Effect of buttering and hardfacing on ballistic performance of shielded metal arc welded armour steel joints

Quenched and tempered (Q&T) steel closely confirming to AISI 4340 is well known for its superior ballistic performance and hence used in the fabrication of armour vehicles. These steels are traditionally welded by austenitic stainless steel (ASS) fillers to prevent hydrogen induced cracking. Due to weld thermal cycles and under matching fillers, the armour steel joints show poor ballistic performance compared to the base metal. Attempts were made to deposit hardfaced interlayer between ASS weld metals. Though this method yielded marginal improvements in ballistic performance, cracks were observed in between base metal and hardfaced layers. In this investigation an attempt has been made to eliminate these cracks by depositing a soft buttering layer using ASS consumable in between base metal and hardfaced layer. This paper reveals the effect of buttering and hardfacing on ballistic performance of shielded metal arc welded armour steel joints. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.