CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SAF 2205 DUPLEX STAINLESS STEEL TUBES OBTAINED BY MECHANICAL FORMING AND LASER WELDED
The SAF 2205 duplex stainless steel. Mechanical forming. Laser welding. Oxidation.
The SAF 2205 duplex stainless steel are materials widely used in industries which require high corrosion resistence and relevant mechanical properties during the operation. Characterized by a biphase microstructure, composed by a ferritic-austenitic matrix with concentrations in order of 50% for both. The SAF 2205 duplex stainless steel is being widely used in petroleum and gas industries around the world. However, there are still great uncertaints on the use of the laser welding process in industrial scale, related to the mechanical forming this kind of material can suffer during its application. The wrong thermal input can cause undesirable phases at the SAF 2205 duplex stainless steel, as well as the precipitation of carbides and the sigma phase at the material structure, both very harmful to the metal structure. In situations related to oxidation, when there is the passive layer break, the SAF 2205 duplex stainless steel can suffer permanent damage in its microstructure, causing the formation of pites in its surface and in more severe conditions, the intergranular corrosions. Thus, this work aims at characterizing the material in a natural condition, comparing the results to a situation where the material is mechanically forming and after that passes by the laser welding process, assessing the influence of these processes on the microstructural alterations, as well as on the material corrosion resistence.