Welding carbon steel to stainless
Welding carbon steel to stainless
(OP)
Does anyone have any experience with this? I've tried to look online (I even contacted Lincoln Electric), but have come up empty as far as design criteria and any potential issues that could arise from welding these dissimilar metals.






RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
What type of stainless steel, what grade of carbon steel, and what is the application?
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/39647
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
I have welded stainless steel to carbon steel using common electrodes (E6011 and E7018), but it was for maintenance stuff, not building structural under code. Worked fine, but wouldn't have complied with AWS for structural welding code.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
I didn't consider that. I am only dealing with a 10" slab, though, so I don't want to cut into it too much. I'll see if I can get enough embedment doing that.
Ron-
Thanks for the input. That's good to know that a welding procedure will need to be qualified - I didn't realize that.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
Note that you can get these in 316 stainless.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
I'm welding an A992 column to the embed plate.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
I considered galvanizing in the field, but it won't be HD and it doesn't provide as much corrosion resistance.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
I would have to check concrete for drift (I think the sizes would need to go up for concrete because of drift and the long-term sway from the roof cantilevers).
Does anyone know how expensive it is to qualify a welding procedure? If I can't get it to work out using slickdeals idea, I'm considering having a 1' stub column (with the embed plate) HDG and cast in - leaving the top 4"-5" of the column stub ungalvanized. Then when the column sticks get there provide a full pen weld and have them grind it smooth. I know that would be expensive, but I don't know what it costs to qualify a welding procedure. Another serious problem is that I know they'll never get the plates/column stubs located correctly and then what kind of fix could I do? I guess that idea's out.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
With only a 10" slab, you won't get a lot of fixity of a 12" column base. I assume your header beam will be moment connected to make a rigid frame.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
You could still galvanize everything and just have the column-to-baseplate weld in the field....you could then coat the hell out of that weld and probably be fine with it. Corrosion wouldn't be any worse than with your SS/CS weld and you wouldn't need to qualify a procedure as long at the galvanizing was ground off before welding.
Any thought to using a deeper footing, using blockouts for the slab and center of the footing and embedding the column to achieve fixity...no bolts, just embedment? We do it with aluminum columns routinely.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
What kind of coating would you suggest? I thought about some kind of paint system - some of the epoxy coatings are pretty good for corrosion resistance, but I have to look into it a little more.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
Seems like I've seen either a 308 or 309 electrode used for cs to ss- I forget which is which- but it's been done.
RE: Welding carbon steel to stainless
If you have to go with a stainless steel/carbon steel joint I would recommend using 316L instead of 304L due to the salt water atmosphere exposure (I am not talking about immersion but splash, spray, and in the air salt water). See the attached link http://ww
What is stated in here confirms what my experience has been in terms of 304L v. 316L.
As Ron stated earlier, make sure you use an L grade.
The electrode should be 309MoL with the 316L and 309L if 304L is used.
Make sure that there is no galvanizing in the area to be welded (I would leave 2" clear). The zinc from the galvanizing can react with the stainless and cause cracking. If the entire column has been HDG and you are grinding away the bottom 2" I believe there are some tests to make sure that all the zinc is out of the metal. I would recommend PT examinination of the weld.
I have worked on several projects where stainless is welded to carbon steel in a variety of applications (structural and pressure vessel) and if done properly there are generally no issues. Qualifying the weld procedure should not be an issue, other than the cost of the qualification which should not that expensive. I will find out how much it costs for an ASME Section IX qualification and that should be close to what you would need to spend.
Remember that 304L and 316L has a significantly lower yield (25 ksi) than A992 Gr. 50. Dual spec 316/316L has a yield of 30 ksi. If this is a problem, I would recommend 2205 duplex (A240-UNS S32205) with a yield strength of 65 ksi. The filler metal does not change (309MoL). The welding procedure and qualification is slightly more involved; however, there is plenty of literature to help anyone develop the propoer procedure.
This really is not a big deal and should not be expensive to qualify a weld procedure. However, I do not know if it is the best solution as many others have pointed out.
Patrick