Welding engineering is a complex field that requires expertise in many different engineering disciplines. The welding engineer must take advanced courses in metallurgy (including welding metallurgy), material science, mechanics of materials, thermodynamics, chemistry and fundamentals of all welding processes. Welding engineers are tasked with many different activities which include but are not limited to: […]
Developing, or writing a welding procedure, goes far beyond setting up amps and volts. It entails the selection of many variables which fall under the 9 required components of welding procedure specifications we discussed last week. Today we look at those 9 components again, but rather than just stating what they contain we explain how […]
Controlling weld quality is not always an easy task. Many fabricators struggle to manage the amount of rework, the discrepancies from one batch of product to the next, and the varying levels of productivity and workmanship amongst their welders. This inability to control weld consistency is not surprising. Welding has more than 20 variables that […]
If you own or work at a job shop you may have noticed an increase in the number of customers that require the use of qualified welding procedures to build their products. Some fabricators are even getting this request from long time customers who never required them in the past. So why is this? The […]
Today we are faced with a tremendous shortage of welding professionals. This includes welders, fitters, cutters, inspectors, supervisors, robotic technicians and welding engineers to name a few. Although every fabricator can benefit from having a welding engineer on staff, most welding engineers tend to work in specific industries such as Oil & Gas, Aerospace, Automotive […]
A welding procedure specification (WPS) consists of a series of welding variables and corresponding allowable ranges. The selection of these ranges is very important. The idea is that if the welder is within all acceptable ranges he or she will deposit a sound weld, provided of course that the welder has the required skill. The […]
Certified Welding Inspectors (CWIs) who have been certified by the American Welding Society or other international bodies tend to be considered experts in the welding industry. They certainly should be experts in visual inspection and in the interpretation and application of welding codes and standards; however, this does not necessarily mean they are experts in […]
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 […]
There is a misconception in our industry that the qualification of welders, and welding procedures for that matter, needs to be done by a certified welding inspector (CWI) or a welding engineer. Or that it has to be done by a third party. Although this may be the case if specified in contract documents, more […]
Let’s keep it simple. 4140 steel can be welded without problems as long as you follow some simple guidelines. This also applies to AISI 4140 and 4340. We will not be discussing the metallurgical properties of 4140 or trying to explain what happens to its microstructure when it cools too rapidly, just remember that the […]
