A Study on the Characteristic Change of 2.25Cr-1Mo Steel Welds for Various Welding Processes

In spite of the merits of laser welding being able to obtain the high welding quality such as smaller width of melting and heat affected zone, smaller welding deformation and fine grains of weldment compared to arc welding, laser welding is mainly used in joining of thin steel parts of electronics industry. Laser welding is getting widely used in joining thick plate and special kinds of steel due to its high power. While the arc welding is still applied for 2.25Cr-1Mo steel which is the essential material of atomic power generation equipment, the laser welding is not yet applied despite its high quality. So it has a trial to a special case demanding high welding quality such as atomic power plant. Accordingly, in this research, the mechanical properties of weldments by arc and laser welding were investigated using FEM to confirm the applicability of laser welding to 2.25Cr-1Mo steel. The Charphy test was carried out to understand the effect on the fracture toughness of weldments. The results of examination and test of the mechanical properties showed the validity of this research.