You may not realize it, but without welding, the modern world wouldn’t be where it is now. We depend a lot on this cheap and effective method, which has helped us keep building taller skyscrapers, better cars, bigger ships, bridges, and so on. Welding is a common practice in the metalworking industry. Weld quality assurance is the use of technological methods and actions to test or ensure the quality of welds and, secondarily, to confirm the presence, location, and coverage of welds.
Welding doesn’t care who wants to become a welder. In fact, the industry is very open and there aren’t many barriers to entry. Welding judges the quality of welds. The main goal of welding is to ensure that the weld is able to withstand the stress.
If you don’t know what to look for, it can be hard to tell the difference between a good weld and a bad one. Also, it’s important to know that you can’t tell how good a weld is just by looking at it. You need to do more tests and analysis to find out how good it is. But there are some things about the weld that can be seen with the naked eye that can give us a first idea of how good the joint is. Let’s look at a few of them.
Weakness, Welding Quality, and Choice
How well our weld was done has a direct effect on how well it will hold up. There are three parts to the quality control:
Before the weld is done, all the technical details must be looked over to make sure they meet the technical and quality standards.
During the welding process, it is important to check all the parameters.
We can run a variety of tests after welding to ensure that the product is up to standard.
Since there are so many different ways to weld, each one has its own flaws and features that need to be looked at to figure out how good it is. Welders usually say that a weld shouldn’t be described as “good” or “bad.” Instead, they say that it should be described as “meeting or not meeting the reference parameters and standards.” This is because a weld that looks “bad” can be perfect for the purpose it was made for, and a weld that looks “good” can be rejected by more tests.
In reality, each weld needs to be looked at on its own, and if it isn’t strong enough or doesn’t have a good finish, something went wrong and needs to be fixed.
With this in mind, what are the most important things to look for when doing a visual test (VT) to figure out how good a weld is?
MIG Welding
MIG welding, which stands for Metal Inert Gas welding, is often used for big industrial projects. This means that the welds have a lot of responsibility, so the person using the welding gun to join the metal pieces must make sure they are doing a great job.
With a visual test, what flaws should be looked for to judge the quality of a MIG weld?
- Not getting down to the root (when it is possible to see the back of the cord).
- Bite the corner of the intersection.
- The edges don’t come together.
- Cracks on the surface.
- The deposited metal is on top of the base metal.
- Too much metal was deposited.
- Penetration excess (when it is possible to see the backside of the bead).
Most of these problems can be fixed by following the WPS correctly, making sure the physical parameters are right, and making sure all the equipment is clean and ready to go.
TIG Welding
Tungsten Inert Gas Welding, or TIG Welding as most welders call it, is often used in construction, aerospace engineering, and the auto industry. Because of these things, it saves lives and must be used with the utmost care and quality. It is a lot harder to do well than MIG Welding, so it comes with more responsibilities and quality checks. TIG may also be called GTAW, which stands for Gas Tungsten Arc Welding.
The biggest problem with TIG welds is that they look so good that it takes a trained and experienced eye to see where the problems are.
Here are some things they should look out for:
- Not getting down to the root (when it is possible to see the back of the cord).
- Bite on the corner of the intersection.
- The edges don’t come together.
- Cracks on the surface.
- Rusty root.
SMAW Welding
SMAW Welding (Shielded Metal Arc Welding), which you might also see called Stick Welding MMA, is the last type of welding (Manual Metal Arc Welding). This is an easy way to start welding, and it can be done with all kinds of metals. Unfortunately, the same things that make it easy for beginners to use and flexible are also the things that make it most likely to be done poorly.
The next time you do a stick weld, pay close attention and maybe even make a list:
- Bite on the joint’s edge.
- The use of slag.
- The edges don’t come together.
- Cracks on the surface.
- The base metal and weld joint have projections.
How does Soldamatic help make the welds better?
Welding quality and welding training hasn’t changed in a long time, and new technologies like Augmented Reality are leading the way in training the next generation of skilled workers for the industrial world.
Soldamatic’s AR technology makes it possible to train without using materials or consumables. This means that trainees can get the extra training they may need. After the weld is done, Soldamatic gives a full, detailed analysis of the weld. This lets the trainee see where they went wrong and go back and practice whenever they want.
Conclusions.
Even though a visual test is a basic test that is always done after welding, it shouldn’t be the only test used to judge how well a weld was done. We need to look at each weld individually and keep in mind the differences between the different ways to weld.
But here are some tips that could help you make a good weld:
- Follow all of the rules that the WPS sets.
- Before you do the weld, make sure the pieces fit together well.
- Make sure that all of the tools are clean and ready to use.
