Hi
Been learning Al-GMAW, as seen in other posts.
Testing the quality of the weld...

With steel welds, if you mess it up, the loss of properties is
toughness not strength (in the main, to an approximation) - and
toughness is expensive and difficult to measure, especially for a weld.

From what I read about Al, if you mess-up your weld conditions, the
loss of properties will be strength - and that is easy and cheap to
measure - eg. my home-spun test for fillet-welds (video on my website)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/esgwfk5jenhm024/210122_fwtr.mp4?dl=0

Is that right??
Can you measure / verify you have kept your weld on the optimum with a
tensile test, for Al welds welding Al plate?

Thanks in advance...
Rich S

"Richard Smith" wrote in message news:lya6m8x06d.fsf@richards-air-2.home...

Hi
Been learning Al-GMAW, as seen in other posts.
Testing the quality of the weld...

With steel welds, if you mess it up, the loss of properties is
toughness not strength (in the main, to an approximation) - and
toughness is expensive and difficult to measure, especially for a weld.

From what I read about Al, if you mess-up your weld conditions, the
loss of properties will be strength - and that is easy and cheap to
measure - eg. my home-spun test for fillet-welds (video on my website)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/esgwfk5jenhm024/210122_fwtr.mp4?dl=0

Is that right??
Can you measure / verify you have kept your weld on the optimum with a
tensile test, for Al welds welding Al plate?

Thanks in advance...
Rich S

-------------------

Unlike the secretive aerospace companies, NASA often publishes the results
of their publically-funded research into materials and methods.
https://www.techbriefs.com/tb/magazine/archives

On Mon, 26 Jul 2021 21:58:02 +0100, Richard Smith wrote:

> Hi Been learning Al-GMAW, as seen in other posts.
> Testing the quality of the weld...
>
> With steel welds, if you mess it up, the loss of properties is toughness
> not strength (in the main, to an approximation) - and toughness is
> expensive and difficult to measure, especially for a weld.
>
> From what I read about Al, if you mess-up your weld conditions, the loss
> of properties will be strength - and that is easy and cheap to measure -
> eg. my home-spun test for fillet-welds (video on my website)
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/esgwfk5jenhm024/210122_fwtr.mp4?dl=0
>
> Is that right??
> Can you measure / verify you have kept your weld on the optimum with a
> tensile test, for Al welds welding Al plate?
>
> Thanks in advance...
> Rich S

IIRC you are correct, tensile only adequate for most Al welds, but I have
been retired for a while and have an imperfect memory.

Often the limiting factor in the strength of good aluminum welds is
annealing of the base metal in the heat affected zone just outside the
weld, unless the base metal started out in the T0 (fully annealed)
condition. So whenever you are welding heat treated plate you should
expect a good weld to fail in the HAZ. Not necessarily true for cast
aluminum where a good match between weld and base metal is often possible.

I recall an article on welding aluminum in AWS Welding magazine some
decades ago where the author defined an aluminum weld as "a continuous
defect in an otherwise sound piece of metal".

I just checked to see if there is a current edition of my old "Aluminum
Weldor's Training Manual" (no luck) but a current reference is:

"Welding Aluminum: Theory and Practice" by The Aluminum Association

Rather pricey at $140 for non-members, but perhaps you can find a used
copy.

Glen

"Richard Smith" wrote in message news:lya6m8x06d.fsf@richards-air-2.home...
.....
With steel welds, if you mess it up, the loss of properties is
toughness not strength (in the main, to an approximation) - and
toughness is expensive and difficult to measure, especially for a weld.
....

---------------------

So that's why I was taught to test my sample steel weld coupons by bending
them double along the weld line. The instructors didn't give me a test for
aluminum welds, perhaps because mine were obviously bad.

Fairly inexpensive crane (tension) scales:
https://www.amazon.com/Klau-Digital-Industrial-Crane-Hanging/dp/B00U6R3G2G

I've used mine for proof testing but haven't yet subjected it to the jolt of
a tension test to failure. It showed that the oak log I'll hopefully soon
saw into beams weighs 2130 Lbs. The previous heaviest was 1440 Lbs which
strained the sawmill's capacity and I've had to upgrade the saw, hoist and
chainsaw to handle this one.

I expected that tree to stand for another 100 years but it had grown over a
flat rock and was rooted only at the edges.