Abstract: The weldability is an important property to metal materials. Materials weldability becomes worse with the yield strength increasing. The experimental results indicate that the specific shock waves treatment could improve the weldability of steels such as 16MnR, SM 58Q, e.g. increase the notch toughness of coarse grains zone in HAZ and decrease cold cracking sensibility. The work would explore initially the mechanisms of improvement of weldability by shock waves. The further study on the low alloy high strength steel WEL TEN80 indicates that the shock waves may increase the material weldability on this grade of trength.

Key words: shock waves, weldability, explosion