Are Concave Fillet Welds Bad?

You may be surprised to know that sometimes they are desired

The following is an exerpt from:  TROUBLESHOOTING FOR NON-WELDING ENGINEERS There is nothing wrong with concave welds so long as they attain the desired throat dimension. AWS D1.1/D1.1M:2020 Structural Welding Code (Steel) states that “there is no restriction on concavity as long as minimum weld size (considering both leg and throat) is achieved.” Concave welds […]

Importance of Weld Failure Analysis

Basic guidelines to troubleshoot weld failures

When a weld fails we don’t always know what caused it.  We may try something different and if it doesn’t fail the next time we adopt that as the new standard.  However, it is very important to know the root cause of weld failures.  If we don’t know what caused the failure how can we […]

Understanding Why Your Welds Crack – Part I

Timing of Cracks

Cracks are perhaps the only discontinuity for which there is no allowance.  Most codes require that cracks be repaired.  Crosscheck cracks on some hardfacing applications may be OK, but in general, if a weld cracks it’s a big problem. This problem is time consuming and costly in most cases. When you get a crack you don’t […]

6 Mistakes That Can Lead to Cracked Welds

Cracks on welds are never good.  Welding codes always have allowances for porosity, undercut, weld sizes, and even weld profiles.  However, there is never an allowance for cracks.  Being a linear discontinuity, a crack will tend to propagate through the weld and into the base metal with relative ease, especially in cyclically loaded structures.  So […]

Importance of Root Fusion

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 […]