Austenitic welds can be examined, on the condition that the material does not have a coarse structure. The operator can determine this by himself by doing a test. Example: Set a sound path of 100 mm on the calibration block V2 (carbon steel) and then direct the angle beam to a corner of the of the austenitic steel piece. If the calculated wall thickness is equal to the calculated sound path with carbon steel, one can carry out the examination.

Austenitic welds contain the most errors in the transition zone / material. These errors can be easily identified, length as well as the height, just as in carbon steel. Only you must adhere to a rule of thumb: one can only investigate as far as the middle of the weld. If you want to test the whole weld from one side, errors will occur, because the composition of the weld material is very different compared to the parent material.

We have experience with this type of weld inspection. Our largest order was a new gas installation with austenitic pipes. It was the intention to do x-ray on 100% of the welds, but due to lack of time we were requested to examine the welds. Our task was to say, this weld does not contain errors, or it may be a weld repair, so that these welds could still be x-rayed. From the welds that we have identified as error-free, 25% was x-rayed. Our results were confirmed.