Abstract
Stainless steel is a family of Fe-based alloys having excellent resistance to corrosion, and as such
has been used imperatively for kitchen utensils, transportation, building constructions and much
more. This paper presents the work conducted on the material characterizations of a TIG-MIG
hybrid welded joint of type 304 austenitic stainless steel. The welding processes were conducted
in three phases. The phases of welding employed are MIG welding using a current of 170A, TIG
welding using the current of 190A, and a hybrid TIG-MIG welding with currents of 190/170A
respectively. The MIG, TIG, and hybrid TIG-MIG weldments were characterized with incomplete
penetration, full penetration and excess penetration of weld. Intergranular austenite was created
towards the transition zone and the HAZ. The thickness of the delta ferrite (δ-Fe) formed in the
microstructures of the TIG weld is more than the thickness emerged in the microstructures of MIG
weld and hybrid TIG-MIG welds. A TIG-MIG hybrid weld of specimen welded at the currents of
190/170A has the highest UTS value and percentage elongation of 397.72 MPa and 35.7 %. The
TIG-MIG hybrid welding can be recommended for high-tech industrial applications such as
nuclear, aircraft, food processing, and automobile industry.