Evaluation of susceptibility to hot cracking of magnesium alloy joints in variable stiffness condition

Magnesium alloys, due to their low density and advantageous resistance properties, are being increasingly used in automotive and aircraft industries. It is connected with the desire for vehicles mass lowering and fuel consumption decreasing. One of the development directions of magnesium alloys is the increase of creep resistance, which allows for usage at higher temperatures. The following property is possible to acquire thanks to alloy additions such as: rare-earth elements and zirconium. Almost 90% of used magnesium alloys are casting alloys: precision castings are most frequently used in automotive industry and gravity ones in aircraft industry. After the process of casting, some defects can be visible in the material, e.g. misruns or microshrinkages, but they are repaired with the use of overlay welding and other welding techniques. The main criteria of magnesium alloys weldability assessment is their susceptibility to hot cracking, which constitute the greatest difficulty during welding, and their overlay welding capacity. This paper presents the evaluation of the influence of technological factors on magnesium alloys susceptibility to hot cracking. For that purpose, several tests of joint welding in variable stiffness conditions (Houldcroft test) and metallographic examination had been made. The examination was carried out on three magnesium alloys suitable to work at elevated temperatures: ZREl, WE43 and MSRB and, for comparison, on the most frequently used for gravity castings - AZ91 alloy, in cast state and for two alternatives of heat treatment.