Troubleshooting Erratic Wire Feeding
One of the most common troubleshooting problems we see with GMAW (MIG welding) is erratic wire feeding. Wire feeding problems do not always look like wire feeding problems. Sometimes the symptoms are obvious—the wire stutters, slips at the drive rolls, or repeatedly burns back into the contact tip. Other times, poor feeding shows up as […]
Why Welds Crack: Understanding Hot Cracking and Hydrogen Cracking
Few welding discontinuities create more concern than cracks. Unlike porosity, undercut, or excessive reinforcement, cracks are almost never acceptable under structural welding codes because they can significantly reduce the strength and reliability of a welded joint. More importantly, cracks tend to propagate under service loads, meaning a small crack can eventually become a catastrophic failure. […]
3 Effective Ways to Reduce Welding Rework
Rework is extremely costly, especially in welding. If you consider what happens when a weld is rejected it is essentially triples the amount of work. You weld, you remove the weld, you reweld. On top of this it may require additional inspection. So, reducing rework can save considerable amounts of time and money.
5 Welding Engineering Topics Every Welder Should Understand
In many fabrication shops, welding engineering is viewed as something that only matters to welding engineers. The assumption is that welders should focus on making welds, inspectors should focus on acceptance criteria, and engineers should handle the technical details behind the scenes. In reality, some of the biggest quality, productivity, and rework problems in fabrication […]
7 Tests to Qualify Welding Procedures
The qualification of welding procedures is one of the most important steps in ensuring weld quality. A welding procedure may look good on paper, but unless it has been tested—or developed within the limits of an accepted prequalified procedure—there is no assurance that it can consistently produce sound welds. As discussed throughout this series, welding […]
Flux-Cored vs. MIG Wire: What Most Shops Get Wrong
Most fabrication shops don’t struggle with welding because they lack capability. They struggle because of the decisions they make every day—especially when those decisions are based on habit rather than engineering and economics. One of the most common examples is electrode selection. Many shops default to using flux-cored wire for everything, assuming it provides the […]
What To Do When Welding Codes Are Not Clear
If you are a Certified Welding Inspector (CWI), welding engineer, or anyone responsible for interpreting welding codes, you have likely encountered situations where the code language is not completely clear. Many of the questions we receive from readers are related to interpreting welding codes and standards such as AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code – Steel. […]
5 Mistakes Made by New Welding Supervisors
Taking responsibility for welding operations is a significant step in any welding professional’s career. This role might fall to a new welding supervisor, but it can just as easily be a welding engineer, certified welding inspector (CWI), operations manager, or even a plant manager. Regardless of the title, the responsibility is the same—you are now […]
How to Reduce Welding Labor Cost in Fabrication Shops
In most fabrication businesses, welding labor is the single largest controllable cost. Yet in many shops, welding labor is not actively managed, it is absorbed. When margins tighten, management looks at material pricing, overhead, or scheduling. Rarely is welding itself analyzed as a controllable engineering variable. But welding labor cost is not fixed. It is […]
Why Most Welding Problems Are Engineering Problems
Most welding problems are not caused by poor welding technique. They are caused by engineering decisions. When welds fail inspection, when porosity continues to appear, when distortion slows production, or when rework becomes routine, the immediate assumption is often the same: the welder made a mistake. But in most fabrication environments, recurring welding defects are […]