Thanks Al,
My concerns is stopping production all together because our "King of Idiots Welding Master" employee was grinding aluminum extrusions in the HSLA steel welding bay and managed to coat every thing with a fine aluminum dust.
I'm pretty confident that the customer specifed A656 Grade 80 material for its high strength and fatiuge resistance and the introduction of aluminum into the weld could cause product failure.
Since sometimes around here the "RFI" is teated as taboo "we do not want to contact the customer because
we screwed up", so with this I quarentined all of the parts that were in the powder covered bay until I can get approval from the customer or somehow be satisfied that all contamination is removed.
So far I looked in AWS/Linnert's Welding Metallurgy Vols. 1&2, Lincoln's- Metals and how to weld them and the Welding Procedure Handbook, AWS's- Welding Inspection Technology books and have not found satisfaction.