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 […]

Demystifying Fatigue Fractures in Welding: The 3 Stages of Fatigue Fracture

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 […]

Why Welds Fail: It’s never just one thing

Weld failures happen all the time.  Some are more serious than others in terms of cost and potential for property damage and bodily harm.  If a weld failure is considered serious it typically gets a lot of attention. Forensics labs and industry experts get called to determine the root cause of the failure.  It may […]

Dangers of not Maintaining Proper Interpass Temperature

Last week we had the pleasure of working with a fabricator of pressure vessels in order to help them reduce manufacturing costs.   As mandated by the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code this fabricator had welding procedure specifications (WPSs) and procedure qualification records (PQRs) in place.  These were properly written, tested and documented. The WPS […]