to 100Hz. This adjustment controls how many times a complete wave will be repeated in a period of time (1Hz=1cycle per second). This control helps to improve the arc stability. This will result in the practice smooth beads transition and low bead high. The Picture 6 shows the effect of the frequency at the arc stability in an unbalanced ACSW.

Picture 6 Arc stability for an unbalanced wave by changing the frequency 4

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012

1.3 Welding of duplex stainless steels The common procedure to perform welding of the DSS is control the heat input and interpass temperature, to provide the cooling rate necessary to result the Ferrite and Austenite phase partition around 50%. The table 2 give the general guidelines that can be used for all arc welding processes. Table 2 General recommended welding guidelines to DSS welding Type of duplex or family Lean and conventional duplex Superduplex All types Heat input (kJmm) Maximum Interpass Temperature (C) 0,5-2,5 250 0,2-1,5 150 No pre heat, No dehydronization treatment, usually as welded (no PWHT)

The SDSS due its higher content of Cr, Mo and N, are more prone to secondary phases precipitations like Sigma and Chi (Charles, 1995). That is the main reason that we use limitation of heat during the welding. The partition of the Ferrite expected and usually accepted to the welding joints is 30-70%, which is the range where the resulted properties could classify the steel as duplex stainless steel. This is determined by counting techniques (ASTM E562) and checked by magnetic field instruments during the fabrication (Holloway, 2003).

2- Materials and Methods

2.1 Materials The test coupons were S355 plates (similar to ASTM A516 grade 60) with 19mm of thickness; this thickness will help to evaluate the bead penetration by avoiding the influence of high dilution by using low thickness plate. This grade is a usual choice for weld cladded pressure vessels. The two test coupons are DC+ current with straight beads technique, a common procedure found in the industry for submerged arc welding weld cladding. The other test coupon is ACSW that is the object of evaluation of the present work. The buttering layer was done with stainless type 309L that gives a low hardness layer transition between the carbon steel and SDSS with submerged arc and aluminate-fluorate type flux, that was the same used for all layers. Include the type of current and parameters of square wave following the same stander that it will be use in the next layers. The power source characteristic was constant current for both DC+ and ACSW. The Table 3 shows the chemical composition of the plate and welding consumables. Table 3 Chemical composition of the plate and welding consumables Material S355 ER2594 ER309L C 0,15 0,012 0,02 Si 0,22 0,40 0,44 Mn 1,20 0,36 1,6 Cr 0,04 25,17 23,4 Ni 0,01 9,49 13,2 Mo 0,00 3,90 0,15 N 0,0046 0,24 0,08

The welding flux selected was fluorite-aluminate type, classified as EN 760 SA FA 2 DC. 2.2 Methods of welding and evaluation The weld clad method is Submerged Arc Welding with straight bead technique. The beads had an overlap of 30-50% over the last bead to avoid too high dilution. The butter layer was 309L stainless type and superduplex stainless consumable ER2594 type was used for the second and third layer. The welding parameters were fixed for each current type and used from bottom to top. The heat input range was the same to both current types. The interpass temperature used was 150C maximum. The weld clad evaluations was chemical composition of each layer by optical emission spectrophotometer, layer thickness by using a millimeter caliper, Ferrite phase counting by using counting method ASTM E562. The hardness were evaluated by Vickers HV10 scale. 5

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012

Deposition rate and true heat input were collected directly in the welding machine during the welding and reported. We perform optical microscopy to check out if some secondary phase or carbide precipitation is present. We use 400X maximum.

3-Results
3.1 Welding parameters and heat input. Table 4 Welding Parameters for DC+ current Tip to work distance (mm) 25

Program

Wire Diameter (mm) 2,4

Current (A)

Voltage (V)

Travel Speed (mm/min) 457

Heat Input (kJ/mm) 1,1 1,35

468

260-300

30-31

Table 5 Welding Parameters AC Square Wave Travel Speed (mm/min) 508 Tip to work distance (mm) 25

Program

Wire Diameter (mm) 2,4

Current (A) 290-330

Voltage (V) 31-32

Heat Input (kJ/mm) 1,1-1,35

Offset (%) 0

Balance (%) 50

Frequency (Hz) 60

466

Table 6 Deposition rate and layer thickness Average deposition rate (kg/hr) 5,0 6,3 Butter layer thickness (mm) 2,9 3,4 Overlay total thickness (mm) 9,2 11,0 Penetration on base metal (mm) 2,5 2,0

Current type DC+ AC SW

b a Picture 7 Macrograph of the weld pads: a) DC+ and b) AC SW. The bead transition on ACSW is smoother than DC+ 3.2 Chemistry composition Table 7 Buttering with 309L Stainless for DC+ and ACSW Current DC+ ACSW C 0,052 0,066 Si 0,455 0,670 Mn 1,098 1,357 P 0,017 0,002 S 0,012 0,001 Ni 8,806 9,774 Cr 15,830 18,840 Mo 0,106 0,145 W 0,019 0,027 N 0,01 0,01 6

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012

Table 8 - First layer of Superduplex Stainless for DC+ and ACSW Current DC+ ACSW C 0,035 0,025 Si 0,447 0,497 Mn 0,504 0,536 P 0,021 0,020 S 0,005 0,004 Ni 9,006 9,688 Cr 20,888 22,841 Mo 2,283 2,581 W 0,026 0,027 N 0,21 0,21

Table 9 Second layer of Superduplex Stainless for DC+ and ACSW Current DC+ ACSW
AWS ER2594

C 0,024 0,019
<0,030

Si 0,528 0,484
<1,0

Mn 0,323 0,330
<2,5

P 0,015 0,019
<0,03

S 0,0008 0,001
<0,02

Ni 8,934 9,230
8,0-10,5

Cr 23,374 24,152
24,0-27,0

Mo 3,487 3,522
2,5-4,5

W 0,027 0,030
<1,0

N 0,24 0,24
0,200,30

PREN 38,8 39,7

-

3.3 Hardness HV 10 Table 10 First layer of Superduplex Stainless for DC+ and ACSW Material DC+ ACSW 1 measure 241 262 2 measure 252 262 3 measure 241 262 Average 245 262

Table 11 Second layer of Superduplex Stainless for DC+ and ACSW Material DC+ ACSW 1 measure 262 268 2 measure 268 268 3 measure 268 268 Average 266 268

3.4 Microstructure Table 12 Microstructure comparative between DC+ and ACSW Identification Microstructure Ferrite content Grain type ASTM DC+ There are ferrite and austenite, without carbides and precipitated in grain boundaries 31% delta ferrite N 8,0 ACWS There are ferrite and austenite, without carbides and precipitated in grain boundaries 33% delta ferrite N 8,0

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012

a) b) Picture 8 Microstructures of the weld metals: a) DC+ and b) AC SW. The etchant was 20% NaOH. Both microstructures are free of carbides and secondary phases at the grain boundaries.

3. Discussion
The heat input was decided based on the DC+ usual parameters of bead thickness (2,5-3,5mm) and its profile to easy slag detachment. The ACSW deposit gives 20% higher deposition rate and 10% higher travel speed. As a result, the layer thickness was 15% higher than DC+ in average. The Cr content of the chemical analysis was higher in all AC layers. The third layer result matches the typical SDSS chemical composition. The DC+ do not achieve the minimum Cr content. Maybe should be necessary lower the heat input or use a fourth layer, if the present parameters are kept. The typical 308 chemical composition is found in the butter layer, the duplex 2205 chemical composition at the second layer and SDSS at the third layer. The AC SW PREN gave slightly higher value than DC+ current. PREN sometimes is specified by the customer as chemical composition requirement. The ACSW result in finer grains than DC+ that could give higher mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. The ferrite content are similar and both weld deposits do not give secondary phases of carbides precipitations at the grain boundaries. The 400X magnitude is usually recommended by the international standards to find our secondary phases that could be deleterious to the corrosion and mechanical properties. The program 466 for AC SW was used without any modification, in order to compare the results by using the standard setup with the DC+ current. Based on the available information, by changing offset, balance and frequency the deposition rate could be improved and the chemical composition requirements achieved. The ferrite content range that the weld metal still has the duplex stainless steels properties is 30-70% of ferrite. As we found low ferrite, it means that cooling rate is slow. By using low heat input and interpass temperature, we should increase the Ferrite content. It means that welding parameters should be improved and it could permits lower heat input. For weld cladding, usually impact CVN at ductile to brittle transition temperature (close to -50oC) is usually not required, so it permit to use high content of Ferrite at the weld metal. Lower heat input could means higher travel speeds and as a result, speed up the coverage of area.

5. Conclusions
The AC square wave current show important advantages when compare with standard DC+ current like higher deposition and travel speed. The productivity could be improved by changing the welding parameters by increasing travel speeds for instance and lower the heat input. Further works should be explored by changing the AC SW parameters offset, balance and frequency.

6. References
SMITH, L.M. Engineering with Cladding Steel. Math. Prog. NIDI Technical Series No 10 064, 1992. CRAIG, B.D., SMITH, L. Corrosion Resistance Alloys (CRAs) in the Oil and Gas Industries. Nickel Institute Technical Series No. 10071, 2011 8

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012

CHARLES, J. Composition and Properties of Duplex Stainless Steels. Welding in the World vol. 36, p. 43-54, UK, 1995 INSTITUTE OF MOLIBIDENUM. Practical Guidelines for the Fabrication of the Duplex Stainless Steels. p. 3-8, 2009 HOLLOWAY, G. Effective Welding of Duplex and Superduplex Stainless Steels. Singapore Welding Society Meeting, 2003 ASME II part C, SFA 5.9/SFA 5.9M Specification for Bare Stainless Steel Welding Electrodes and Rods, ASME, 2010