During my life, I welded, supervised welders, engineered welds and inspected welds in many industries. Some welds were acceptable and some welds were rejected. It is important to note these terms, “accept and reject”. Every person (company and personal) involved in the welding operation needs to perform their assigned duties (design, materials, processes, and compliance). When there is a weakness in any one of these functions, the “welder” gets blamed for a bad weld.“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This is also true for welds.

by, Dr. Jesse A. Grantham, Forensic Welding Engineer

Part 3.  Forensic Welding Engineer

Weld failures are the result of mechanical effects and thermal effects.  

Features associated with weld failures are cracks, micro-fissures, lack of ductility, non-metallic inclusions, laminations, brittle heat affected zones, degradation of micro-alloying elements, grain boundary precipitation of micro-alloy elements, hydrogen dissipation, cold-forming stresses, and fatigue stresses.

by, Dr. Jesse A. Grantham, Forensic Welding Engineer

Part 2.  Welds

Weld failures are not just accidents or acts of God.  Weld failures are the result of human errors originating from unrealistic delivery schedules, oversight, carelessness, ignorance or greed.  With the advance of design sophistication and fast-track methodologies also came the proliferation of metal failures.  Early savings in design and construction costs can easily boomerang as later and larger costs of repair and litigation.  The vulnerable metal structures of the late 20th century can provide “bread and butter” to Forensic Experts of the 21st century.

by, Dr. Jesse A. Grantham, Forensic Welding Engineer

The following article initiates a three-part series of topics for The Welding Leader (TWL) audience.  There are many ways to write about “Weld Failures”.   The perspectives presented in the following parts address different points of view of the Owner, Welds and the Forensic Welding Engineer.     

Owner Expectations

Weld failures are the result of decisions and occasionally random accidents.  A weld failure means a weld that does not meet the Owner’s expectations.  Many weld failures are more related to company politics than welding metallurgy.

Every weld is the result of someone’s deliberate choices about design, materials, process and inspection.  It is just that straight forward.  When any one of these four key elements does not meet the Owner’s expectations, the costs for the project increase and welds unable to meet the Owner’s needs are considered failures.