Bending manually welded shear studs

Date 08-31-2017 16:50

Spoke with the client and he backed off of the bending. He stated that he had seen studs on a bridge beam being bent and thought these should be bent to satisfy the engineer. These are some really old existing columns (early 1900's) that are being encased in (3'x3'x full height) concrete and I was afraid that we might pull a chunk out of the existing column if we tried to bend these studs.

By Joey

Date 09-08-2017 07:30

Percentage (%) of studs to be bent is by agreement or as per project specification.

Bending the head of the stud by striking the head of the stud to an angle of approximately 30° from their original axis with a hammer.

Under this test the weld is to show no visible signs of cracking or lack of fusion.

The question is... will manually weld will crack? :confused:

well nobody knows if testing is not done :roll:

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 09-08-2017 13:25

I was called to stop by and take a look at a handful of studs welded to a column(actually two columns) that would be encased in concrete. At the time of inspection, none of the percentages to check were known, just someone asking me to look at them. When I arrived the studs had already been welded on by hand not shot with a stud gun. The person representing the rehab project had seen bridge studs that were shot with a stud gun in a flat position being bent and assumed all studs are bent and tested that way.

"The question is... will manually weld will crack? :confused:

well nobody knows if testing is not done :roll:

"
To follow that logic, I can assume that all fillet welds are bent so we know whether or not the welds will crack.

By Joey

Date 09-08-2017 15:19

It is not unusual to carry out the bend test on a manually welded stud.

"To follow that logic, I can assume that all fillet welds are bent so we know whether or not the welds will crack."

Yes, for those naïve :cool:

By bozaktwo1 (***)

Date 09-15-2017 19:37

We weld 3/4" studs to steel plate using robotic GMAW, and we bend the first two of every run. This is our engineering department's requirement for the part. Additionally, we pull two samples with the tensile puller to failure.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 09-18-2017 11:12

I can see bending when something mechanical is performing the welding...ie. stud gun, robotic machine, etc.
Makes perfect sense to qualify the mechanized application each time the rig is setup and run to ensure that it is working properly.

Back in the Commentary, it mentions testing "pre-production" to ensure the lift, plunge, amperage, time, technique-gun operator, 360° flash...etc. is performing okay at the time and if any of those change to retest to ensure that it is still performing okay. I understand all of that, but when you have manually welded studs it is just a matter of welding a fillet weld around the base of the stud, you aren't testing the equipment for 360° flash, lift, plunge etc.... As I stated before we don't typically bend field welded items that have fillet welds applied to them, ie base plates to columns to ensure the welds are sound. Haven't we tested the welder when he/she took their welding test and maintain continuity records to ensure the welder is compliant with the code to place fillet welds?

By 803056

Date 09-18-2017 15:45

The problem is whether the welder can deposit the required weld size and still obtain the required fusion to the root. This especially difficult when welding around the stud.

This is when the Engineer needs to be proactive and include supplemental requirements for fillet weld qualification. I think it would be reasonable for the Engineer to include a requirement to bent test a hand welded stud.

Al