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Joining Dissimilar Metals Conference II
AWS Conference attendees are awarded 1 PDH (Professional Development Hour) for each hour of conference attendance. These PDH’s can be applied towards AWS recertifications and renewals.

March 3 - 4, 2009 — Orlando, Florida
Facility: Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort
Chair: Bob Irving
Co-chairman: Bill Newell

One of the most discussed topics and sources of misunderstanding involves joining dissimilar materials by welding. Vendors probably receive more phone calls with questions on this subject than any other. The traditional codes are nearly silent on the issue. Many design, shop, or field organizations do not have—or have lost—expertise in this area.

This conference will address issues including material properties, weld properties, preheat/post-weld heat treatment, corrosion, the use of transition joints, service conditions, and practical considerations.

Even the most difficult-to-weld of all material combinations—steel to aluminum—has been welded satisfactorily using such techniques as explosion welding and magnetic pulse welding. New chemistries are coming to the aid of existing filler metals, making them more amenable to dissimilar metals welding. Filler metals based on nickel-base superalloy chemistries are also meeting the challenge. Advances in brazing technology are taking care of a host of metallurgical problems as well.

8:50-9:00 AM
Welcome: Robert Irving, Chairman

9:00-9:40 AM
Understanding and Avoiding Dissimilar Weld Failures at High Temperature
John N. DuPont, R.D Stout Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Associate Director of the Energy Research Center, Lehigh University.

Carbon steel-to-stainless steel dissimilar welds are used in a variety of applications requiring high temperature service. These welds often fail prematurely, and can result in significant costs associated with plant down time and repair. This presentation will describe the failure mechanism of these dissimilar welds and also provide methods for avoiding failures, including new techniques recently developed based on graded transition joints.

9:40-10:20 AM
Dissimilar Joining of High Temperature Materials Using a New Nickel-Base Filler Metal
Greg Chirieleison, Technical Services Manager, Haynes Wire Co.                   

The new Haynes 282R filler metal has been shown to be effective in dissimilar joining of precipitation-strengthened materials. The material has been shown to effectively overmatch other precipitation-strengthened materials. The filler metal resists strain-age cracking and retains excellent mechanical properties even when subjected to the base metal heat treatment.

10:20-10:40 AM Coffee break

10:40-11:20 AM
Explosion Welding - A Highly Versatile Welding Technology
Jeffrey A. Nicol, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, DMC Clad Metal.

Explosion welding (EXW) is a cold joining technology which can be used for welding virtually any metal combination, whether similar, dissimilar or totally incompatible. EXW is a proven and robust manufacturing technology which is applicable for a very broad range of metal sizes and thicknesses. It is ideally suited for manufacturing large bi-metal plates. The Welding Transition Joint concept allows the dissimilar metal joining features of EXW to be incorporated into conventional fabrication environments. Applications covering several common metal couples are discussed, including nickel alloys-to-steel, aluminum-to-steel, titanium-to-steel, titanium-to-aluminum.  Further, welding transition joint applications are addressed in detail.

11:20-12:00 AM
Laser Welding and Laser Brazing Applications
Craig Bratt, Fraunhofer Center for Coatings and Laser Applications.

Laser welding and laser brazing can be used to join both similar and dissimilar materials, and Fraunhofer has done extensive work in this area. The possibility to use different filler wire materials, either for brazing or welding, makes it possible to join materials which would otherwise be considered unweldable. Applications both in production and currently under development will be discussed where materials such as high carbon steels, cast irons, aluminum and copper have been successfully joined.

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch

1:00-1:40 PM
Dissimilar Materials Projection Welding - Bonding Mechanisms and Process Characteristics
Jerry E. Gould, Technology Leader, Resistance Welding and Solid State Welding Processes, Edison Welding Institute.

Resistance projection welding has long been used as a method for joining dissimilar materials. Typical applications have included both dissimilar steels, as well as for joints between more widely disparate materials. Such combinations have included copper to steel, nickel to steel, etc. This paper will address these applications of resistance projection welding from a fundamental point of view. This will include a description of active bonding mechanisms for these material combinations, followed by a series of analyses relating the mechanics of projection welding to these mechanisms. These analyses will include the following: thermal cycles related to processing conditions, mechanical response of welding systems, current profiles as a function of system design, and the influence of projection design on resultant thermal gradients. The results of these analyses will be used to characterize projection weldability of a range of dissimilar metals combinations.

1:40-2:20 PM
Spot Joining of Dissimilar Combinations of Steel and Light Metals Using a New Consumable Bit Technology
Michael Miles and Zhili Feng. Michael Miles is Associate Professor, Manufacturing Engineering Technology, Brigham Young University, Zhili Feng is Group Leader, Materials Joining and NDE Group, Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

We will present latest results on a new technology developed by BYU and Megastir. We are currently working with ORNL to study the bond properties and possible applications in automotive. This technology could be applied to other industries, like aerospace or marine.

2:20-2:40 PM Refreshment break

2:40-3:20 PM
Brazing of Dissimilar Metals - Challenges and Opportunities
Amit Jain, Senior Brazing Applications Engineer, Lucas-Milhaupt, Inc. - A Handy & Harman Company.

Brazing is a versatile process used in the joining of similar/dissimilar base metals or metals to non-metallic substrates. Due to the process involved, various challenges are encountered in the brazing of dissimilar metals/non-metals (e.g. ceramics). There are a lot of opportunities available with the brazing process as we continue to work with more metals/non- metallic substrates in the production process. In this talk the following will be discussed: Six fundamentals of brazing to endure a successful braze joint/assembly and the various braze filler metals families.

3:20-4:00 PM
A GMA and GTA Process for the Welding of Dissimilar Metals
Tom Rankin, Vice President and GM, ITW Jetline Engineering.

Both hot wire gas tungsten arc welding and the newer CSC-controlled short circuit transfer gas metal arc welding process can be used effectively for many applications involving the joining of dissimilar metals.

9:00-9:40 AM
The Role of Ferrite in Dissimilar Metal Welding
Donald J. Tillack, Consultant to the Nickel Institute.

Ferrite control is an important part of establishing a welding procedure for many dissimilar welds, especially those involving stainless steels and ferritic steels. This talk will examine the structure of ferrite and how it provides weld cracking resistance to many of the commonly welded stainless steels. Dilution effects and the consequences of having too little or too much ferrite will be examined. A typical dissimilar metal weld will be used to calculate the weld composition and estimate the ferrite level using a ferrite diagram.

9:40-10:20 AM Dissimilar Joining Challenges with Creep Strength-Enhanced Ferritic Steels
William F. Newell, Vice President, Euroweld Ltd.

Dissimilar welds involving creep strength-enhanced ferritic steels (CSEF), austenitic stainless steels and other alloys are performed on a routine basis. Factors that can occur in dissimilar metal welds include: carbon diffusion, stresses from thermal expansion, sensitization of base materials, and notch effects from differences in strengths. Extreme care and planning must be observed concerning post weld heat treatment (PWHT) of weldments involving CSEF, lower and higher alloy materials.  Weld filler metal and PWHT considerations will be discussed.

10:20-10:40 AM Coffee break

10:40-11:20 AM
Ultrasonic Soldering and Brazing of Dissimilar Materials
Shankar P. Srinivasan, Project Engineer, and Tim Frech, Dan Hauser, and Karl Graff, Edison Welding Institute.

This presentation will address joining of several dissimilar metals by fluxless ultrasonic soldering and brazing. Mechanical properties and microstructures of copper/silver-plated copper (Cu/Ag) and copper/gold-plated copper (Cu/Au) will be discussed. The results using fluxless soldering will be compared to those obtained with conventional soldering. The concept of ultrasonic joining will also be extended to higher temperatures (i.e., fluxless ultrasonic brazing). Various dissimilar metal joints fabricated by fluxless ultrasonic brazing will be presented. Advantages and disadvantages of both ultrasonic soldering and brazing will be identified, along with potential applications for each.

11:20-12:00 AM
Friction Stir Spot Welding of Dissimilar Alloys
Tom North, University of Toronto, Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

The metallurgical and mechanical properties of dissimilar friction stir spot welds produced using the following material combinations will be discussed: Al-alloys to Mg-alloys; Al-alloys to Steel; Mg-alloys to Steel; Titanium to Stainless Steel. The factors determining the stir zone temperature, chemical composition and microstructure during dissimilar friction stir spot welding are examined using a combination of data acquisition of key welding parameters (tool rotational speed, plunge rate, axial force, torque) and detailed metallographic examination.  The influence of mechanical mixing, eutectic melting and intermetallic phase formation on crack formation during spot welding are examined and on the overlap shear testing properties of completed welds will be discussed.

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch

1:00-1:40 PM
Metallurgically Bonded Transition Joints
Brett H. Keener, General Manager, Sypris Technologies, Tube Turns Division.

The specialties for metallurgically bonded transition joints are in stainless steels to aluminum alloys for piping in heat exchangers, liquefied gas storage tanks and transfer lines. These transition joints are ASME approved.

1:40-2:20 PM
Bimetal Welds: Is a High Level of Integrity Possible in Tubulars?
Al Wadleigh, President, Interface Welding.

Man has long been perplexed by the need to join different tubular metals and, until the advent and perfection of the process of inertia friction welding, he has been frustrated with the lack of capability and inferior joint quality of certain other methods. The inertia friction welding process produces welds between a wide variety of different metals that are full strength (equal in strength to the weakest metal). Several metal combinations will be discussed, including stainless steel to aluminum, stainless steel to titanium, copper to aluminum, titanium to aluminum, and others.

2:20-3:00 PM
Magnetic Pulse Welding Joins Dissimilar Metals
Jeff Compton, Advanced Computational & Engineering Services.

A number of industries are turning to magnetic pulse welding to join both similar and dissimilar metals. Using MPW, a wide range of metals and alloys can be joined together. Currently, most of the applications are round, or at least continuous, in cross section. More work is now being done with dissimilar metal spot or seam welding of flat metal using magnetic pulse.  Both the more established uses of magnetic pulse welding as well as some of the newer applications of the technology will be discussed. Also included will be a brief overview of how magnetic pulse welding works.

3:00 PM Adjournment

Conference Registration Fees

Conference Code: CF21609

AWS members: $550
Nonmembers: $680

Each nonmember attendee will receive a two-year complimentary membership in AWS. Registration includes all conference sessions, two continental breakfasts, two lunches, and refreshment breaks. The registration fee does not include hotel accommodations. Hotel accommodations are subject to hotel regulations and are the responsibility of the attendee.

Location and Accommodations

Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort
1751Hotel Plaza Boulevard
Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830
Tel: +1-407-827-4000

Take advantage of the specially negotiated rate of $209 for single and double occupancy. This rate is also extended to you three days before the conference and three days after the conference (depending on hotel availability). Be sure to mention the American Welding Society. The deadline for reservations at this special price is February 2, 2009. Each reservation must be guaranteed with a major credit card. Any room reservations must be cancelled by 5 days in advance of the arrival date and must be done directly with the hotel.