The Challenges of Welding in Cold Temperatures

Welding in cold temperatures poses two critical challenges.  First, the brutal conditions welders must endure and second, the performance of steel structures in cold temperatures. Many times we forget about the former by focusing too much on the latter.  If you ever get a chance to talk to welders that have welded in both extreme […]

Who is responsible for determining weld size?

Who determines what size a weld should be?  This is a question we ask many of our customers.  And we never seem to get a straight answer.  In a perfect world, the design engineer should specify all weld sizes and clearly communicate this through welding symbols on the print.  But that is hardly ever the […]

3 Mistakes that lead to distortion in welding

Distortion caused by the heating and cooling cycles of welding is extremely problematic.  It can place structures out of dimensional tolerance creating costly rework.  In some cases parts need to be scrapped.  Understanding the causes of distortion and the properties of the metal being welded are an absolute necessity for those managing welding operations.  There […]

Pick Your Prequalified Welding Procedures Carefully

Welder performance qualification test for limited thickness.

If you work with AWS D1.1 you are probably familiar with the use of prequalified welding procedures.  The use of prequalified WPSs provides many benefits to the fabricator, one of which is costs savings due being exempt from having to perform costly testing to qualify the welding procedure.  However, if you are looking to save […]

3 Key Factors Affecting the Quality and Cost of Welds

Quality and cost go hand in hand, or at least they should.  Poor quality may be cheap during the fabricating process, but very costly when it comes to warranty repairs and potentially losing customers.  Many of the companies we work with have seen substantial cost reductions when we help them address quality concerns.  For the […]

Basics of Pressure Vessel Design

The design of pressure vessels is quite interesting.  At first it may appear extremely complicated.  Then, you learn the basics of pressure vessel design and realize it is not that big of a deal.  But, then you get into all variations of vessel heads and shells, the different kinds of loading conditions (it’s not just […]

What Causes Welding Spatter

17 reasons why you are getting spatter in your welding operations

Spatter is present in welding.  It’s all over welding.  But it doesn’t have to be.  Spatter costs fabricators millions of dollars every year.  Its removal constitutes rework that significantly and negatively impacts productivity.  Many fabricators work under the assumption that spatter is a necessary evil, a part of welding.  However, this couldn’t be further from […]

7 Things to Consider When Choosing the Best Welding Process for your Welding Procedure

Selecting the best welding process is a critical step in developing a welding procedure that attains the desired quality and optimizes productivity.  Many times we look for the welding process that can give us the highest deposition rate to optimize productivity. However, every welding process has limitations. For example, submerged arc welding (SAW) has extremely […]

6 Levels of Welding Quality Standards

Which one do you fall under?

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 […]

Welding Hot Rolled vs Cold Rolled Steel

Both hot rolled and cold rolled steels can easily be welded.  However, there are differences between the two that will impact which you choose to use.  Making this choice depends on several factors such as strength, surface finish, dimensional accuracy and cost.   To understand the difference between hot rolled and cold rolled steel and how […]