Study on Weld Quality Characteristics of Micro Plasma Arc Welded Austenitic Stainless Steels

Micro Plasma Arc Welding (MPAW) is one of the important arc welding process commonly using in sheet metal industry for manufacturing metal bellows, metal diaphragms etc. The paper focuses on weld quality characteristics like weld bead geometry, grain size, hardness and ultimate tensile strength of MPAW welded joints of various austenitic stainless steels namely AISI 316L, AISI 316Ti, and AISI 321. From the analysis carried out it is noticed that for the same thickness of work piece material and same welding conditions, AISI 304L has achieved sound weld bead geometry, highest tensile strength and hardness. However it is noticed that AISI 316L has attained lowest tensile strength, AISI 321 has lowest hardness and grain size.