Has anyone had any experience with welding inconel? I know it withstands high temperatures, but I'm planning to weld steel with inconnel if at all possible. Any insight from the experienced would be highly appreciated.

 

http://www.burnsstainless.com

Look under our tech articles for more info and yes you can weld steel to inconel, but may i ask why? if it's stainelss i can understand but mild steel?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eLusive ek4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">http://www.burnsstainless.com

Look under our tech articles for more info and yes you can weld steel to inconel, but may i ask why? if it's stainelss i can understand but mild steel?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Steel exhaust flange to inconel manifold?

 

It can be done<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dave.g &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Steel exhaust flange to inconel manifold?</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

I'm just guessing he doesn't have a piece of inconel laying around to machine into an exhaust manifold.

 

well, inconel cost is very high as well, i dont know, if SS can do it then why inconel?

 

Inconel is horribly expensive but is a wonderful material.

It yeilds very great high heat strength etc. etc.

 

We were set on using Inconnel on the headers for Rado's celica...until we found out the price! lol. I did alot of research on it and about welding it. I found that not too many people have welded it before, but those that have say it's kinda like welding dirty stainless. I have yet to get my hands on any, but would like to mess with it a bit.

 

We have some scraps laying around the shop, but they are miiiiiiiine all miiiiiiine!!!!!!!!!! muahahahha

ok im done

I talked to bob today tony didnt know anyone from norwood was on here

 

Yeah, i heard him talking to you today, didn't know you were on here though. Hook me up with some scraps man, I gotta learn somehow, can't afford to learn on $200 U bends!!! lol

 

I've welded it, but I'm not versed on the theory behind it. An older guy instructed me by saying " Don't heat it up too much, it'll crack" With that I proceeded to weld it. It didn't crack. It seemed to weld just like S.S. but I was very careful not to sit on it too long. Hrm.

D.

 

Yes, it can indeed be done. Grab some Hast W weld wire and you can stick about any two alloys (excluding aluminum based) together (mild to stainless, mild to inco, mild to hast, stainless to inco/hast, cast iron).
Tony- I don't know where or how you did your research but I've got 20 guys that weld inco for me at least once per week. Based on the number of aerospace shops in the USA alone, I'd say there are thousands of people welding on inconel at any give time of the day.
As for expense, about the only engineering superalloys more expensive are Haynes 188 and Waspaloy. Both are in the $100/lb range for sheetmetal. Inco is in the $70/lb range.
Check my "welding reference" post for pics. I'll get some inco weld pics up soon, and if you guys want to bounce any questions off me I'll do my best to answer or pass them along to my welders.

 

Brandon

There may be 1000's of people welding inco in the aerospace industry everyday but it is not the exact same thing as welding inconel for automotive.

I will have to try some of the Hast W weld wire see how well it performs next time i get a chance. Thanks for the recommendation

 

I was actually told that by the guy at the the lincoln booth at sema last year. He was working the booth demonstrating the machines. This was in reference to .025" or so inconel tubing for headers. I don't know what kind of heat you'd normally weld inconel with, if it's similar to stainless then low amperage wouldn't be an issue with the thin tubing, but if it wants a lot of heat then it'd be a bit tougher with .025 tubing.

 

One amp per thousandth of an inch (25 amps for .025, etc)

As for "inconel for automotive," we use it in many different configurations (sheet, foil, bar, forging, etc) and they all weld pretty much the same. Let me talk to our CORE welder and see what he says.