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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Designing for fatigue is very different than designing for static loads. One of the biggest challenges is being able to estimate the loads, timing of the loads and duration of the loads. If you look at a bridge you have to estimate the number of vehicles going on the bridge every day, the weight of […]
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 […]
Many fabricators can lower their welding costs significantly if they paid close attention to weld sizes. If a print calls for a ¼” fillet weld and in production you make a 5/16” fillet weld, you are overwelding by 56%! If the print calls for a 3/16” fillet, the 5/16” fillet weld you deposit would be […]
Interpass temperature is the temperature of the base metal in and adjacent to the weld joint prior to depositing and additional pass (weld). Maintaining and measuring interpass temperature should be done carefully. Different materials require different levels of preheat and interpass temperature. For this reason it is extremely important that both prehat and interpass temperature be specified […]
In our previous post we explained how to determine the strength of a transverse fillet weld. A transverse fillet weld is one that is perpendicular to an applied load. We will now look at how to determine the strength of a fillet weld under shear stress. If the load applied is not perfectly perpendicular to […]
Unless you are a design engineer you typically don’t have to worry about determining the strength of a weld. The strength of a weld refers to its load carrying capacity, or how much load it can handle before it fails. However, it is very important for all of us involved in the welding process, from […]
