Investigation of the Weldability of Austanitic Stainless Steel

This work concerns with the study of weldability of austenitic stainless steel 316 by using automatic tungsten gas shielded arc welding under various welding conditions under which it is designed to weld the samples. Results have been studied using impact and tensile strength tastings of the prepared welding joints using statistical approach. Results obtained showed that as gas flow rate of (CO2) increased the impact energy is increased, while increasing of welding current caused increasing of impact energy up to (120 ampere) then decreased. The tensile strength test results showed that as welding current is increased the tensile fracture load is decreased while increasing gas flow rate caused an increase in tensile fracture load up to 12 L/min then reduced. Microstructure examination of the weld zones did support the explanation of the variation of weld joint mechanical properties.