Laser Welded Hollow Sections for the BabyIAXO Experiment
An experiment built to detect particles that may or may not exist leaves very little tolerance for the structure holding it. For BabyIAXO, the intermediate stage of the International Axion Observatory launched by the DESY Institute, Montanstahl supplied laser welded hollow sections of 400x200x8x8 mm in stainless steel 1.4301, cut into twenty different lengths from 146 to 4,915 mm, each piece inspected, marked for assembly and produced with welds verified by mechanical and ultrasonic testing.
Structural Components for an Axion Observatory
In the search for axions and axion-like particles, the DESY Institute in Hamburg launched BabyIAXO, a pioneering scientific installation and a decisive intermediate step towards the full scale International Axion Observatory. An experimental setup of this kind needs advanced physics instrumentation, but it also needs highly customised structural components able to meet extreme requirements for precision and mechanical performance. Three properties matter above all. Structural integrity, because the assembly carries and positions a large magnet and its optics. Dimensional stability, because the alignment achieved during commissioning has to survive thermal cycles and years of operation. Non-magnetic behaviour, because any ferromagnetic material near the apparatus perturbs the field the experiment depends on. The stainless steel profiles therefore had to satisfy exacting standards while fitting seamlessly into the wider scientific apparatus, a combination typical of research and nuclear and energy installations.
Twenty Lengths, Tested Welds and Marked Bars
The project combined mechanical, dimensional and quality control demands that rarely arrive together. The supply covered twenty different profile lengths ranging from 146 mm to 4,915 mm, each cut to a tolerance of minus zero and plus five millimetres, so every piece may only ever be long, never short, because a section that arrives undersized cannot be recovered. Straightness deviation on the long flanges had to stay minimal, since a bow in a 400 mm deep hollow section propagates into the alignment of everything mounted on it. The weld joints required tensile and ultrasonic testing, which moves the weld from a production feature to a qualified and documented one. Finally each bar needed custom markings for fast and accurate assembly on site, a detail that matters when twenty different lengths of visually similar section have to be installed in the right sequence by a team that did not build them.
Application Context
Montanstahl supplied laser welded hollow sections in stainless steel 1.4301, engineered specifically around the requirements of the project. Laser welding produced 400x200x8x8 mm profiles holding tight tolerances with minimal straightness deviation, since the low heat input limits the distortion that would otherwise accumulate across a section of this depth. Every piece was cut to length, inspected and marked so that assembly on site could proceed quickly and without ambiguity, and the weld joints underwent mechanical and ultrasonic testing, part of the documented checks within Montanstahl quality management. The result gave the BabyIAXO experiment structural components aligned with both the technical precision and the scientific aims of the installation. Sections of this type belong to the range of laser welded rectangular and square tubes, available in custom dimensions and grades, with further detail in the technical Q&A.