Assembly with weld joint formed in hybrid welding process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9808887-B2
Application number	US-201314376066-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2013
Priority date	Jan 31, 2012
Publication date	Nov 7, 2017
Grant date	Nov 7, 2017

Abstract

An assembly includes a first steel component that is joined to a second steel component by a weld joint formed in a hybrid welding process. At least one of the first and second steel components is a through-hardened bearing steel. In the hybrid welding process, base material of the first and second steel components is melted, and a molten filler material including at least 90% nickel is added. The weld joint is formed after solidification of the molten base material and of the molten filler material. The weld joint has a central solidified portion and a peripheral solidified portion, and the central solidified portion includes at least 80% filler material and the peripheral solidified portion includes no more than 20% filler material.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An assembly comprising a first steel component that is joined to a second steel component by a weld joint formed in a hybrid welding process, wherein at least one of the first and second steel components comprises a through-hardened bearing steel, and wherein the hybrid welding process comprises melting base material of the first and second steel components and adding a moulten filler material comprising at least 90% Nickel, the weld joint being formed after solidification of the moulten base material and the moulten filler material,
wherein, the weld joint comprises a central solidified portion and a peripheral solidified portion, whereby the central solidified portion comprises at least 80% filler material and the peripheral solidified portion comprises no more than 20% filler material.

2. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the filler material comprises at least 95% Nickel.

3. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the first component and the second component comprise bearing steel.

4. The assembly according to any preceding claim, wherein the through-hardened bearing steel component is a bearing ring of a rolling element bearing.

5. A method of forming a weld joint between a first steel component and a second steel component in a hybrid welding process, wherein:
at least one of the first and second steel components comprises a through-hardened bearing steel, and the hybrid welding process combines:
a first energy source in the form of a laser beam or an electron beam, and
a second energy source from a gas metal arc welding process in which a filler wire comprising at least 90% Nickel is employed as a filler material,

wherein the method comprises steps of:
directing the first energy source at a contact interface between the first and second steel components to create a keyhole, whereby material of the first steel component and material of the second component melt to form a moulten steel mix;
injecting moulten filler material into the keyhole, via the arc welding process, the weld joint being formed after solidification of the moulten steel mix and of the moulten filler material; and
controlling the hybrid welding process such that the first energy source foreruns the second energy source and such that, after solidification of the moulten materials, the weld joint has a central solidified portion comprising at least 80% filler material and has a peripheral solidified portion comprising no more than 20% of the filler material.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the weld joint has a depth of between 2 and 10 mm.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein the weld joint has a depth greater than 3 mm and the method further comprising, prior to welding, a step of providing a groove at the contact interface between the first and second components.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the groove has a depth of between 1 and 5 mm.

9. The method according to claim 7 wherein the groove is V-shaped.

10. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the step of controlling comprises setting the power of the first energy source at between 1000 and 7000 W.

11. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the step of controlling comprises setting a distance at which the first energy source foreruns the second energy source at between 2 and 5 mm.

12. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the step of controlling comprises setting the welding speed at between 10 and 30 mm/s.

13. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the step of controlling comprises setting a wire feed rate of the filler wire at between 3 and 10 m/min.

14. The method according to claim 5 ,
wherein the step of controlling comprises setting the power of the first energy source at between 1000 and 7000 W and setting a distance at which the first energy source foreruns the second energy source at between 2 and 5 mm, and setting the welding speed at between 10 and 30 mm/s, and setting a wire feed rate of the filler wire at between 3 and 10 m/min.

15. The method according to claim 5 , including:
directing the first energy source along the contact interface at a speed between 10 and 30 mm/s;
maintaining a distance between the laser beam or electron beam and the filler wire at the keyhole of between 2 and 5 mm;
feeding the filler wire at between 3 and 25 m/min; and
maintaining a power of the gas metal arc welding at between 80 and 200 Amps.

16. An assembly produced by the method according to claim 5 .

17. A method of forming a weld joint by a hybrid welding process comprising:
a) placing a first steel component comprising a through-hardened bearing steel in contact with a second steel component at a contact interface;
b) directing a laser beam or electron beam along the contact interface to create a keyhole and form a molten steel mix comprising a portion of the first steel component and a portion of the second steel component,
c) after step b, performing a gas metal arc welding process along the keyhole using a filler wire comprising at least 90% nickel to inject molten filler material into the keyhole such that the molten filler material produced by the gas metal arc welding process partially mixes with the molten steel mix produced by the laser beam or the electron beam to form the weld joint and such that, after the mixture of the molten filler material and the molten steel mix solidifies, the solidified mixture has a central solidified portion comprising at least 80% filler material and a peripheral solidified portion comprising no more than 20% of the filler material.

18. An assembly produced by the method according to claim 17 .

19. The method according to claim 17 wherein the weld joint has a depth greater than 3 mm and the method further comprises, before step b, forming a groove at the contact interface.

20. The method according to claim 17 , including:
directing a laser beam or electron beam along the contact interface at a speed between 10 and 30 mm/s;
maintaining a distance between the laser beam or electron beam and the filler wire at the keyhole of between 2 and 5 mm;
feeding the filler wire at between 3 and 25 m/min; and
maintaining a power of the gas metal arc welding at between 80 and 200 Amps.

Assignees

• Skf Ab

Inventors

• Van De Sanden John F

Classifications

• F16C2226/36

  by welding · CPC title

• B23K35/3033

  Ni as the principal constituent · CPC title

• Y10T428/12937

  Co- or Ni-base component next to Fe-base component · CPC title

• B23K26/348 Primary

  in combination with arc heating, e.g. tungsten inert gas [TIG], metal inert gas [MIG] or plasma welding · CPC title

• B23K2103/50

  Inorganic materials other than metals or composite materials · CPC title