Sandvik 2RE10
Seamless tube and pipe

The weldability of Sandvik 2RE10 is good. No preheating is required. Suitable methods of fusion welding are manual metal-arc welding with covered electrodes and gas shielded arc welding, with the TIG and MIG methods as first choice.

Welding should be undertaken with a low heat input, i.e. high travel speed and low current. The general recommendation for fully austenitic stainless steels is a heat input of 1.0 kJ/mm maximum and an interpass temperature not exceeding 150°C. The diameter of electrodes used in manual metal-arc welding should be 2.5 mm (3/32") max for wall thicknesses up to 6 mm, and 3.25 mm (1/8") max for larger wall thicknesses. A stringer bead welding technique shall be used.

In common with all austenitic stainless steels 2RE10 has low thermal conductivity and high thermal expansion. Welding should therefore be carefully planned in advance so that distortion of the welded joint can be minimised. If, despite these precautions, it is believed that residual stresses may impair the function of the weldment, it is recommended that the entire structure is stressrelieved. See under Heat Treatment.

The welding of fully austenitic steels usually involves the risk of hot cracking in the weld metal, particularly if the weldment is under constraint. As a result of its very high purity, however, 2RE10 is not especially susceptible to this kind of cracking.

We recommend Sandvik 25.20.L. as the filler metal for gas shielded arc welding. For manual metal-arc welding, covered electrodes Sandvik 25.20.LR are recommended. Sandvik 25.22.2.LMn wire and strip electrodes are recommended for overlay welding of tube sheets in cases where corrosion resistance equal to that of Sandvik 2RE10 is required.


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A document from the Sandvik Materials Technology web-site.