Development of Low-Magnetic-Permeability Welds of 316L Stainless Steel

Austenitic stainless steel is often used as the construction material for particle accelerator vacuum chambers. It is also a strong candidate construction material for helium vessels of superconducting radiofrequency cavities of highenergy, high-power particle accelerators. One of the major limitations of austenitic stainless steels for their application in particle accelerators is the relatively higher magnetic permeability of its welds. The present paper describes an experimental study to obtain a low-magnetic-permeability gas tungsten arc weld of 316L stainless steel while using ER 316L stainless steel filler metal through controlled addition of nitrogen in the argon shielding gas. It was demonstrated that 316L stainless steel welds, made with the addition of 1.5% nitrogen in the argon shielding gas, were associated with magnetic permeability close to that of the base metal. The welds exhibited good strength and ductility in addition to qualifying the impact test requirement of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) for operation at room temperature and liquid helium temperature (4 K). The technique is important for the fabrication of BPVC-compliant 316L stainless steel vacuum chambers and pressure vessels of particle accelerators, including helium vessels of superconducting radiofrequency cavities.