The paper evaluates the possibility of using dissimilar materials joined by welding technology in the construction of agricultural machinery. The desire to design larger and more efficient structures requires designers to combine materials with different mechanical and structural properties. In such a case, it is very important to properly select welding parameters so that, on the one hand, the quality of the joint meets the standard requirements, and on the other, the welding process is not too energy-intensive. In this paper, overlay joints connecting S355 steel with Strenx 700 steel were analyzed in terms of strength for three different values of welding parameters and different thicknesses. The starting point was the reference parameters recommended by the company’s welding technologists, which were reduced by 10 and 20% according to the linear welding energy. The study compared the strength, ductility and macrostructure of the joints, as well as the energy intensity of the process. The proposed dissimilar joints achieved approximately a 10% increase in the strength limit of the components in comparison to the previously recommended welding parameters. Additionally, finite element analysis calculations of the improved designs showed significant weight reduction (up to 40%) for the relevant agricultural machinery components.

The joining of dissimilar steels is crucial for designing lightweight, high-performance structures but poses significant challenges due to uneven material properties. This study optimizes the butt-welding process for a dissimilar pair of S355J2 and Strenx 700E steels. Cold Metal Transfer welding was employed, and the effects of surface preparation, linear energy, and joint gap on joint integrity were systematically investigated via tensile testing, digital image correlation, fractography, and microhardness analysis. The results demonstrate that mechanical surface cleaning combined with a low linear energy of 0.334 kJ/mm and a 0.5 mm gap yields optimal performance. This parameter set produced a joint with a tensile strength of 616 MPa, representing a 32% increase compared to uncleaned samples, and promoted uniform plastic deformation across the joint. Microstructural analysis confirmed a narrower heat-affected zone and the absence of significant softening in the high-strength steel.