Continuous learning is something that is very important for both personal and professional development. This applies to all industries and to all positions. The welding industry, as many of its counterparts, is challenged with a workforce that is lacking the skills necessary to do the job. This is driven by the increased demand for welders, […]
In today’s article we’ll be discussing a critical aspect of welding which is crucial in ensuring the safety and long useful life of structures. When engineers conduct a fitness for service analysis of structures they are looking for flaws. These flaws may be cracks, loose bolts, deformations, rust damage (thinning of structural members) and other […]
There are four types of loading experienced by welds and welded structures. These types of loading are a function of the strain rate (the rate at which deformation occurs in a material due to an applied load) and the number of loading cycles experienced by the welded member. The 4 types of loading are: Static […]
Whenever you hear that a welding procedure needs to be qualified it simply means that its suitability for use in a welded structure needs to be proven by testing. This means that the welding procedure must be capable of producing sound welds. But what are sound welds? Sound welds are welds that will perform in […]
A question we often ask of our customer is “how to do you determine the minimum level of quality for your welded product and how do you verify you are reaching or exceeding that quality level?” Responses included comments such as: We just weld and know our welds will hold because we know our trade […]
The majority of industrial equipment and welded structural components are subjected to repeated fluctuating loads. These loads are typically of magnitudes that are within the elastic region of the material and well below its yield strength. This means that any deformation of the structure caused by the applied stress will then return to its normal […]
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon along with several other elements in small quantities, all of which have an impact on its properties. Steels can contain varying amounts of carbon and are typically categorized as low, medium or high carbon steels. Low carbon steels are those containing 0.30% carbon or less. Medium carbon […]
Manufacturers of welding consumables are required to provide certificates of conformance for all of their welding filler metals. These certificates confirm that their consumables conform to the chemical and mechanical requirements determined by the American Welding Society for that specific filler metal. Manufacturers are not required to test every single batch of product that they […]
One of the first steps in analyzing cracks to find their root cause and take corrective action is to categorize the cracks. We categorize cracks based on three elements. Location Direction Timing In today’s article we discuss the importance of crack location when trying to determine what caused it. What follows is an excerpt from […]
Prequalified welding procedures must adhere to the strict requiremnts of the welding codes which permit their use. AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code (Steel) is one that allows their use. Prequalified WPSs are exempt from testing becasue there is reasonable assurance that as long as all the requirements are met the deposited weld will be sound […]
