Structure and corrosion resistance of welded joints in austenitic steels after laser surface treatment

The welded joints operating in corrosive media are in most cases the areas with most intense corrosion failure. As shown in References 2 and 3, laser treatment of the surface of ferritic-pearlitic steels and of welded joints in these steels may result in a great improvement of the corrosion and corrosion-mechanical characteristics of the steels. The local laser treatment of the corrosion resistance of austenitic steel and of their welded joints has been studied only slightly and this problem has been solved in this work. Material includes 12Kh18N10T and 08Kh17N13M2T steel.