5 Key Steps towards Best Welding Environment

For many reasons, it is important to achieve optimal welding environment. Those 5 steps can help you with that environment attainment.

The key to attract and retain skilled, experienced welders is to develop a safe and compliant working environment, and weld fume management is the crucial part of this process. Regulations specified by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) must be obeyed for compliance guarantee.

Hierarchy of Controls (OSHA) is the tool that enterprises can leverage to remove or mitigate work hazards. This hierarchy sketches out steps that employers should take to conform to the environmental regulations and enhance worker safety.

Below discusses 5 important steps that a company should take to strengthen its welding operations via appropriate weld fume management.

1. Be aware of the regulations

Regarding weld fume exposure, each country, region, state may include varying levels of enforcement or requirement. Clearly, any improvement process starts with the step of knowing the regulations applied in your area.

Make sure to review facilities with different operations spanning different geographic regions. There may be different regulations relying on their location.

Consult national, regional, or state agencies in your area to decide applicable regulations. 

2. Implement a site evaluation

Before carrying out any weld fume management controls, importantly implement air sampling and a comprehensive site evaluation to seize the levels and types of contaminants in the welding environment and the whole facility. As the welding environment is varied, an evaluation by a competent industrial hygienist can aid in the proper course-of-action determination.

Aside from considering the direct welding operations, take care of the entire environment because fumes produced by the welding process may not confine to a certain area. Figuring exposure levels in different areas throughout the facility will help create the most thorough weld fume management plan.

3. Determine the proper fume management system

The Hierarchy of Controls (OSHA) includes the first step of finding ways to handle weld fume exposure through modifying or substituting the process, before it happens. Thus, companies should make first consideration whether it is feasible to change the shielding gas, use low manganese filter metals, or change the weld transfer method.

In case process modification or substitution approaches aren’t feasible or fail to ease the levels of weld fume exposure, there are still 3 remaining steps clarified in the Hierarchy of Controls to ponder – those are, engineering controls, work practice controls, personal protective equipment (PPE).

4. Appropriate training

Once a proper fume management system is chosen, appropriate operator training is absolutely important to get intended compliance.

Employees must grasp any risks present in their working place, why it is necessary to safeguard from those risks, available products for their best protection, and how to properly use those products. You can carry out many controls and systems though, if your employees fail to use them properly, it is hard to attain the desired results.

Also, employee training includes understanding how to properly maintain and care about the fume equipment. For example, you may make fume extraction system maintenance by regularly cleaning or changing filters to ensure the system operation at its fullest capacity.  

Inspecting, maintaining and properly storing the respirator are also significant to help with a full protection of the welder. Include developing a filter change schedule  in your written respiratory protection program.

5. Evaluation and Retesting

Ok, once all the controls as well as equipment are well taken care, conducting air sampling again is important to verify everything is under planned operation. Levels of fume should be retested whenever there is an alternation in the working place – for example, changes in the production process, equipment, raw materials, work practices, personnel, or control methods employed.

Weld fume management is the continuous process as far as the working place conditions and regulations alter. Periodically reevaluating and retesting the air quality of the facility can decide whether the system is still keeping up with compliance.

OSHA includes regulations related to the essential frequency of retesting as the levels of exposure are found to be within a specific range. Then it’s also important to known those requirements.

If you are having respiratory protection in use, you must train and fit test operators annually, or sooner in the event there is an alternation to the workforce or environment, and document that process.

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Repair by welding: 5 Crucial Questions Management Should Ask Beforehand

To ensure successful welding repair at the first attempt, management should have those key questions answered.

Very often, components crucial to plant operations are repaired by welding. That said, at times, those repairs fail to work, or even much worsened. To avoid repeated uh-oh welding repairs, plant supervisors should ask those in charge of repairing those key questions. Rather, those questions are raised to make certain whether the repair can be successfully done right the first time.

Question 1: 

If the component was produced by welding, it can be repaired by welding. Still, possibly, the heat treat is applied after welding to gain the required properties; or special techniques, welding electrodes or processes were applied in the original construction.

So supervisors should know which the material is prior to welding it. To do so, just examine construction drawings, consult the maintenance handbook, contact the manufacturer, or find for a SAE, AISI, ASTM, or other material specifications that define the material on the part. Collect any other information about how the part was fabricated. As the last choice, you can cut the part’s small wedge and have it examined in a laboratory.

Geared up with this information, you can contact a reliable resource like a welding engineering consultant or welding consumables manufacturer for guidance. Pass ahead of your regular welding supply salespersons unless you know they they have a technically competent consultant. At a minimum, follow what said below:

• The proper welding process(es) to be used

• Welding filler metals or electrodes to be used

• Requirements of pre-heating and post-weld heat treatment

• Such special requirements as heat input control, peening. The requirements are unique to the material and may enhance its weldability

• When appropriate, a way to get rid of defects, and a requirement to confirm that they have been removed prior to welding.

• Such in-process inspection points as verification that appropriate materials are being employed, the fit-up and tack welding are correct, the root pass is good, the welder cleaned and contoured properly the weld beads between passes.

• Final inspections and non-destructive examination (ex. ultrasonic or X-ray) where appropriate.

Question 2:

Is the material safe? Once your staff has realized how to weld the component, ensure that it is safe to weld on the component and the environment is safe.

Parts that may have included combustible materials need thoroughly cleaning and venting. Any connections that may provide combustible gas or liquid for the component in process should be disconnected where possible. Take special preventive measures when dust can arrive at explosive concentrations. Clearly, if a welder has to come in a confined space to repair the component, whether the air in that space is suitable should be verified, and the proper confined space entry practices must be conform to.

To-be-welded parts should be clean and free of oil, rust, grease, moisture, paint and any other contaminants. 

The welding environment should have nothing related to combustible materials. Commonly, any combustibles within 35 feet in which the repair to be made should be removed or covered with fire resistant fabric for ignition prevention. 

Question 3: 

Are there any jurisdictional rules or codes that have to be complied with? 

Formal welding procedures are often a must in AWS D1.1, Structural Welding Code – Steel when welding on structures or building, and in the ASME B31 Code for Pressure Piping or the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code when welding on such pressure parts as pumps, piping, vessels or boilers. 

When formal welding procedures are not required, get guidance from the filler metal or welding electrode manufacturer, and make it a concise form  for the welder in charge of repair work to obey.

That formal welding procedures are required also means that formal qualifications of the welder is required. Probably, the welding worker with a previous history of attempted welding in your facilitty with the filler metal type and welding process to be used for repair work is sufficiently skilled.

For welders with unknown skill, or if the materials bring up a new experience, the successful welder for the repair work can show off the skill at minimum cost to you. Namely, he will fillet weld together 2 plates of a material just the same as that to be repaired, to create a ‘T’. 

The welder welds in the shown location.  The portions named as ‘discard’ are saw cut-off. The remaining portion is bent for the weld root to be put in tension. The weld is good if the plate bends on itself. If the weld fractures, the fracture surface is inspected for excessive defects.

Question 4: 

Is it necessary for preheating or post-weld heat treatment. Suggested practices from welding consumables suppliers should refer to preheating regarding the base metal to be welded. For such typical structural steels as A-500, A-36, preheating the parts above ambient isn’t often required, given that low hydrogen processes like GMAW, GTAW, or low hydrogen electrodes like E8018 or E7018 are employed.

When welding those materials and the component thickness surpasses ¾ inch, it is good practice to preheat steel to 200°F. Such other materials as 4130 and same low-alloy steels employed for gears and shafts normally need preheating, and you should follow the recommendations from the welding consumable manufacturer. Post-weld heat treatment is required for some materials to restore toughness and ductility, so capable technical assistance plays a more important role when the materials being welded become more sophisticated.

Question 5: 

Are you fixed this before? When something requires multiple repairs, it’s time to make a failure analysis. This may be as simple as having a capable engineer look at what is going on and define the root cause, or as cloudy as examining the fracture surfaces in the scanning electron microscope and carrying out other metallurgical tests and examinations.

(The said advice is given by Walter J. Sperko, President of Sperko Engineering (Greensboro, N.C).)

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8 Useful Tips for Mig Welding

Make use of those tips to better your MIG welds!

While being trained at school, more experienced after practical work, Vietnam welders are also encouraged to draw lessons along the way and utilize welding tips to smooth their work process and perfect their finished products. There are useful tips as related to Mig welding that welders can make best use during their work.

1. Always begin with clean materials

To work with contaminated or dirty materials is the fastest to ruin a weld. Take it a note to always clean up the workpiece you are about to weld and ensure the metal is really clean and contaminate free. Examples of things that can contaminate the weld include rust, corrosion, old paint, grease, oil, or just plain dirt. Better the weld by getting it off.

2. Use the best possible welding wire for Mig welding.

This will pay off in better welds. Then get the best possible wire you can afford. Of course, you can save money buying inferior wire. Sure there is plentiful rubbish out there in the market, but it won’t last long. Your welds will just end up being poor quality and having to be redone later.

For Mig wire, always find the one with nice copper coating, accurate dimensions and without being oversized at any point along its length.

3. When you can, always use an auto darkening welding helmet

You sure will pay a little more, which will make up for the extra time you would earn to grind and redo your work. Rather, it takes some more pay to avoid lag time and have better weld. Using an auto-darkening helmet, you will kill the lag time from when you begin your weld, to when a standard helmet is flipped down into place. That very brief moment of time can make you lose track of your welding path and cause lots of extra worker afterwards because you have to grind, redo your work.

4. Always use the Earth clamp

As the welding process is just like a high voltage electric circuit, any circuit break can induce welding problems. A good clamp with a strong spring just prices around $20, and is worthy of money. One way for eliminating those circuit breaks is using a good Earth clamp, and making ready for the metal underneath by sanding off any corrosion or paint.

Bear in mind that a bad ground is one of the biggest Mig welding problems. Always ensure that your clamp comes with a good, clean ground surface for clamping onto; otherwise, you will be in trouble before you get started.

5. Get a good tip for Mig welding

You need a good Mig welding wire for good weld production. Also, you need quality contact tips. There are many cheap contact tips on the market these days; the internal surface of the tunnel that the wire feeds through can be rough or uneven. That can result in fickle or unstable welding arcs, inconsistent wire feeding, and other problems.

6. When Mig welding, use the right shielding gas

You can use directly CO2 when Mig welding though, a 75% argon and 25% CO2 mixture is rather much standard in the welding industry.

7. Have the Mig welder set to the right polarity

Just remember that when Mig welding, polarity is associated with the type of welding wire you use. If you use bar wire, you will need reverse polarity electrode positive for a good weld. For flux core welding wire, you will need reverse the polarity.

Because Mig welding machine doesn’t include a switch for polarity change, you will have to do this manually.

8. Use a good anti spatter compound

If welding is done with flux core wire, welding spatter is part of the process. Still, you can decrease the spatter for cleaner welds by using a good anti spatter compound like LPS aerosol 02116. Another upside of the LPS compound is that it is water based and non toxic, then unlike some cheaper compounds, it won’t do any extra damage to welder’s health.

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What Make A Qualified Weld Manager?

Are you sure you are a qualified weld manager? Read on to know critical qualifications for weld management and supervision.

Are you sure you are a qualified weld manager? You wear the manager/ supervisor output? You have got the welding management certificate? That way officially and visually entitles you to weld management. Still, check those below to see whether you are a real manager and whether you worth it.

1. A qualified weld manager will be aware of weld fume, dust hazards, safety requirements for his welder protection.

2. A qualified weld manager can train his welders on the equipment as well as the process, and make sure that training includes the weld process controls and best weld practices that are needed for his personnel to make consistent attainment of highest weld quality and productivity.

3. A qualified weld manager will be able to teach his welding workers on the methods of reducing weld defects formed.

4. A qualified weld manager will be aware of most cost efficient ways of attaining the highest weld productivity.

5. A qualified weld manager will ensure the equipment available in the shop is uniform and the most suitable and durable.

6. A qualified weld manager will ensure that the weld equipment is, each year, well maintained and calibrated.

7. A qualified weld manager will ensure that nobody at the shop floor plays about with the weld controls.

8. A qualified weld manager won’t require weld advice from a consumable or weld equipment saleman.

9. A qualified weld manager will always be familiar with the real weld costs as well as methods to mitigate weld costs as possibly.

10. A qualified weld manager will have a brilliant smile and thick skin.

This list will go on and on in light of increasing skill demands. Still, the said above are considered important qualification for those wanting to go far in weld management, weld supervision. If you are the complete match with all of those points, you can brag about how well you are as a weld managers, and keep up your hard work!

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