Stainless steels are iron based alloys that contain a minimum of 10.5% chromium. This chromium reacts with the air and forms a very thin but very tenacious chromium oxide layer which is what prevents stainless from rusting. There are 5 types of stainless steels which are categorized depending on additional alloying elements. One thing they […]
Hydrogen Induced Cracking (HIC), also called hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC) and cold cracking, is a common welding defect when welding heavy steel sections and steels with high carbon content. If you would like to learn more about the causes of HIC read Factors Influencing Hydrogen Induced Cracking. In the above mentioned article we explained that […]
Our last post (Factors Influencing Hydrogen Induced Cracking) went over the factors that contribute to hydrogen-induced cracking. We will now go over how to prevent HIC from happening. If you recall, we mentioned you need all three factors to be present in order to have HIC: These factors are 1. a susceptible microstructure, 2. threshold […]
Hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) is a far too common type of failure. It is also called hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC) and delayed cracking since it does not occur right after welding, but a few hours or days after the weld has completely cooled down to ambient temperature. Cracking occurs due to a significant loss in ductility […]
When weld sizes are determined by design engineers, the theoretical throat is used to calculate weld strength which in turn gives our leg size (for fillet welds). This means that the desired strength of a weld is achieved only if we attain fusion to the root and side walls. The terms fusion and penetration are used […]
A weld failure is never good. Whether a weld cracks on a truck’s axle or on the post holding your house’s fence, there are always consequences. Hopefully the consequences are limited to time and money. Unfortunately, weld failures can cause injury. Welds can fail due to design flaws, but the majority of weld failures occur […]
We recently helped out a customer in determining why some of their welds were cracking. It was determined that cracking on their parts was due to rapid cooling and improperly sized welds. The discussions we had before and after determining the cause were quite interesting. We went over the typical causes for cracking with our […]
