Electron Beam Welding of TZM Sheets

In the scope of this work, 2 mm thick TZM sheet metal is butt welded by electron beam welding (EBW) without filler material and a systematic investigation of the most relevant welding parameters to improve the weld quality is conducted. With the aid of design of experiment (DoE), it is shown that with careful selection of the welding parameters it is possible to considerably reduce the size of the fusion zone and the heat affected zone and the grain size of both. Furthermore, the influence of the parameters on the quality of the weld and the characterizing values ultimate tensile strength and hardness of fusion zone is presented. It is concluded, which parameters influence the quality of the weld and suppress pores and cracks.