The welding performance of steel is related to the chemical composition of steel, followed by the melting point, expansion rate, thermal conductivity and other physical properties, as well as the welding process used. There are many factors affecting the welding performance of steel.
The welding performance of steel mainly depends on its chemical composition. The most influential element is carbon, that is, the amount of carbon in the metal stem determines its weldability. Most of other alloy elements in steel are also not conducive to welding, but their influence is generally much smaller than that of carbon.
With the increase of carbon content in steel, the hardening tendency will increase, and the plasticity will decrease, which is easy to produce welding cracks. In general, the sensitivity of metal materials to crack during welding and the change of mechanical properties of welded joint zone are taken as the main indicators to evaluate the weldability of materials. Therefore, the higher the carbon content, the worse the weldability. Therefore, the amount of carbon in steel is often taken as the main sign to judge the weldability of steel. With the increase of carbon content, the cracking tendency of welding is greatly increased. Therefore, steel with carbon content greater than 0.25% shall not be used to manufacture pressure components of boilers and pressure vessels.