Abstract: Carbides in a series of cold-welding weld metals were studied by means of SEM, TEM and EPMA, and the forming mechanism of carbide was proposed according to their distribution and morphology. Due to their different carbide-forming tendency, Nb and Ti could combine with C to form particulate carbide in liquid weld metal and depleted the carbon content in matrix, while V induced the carbide precipitated along grain boundary. But too much Nb or Ti alone resulted in coarse carbide and poor strengthened matrix. When suitable amount of Nb, Ti and V coexisted in weld metal, both uniformly distributed particulate carbide and well strengthened matrix could be achieved. It was proposed that the carbide nucleated on the oxide which dispersed in liquid weld metal, and then grew into multi-layer complex carbide particles by epitaxial growth. At different sites, carbide particles may present as different morphologies.

Key words: Cold-welding, Carbide, Weld metal, Precipitate