Abstract: To investigate the influence of different welding process methods on the residual stress of Q235 and Q460 welded joints for excavator buckets, a numerical simulation study was conducted on the welding of Q235 and Q460 dissimilar steel multi-layer and multi pass welding under different welding methods in a finite element analysis software platform. Two welding methods, ordinary welding and composite welding, were used for residual stress simulation analysis, and the distribution law of residual stress along the path perpendicular to the weld seam direction after welding was obtained. The numerical simulation results of welding show that the temperature and stress fields at the center of the weld seam under the two welding methods are asymmetrically distributed. The high-temperature area and stress distribution on the Q235 base metal side are wider than those on the Q460 side. The temperature and stress values of the molten pool using the composite welding method are higher than those of conventional welding. The stress gradient change near the fusion line of the Q460 base metal and the weld seam is greater than that of the Q235 base metal. The use of a higher strength buffer layer material effectively balances the difference in strength between the base metal and the weld seam. The composite welding method shows a smaller gradient change in the longitudinal residual stress distribution in the weld seam area. The research results and conclusions provide a reference for the selection of welding processes for dissimilar steel in excavator buckets.