Micro Laser Joining between Dissimilar Materials of 200μm Thick TiNi Alloy and Stainless Steel and the Joint’s Electrochemical Behavior

Abstract

Dissimilar materials between TiNi shape memory alloy (SMA) and stainless steel of 200μm mm thick were butt welded by micro impulse laser and the electrochemical behavior of the weld joints was studied. The results show that the crack sensitivity of the welded joint is very high and good joining between TiNi SMA and stainless steel can be realized with pure Ni wire as filler material presented between TiNi SMA and stainless steel. The tensile strength of the welded joint with pure Ni wire as filler material is 580MPa. The electrochemical tests of the welded joints in different concentrations of NaCl solutions and different pH value solutions show that, the maximum of the corrosion potential Ecorr in the three typical corrosion systems (0.9%NaCl, pH=7.3; 3.5%NaCl, pH=7.3; 0.9%NaCl, pH=4) is the weld seam, which indicates that the corrosion tendency of the weld is smaller than that of TiNi alloy and stainless steel in the three corrosion systems. The pitting corrosion potential of TiNi alloy, stainless steel and the weld gradually decreased with the increase of Cl-concentration; the pitting corrosion potential decreased with the increase of H+ concentration, while TiNi alloy decreased faster than that of the weld and stainless steel, the surface stability of TiNi alloy is low when pH value dropped below 7.