PRE-WELD AND POST-WELD HEAT TREATMENTS

MFET 3750
KELBY SAYER

INTRODUCTION
To avoid a brittle heat affected zone (HAZ) and to reduce the formation of martensite, a Welding
Engineer is given two tools to control the cooling rate of a weldment. These two tools are heat
input and preheat. This lab will examine the effects of preheat, but will also examine the effects
of a post-weld heat treatment.
Pre-weld heat treatment helps control the cooling rate of the specimen by requiring a longer
duration of time to occur before the specimen is cooled off to room temperature. Since the
cooling rate is slowed down by preheat, the likelihood of martensite formation is reduced, thus
resulting in increased toughness in the HAZ. Inversely, no preheat can lead to the formation of
martensite in the HAZ since the specimens cooling rate is rapid.
Post-weld heat treatment helps relieve the internal stresses of the specimens microstructure. As
the specimen cools after being welded, tension occurs between the base metal and the weld
metal. This build-up of stress makes the specimen more prone to failure due to the fact that the
specimen remains in a pre-loaded condition without the influence of external forces. Once an
external force is applied, the specimen will carry less resistance to fracture if it is not stress
relieved through a post-weld heat treatment.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this lab is to clearly demonstrate the purpose and effects of pre-weld and postweld heat treatments when compared to a control specimen that acquires no heat treatment. It
should be observed that fracture occurs during the bend test on the bobby pin control specimen,
while more toughness is observed in the remaining specimens. Through experimentation, this lab
will underline the importance of heat treatment considerations when welding metals with a
Carbon Equivalent above .35, metals that are prone to martensite formation, and the parameters
in a WPS that affect heat input.
MATERIALS
3-Bobby Pins (representing AISI 1095 steel)
3-Paperclips (representing AISI 1020 steel)
6-1/8X1-1/2 Squares of ASTM A36

PROCEDURE
Pre-weld heat treatment
A bobby pin was heated with a torch. Once it was heated to an orange color, it was tacked
onto a 1-1/2 square. The process was repeated with the paperclip.
Post-weld heat treatment
A bobby pin was tacked onto a 1-1/2 square. The bobby pin was then heated with a torch
until it was an orange color. The process was repeated with the paperclip.
Control
A bobby pin was tacked onto a 1-1/2 square. The process was repeated with the
paperclip.
Once all of the specimens were cool enough to touch, they were bent over near their bases.

RESULTS

Figure 1 In order from left to right, two control specimen, two pre-weld heat treated
specimen, two post-weld heat treated specimen.

As seen in Figure 1, none of the specimens were fractured during the bend test, including the
control specimens. It was observed that the control specimens had a smaller bend radius than the
other four specimens. It should be observed and noted that most specimens required more than
one tack weld to obtain complete fusion.

INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
A fracture in the bobby pin control specimen was predicted, but as the results display, no fracture
occurred during the bend test. This could be the result of multiple tacks being applied to the
specimen to try and obtain complete fusion of the bobby pin. These additional tacks increase the
heat input in the specimen which alters the formation of martensite. However, the brittleness of
the control specimen can still be observed in comparison to the other specimens by the size of
the bend radius. Since the bend radii in the control specimens were smaller than the other
specimens, it can be observed that these two specimens were more brittle in their HAZ than the
other specimens.
CONCLUSIONS
It can be concluded that heat input and pre-weld/post-weld heat treatments are critical to a
weldments toughness. Without significant heat input or pre-weld heat treatment, a weldment can
become brittle and can easily fracture when an external force is applied. Also, without a postweld heat treatment to relieve the internal stresses of a weldment, the residual stresses of that
weldment can increase its potential to fracture when subjected to external forces.