Fusion welding of a modern borated stainless steel

Experiments designed to assess the fabrication and service weldability of 304B4A borated stainless steel were conducted. Welding procedures and parameters for manual gas tungsten arc welding, autogeneous electron beam welding, and filler-added electron beam welding were developed and found to be similar to those for austenitic stainless steel. Four test weld were produced and evaluated by microstructural analysis. The fusion zone structure of welds in this alloy consists of primary austenite dendrites with an interdendritic eutectic like austenite/boride constituent. The differences between the microstructures of welds obtained by different methods are discussed.