Abstract

The purpose of this study is to verify the influence of double-pulsed current, pulsed and constant direct current on the microstructure of the 316L stainless steel austenitic when the autogenous GTAW welding process is used. To carry out this comparison study, all the tests were executed with the same welding energy in order to verify the influence that presents the modulation of the current on the microstructure of the molted region. The results indicate that double-pulsed current was the one that presented the greatest refinement of the microstructure also associated with the higher frequency of pulsation of the reached current. The micro hardness profiles for the three currents formats used reveal that there is a slight increase in the hardness value for the double-pulsed current respect to the conventional pulsing and constant direct current. This is due to the greater agitation of the melted pool when the welding process operates at high pulsation frequencies.