Welding Defects
Welders should be shown the defects of their production, should get explanations on the causes, and should be instructed on how to avoid them.
Inspectors carry most of the burden of interpreting requirements and of acknowledging the fine line between acceptable flaws and rejectable defects.
Designers should get acquainted with the realizations of their productions and should learn to establish sensible requirements easily achieved by the available equipment and workforce.
To reach the following sources, readers have only to click on the following links. Further links may then open additional pages.
- Welding Defects: ESAB Handbook.
- Welding Defects: Engineering Structures.
- Welding Defects: (photo presentation) AWS.
- Welding Defects: BOC.
- Welding Defects: ISF RWTH Aachen.
- Creating High Quality Stick Welds: A User's Guide - Lincoln Electric
- Weld defects/imperfections in welds - lack of sidewall and inter-run fusion: TWI.
Weldments: Failure Analysis
Please note that the following Resources are not limited only to failures of Weldments but deal with problems and procedures of investigations in general.
Root cause determination is the part of failure analysis that provides understanding on why the failure occurred and suggests means and procedures to avoid similar occurrences in the future.
Resources on Failure Analysis:
Welding standards
Welding standards are documents that govern and guide welding activities. Standards describe technical requirements for a material, process, product, system or service.
They give also information on equipment, methods, procedures and tests used to demonstrate that the requirements are being met.
"Welding standards" is a comprehensive term that includes codes, specifications, recommended practices, classifications, methods and guides. Differences appear in them as a consequence of different purposes pursued by their writers. Therefore the various documents, although similar in content, are not interchangeable.
Codes, usually applicable to processes, explicitly indicate mandatory actions. Specifications provide requirements, generally for products.
The voluntary character of Welding standards becomes mandatory when so established by procurement documents, or when specified by governmental authorities having jurisdiction, for public safety, upon that type of regulated subject.
The larger scope of "standardization", that includes of course Welding standards, is to promote compatibility and competition of products and services, to improve quality and reliability at a reasonable price, and to simplify products for greater usability and ease of maintenance.
With the progress of globalization and international supplies of goods and services all over the world, Welding standards are required to be increasingly understood and applicable everywhere. Therefore there is an ongoing effort to obtain the largest available consensus on truly international Welding standards, issued by ISO (International Standardization Organization). However not all international standards are written in English.
Although we cannot cover every single document that may be required, we present hereafter a list of most popular Welding standards hoping to do a service to our readers who may look for particular answers to their problems. Reading and learning Welding standards is also a recommended self-improvement habit that can contribute noticeably to personal growing and professionalism.