Effect of electrodes on microstructures and mechanical properties of dissimilar metal joints ASTM A36 and ASTM A240 type 316L

The incorporation of dissimilar metal materials has been applied in the industry in recent years because it can provide improved mechanical properties corrosion resistance at low cost.. Welding of dissimilar metals is used to improve component performance. This research investigated the effect of AWS A5.4 E308L-16 and E309Mo-17 electrodes on the mechanical properties and microstructure of the welding results in the joining of two different metals between low carbon steel and 316L stainless steel using the shield metal arc welding (SMAW) method, using the type single V seam 60°, welding current 70 A with reverse polarity (DCEP). Mechanical testing includes Vickers hardness test and impact tests with the Charpy method on the weld metal, HAZ, and the two-parent metals. A laser scanning microscope is used to see the microstructure of the welding results. The results show that the use of electrodes made of E308L-16 is superior to that of E309Mo-17. The hardness value on the weld metal of the electrode material reached 142.1 HV, while the E309Mo-17 electrode reached 122.2 HV. In both parts of the HAZ, the E308L-16 electrode also exceeds the hardness generated by Welding using the E309Mo-17 electrode. The toughness value of the weld metal reaches 1.46 J/mm2 for the E308L-16 electrode and 1.24 J/mm2 for the E309Mo-17 electrode. The same situation also occurs in both side of the HAZ.