An Electrochemical Evaluation on the Corrosion of Weld Zone in Cold Arc Welding of the Cast Iron

Cold arc welding of cast iron has been widely used with repair welding of metal structures. However its welding is often resulted in the galvanic corrosion between weld metal zone and heat affected zone(HAZ) due to increasing of hardness. In this study, corrosion properties such as hardness, corrosion potential, surface microstructures, and variation of corrosion current density of welding zone with parameters of used electrodes for cast iron welding were investigated with an electrochemical evaluation. Hardness of HAZ showed the highest value compared to other welding zone regardless of kinds of used electrodes for cast iron welding. And its corrosion potential was also shifted to more negative direction than other welding zone. In addition, corrosion current density of WM in polarization curves was qualitatively smaller than that of HAZ. Therefore galvanic corrosion may be apparently observed at HAZ. However galvanic corrosion may be somewhat controlled by using an optimum welding electrode.