MAG Welding of austenite steel for the structure of antenna mounts and supports

The austenitic 316L steel (1.4401) is treated as an important stainless material that could be used to build antenna mounts and supports. Austenitic steel has a very good resistance to various kind of corrosion and also has good mechanical properties, i.e. tensile strength and elongation. The austenite steel is treated as rather correct weldable material although cracks in the joints are often present. The paper analyses the influence of various MAG welding parameters on creation good welds used in the stainless structures of antenna mounts and supports. Various tests verifying the mechanical properties of joint, including nondestructive tests, tensile strength, microscope observation and hardness test were carried out. A novelty in an article is the use various shielding gas mixtures with a very limited amount of nitrogen "below 1.5 % N2" in MAG welding.