Weldability

The weldability, also known as joinability, of a material refers to its ability to be welded. Many metals and thermoplastics can be welded, but some are easier to weld than others (see Rheological weldability). A material's weldability is used to determine the welding process and to compare the final weld quality to other materials.

Weldability is often hard to define quantitatively, so most standards define it qualitatively. For instance the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines weldability in ISO standard 581-1980 as: "Metallic material is considered to be susceptible to welding to an established extent with given processes and for given purposes when welding provides metal integrity by a corresponding technological process for welded parts to meet technical requirements as to their own qualities as well as to their influence on a structure they form." Other welding organizations define it similarly.

For steel there are three major failure modes by which weldability can be measured: hydrogen-induced cold cracking, lamellar tearing, and spot-weld peeling. The most prominent of these is hydrogen induced cold cracking.

The weldability of steel, with regard to hydrogen-induced cold cracking, is inversely proportional to the hardenability of the steel, which measures the ease of forming martensite during heat treatment. The hardenability of steel depends on its chemical composition, with greater quantities of carbon and other alloying elements resulting in a higher hardenability and thus a lower weldability. In order to be able to judge alloys made up of many distinct materials, a measure known as the equivalent carbon content is used to compare the relative weldabilities of different alloys by comparing their properties to a plain carbon steel. The effect on weldability of elements like chromium and vanadium, while not as great as carbon, is more significant than that of copper and nickel, for example. As the equivalent carbon content rises, the weldability of the alloy decreases.

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