Investigation and application of intense magnetic fields to welding of stainless steel tubes

Conventional welding techniques are not always suitable for stainless steels and for a number of other alloys with highly interesting properties, so that new methods must be developed. The purpose of this work was to experiment with a high velocity impact welding method using intense magnetic fields produced in a coil supplied by an electric pulse generator. Nondestructive and destructive tests demonstrated the quality of the resulting weld. Metallurgical analysis of the weld zone confirmed the properties characterizing a satisfactory weld in the solid state with interdiffusion. Potential industrial applications of this technique may be considered after upgrading the pulse generator utilized and in particular for joints of fuel pins for fast reactors