AWS B2.4

By Kabur Date 01-05-2018 21:28

Hello everyone!

This is my first post on the forum.

I am a 7th year CWI and have been working for a company that fabricates rigid steel frame buildings with tension fabric coverings. I have set up a quality control and training program for our steel fabrication shop. Management must have liked what I have done because I am now the quality supervisor for the entire plant. My new role will include writing welding procedures for PVC and PE coated architectural fabrics in our fabric plant. This type of fabric welding is not well regulated by any code, except for EU codes, as it is a rather new process. I am thinking I would like to use AWS B2.4 and AWS G1.10M as a basis for my written procedures and welder qualifications, but am not sure if they can be applied to these types of poly coated fabrics. We are using Hot Gas/Air Welding (HGW) as our process, and PVC and PE as the coating material. Both process and material are covered by the B2.4 specification and the G1.10 thermoplastic evaluation guide. Destructive testing is covered by ASTM D751.

This is a long shot but, Does anyone have experience using these publications and do you know if they can be applied to this type of material, or were they developed for typical hard plastics? I would like to know before I purchase them, and end up with two books that will only collect dust on my bookshelf.

I am pretty much pioneering our own standard for this process, but am enjoying the challenge of learning a new type of welding.

Thanks to all of you who have shared their knowledge on this forum. My appreciation is beyond words.

Kabur

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 01-05-2018 22:35

I can't really help with any input on your situation, but I would like to say "welcome".
I've seen those tensioned fabric coverings and wondered how all of that was done. Am I correct in calling the awnings over the "Sheetz" gas stations tensioned fabric?

By Kabur Date 01-08-2018 14:02

Hi John

I believe those use a similar type of fabric. Although I've seen those shredded after hurricane Irma and ours take very little damage in the same area. Typical to see this type of design using rounded tubular frames for tensioning the fabric. We use built up members and a rigid frame profile so we are able to support over head cranes, conveyors, and other loads not typically seen in a rounded building.

There is a whole world of architectural fabrics being used out there and every body has there own secret recipe. Which makes it difficult to write procedures for, because you don't know the chemical make up of the coatings or the specialized UV and flame retardant coatings on them. Its like writing a welding procedure without knowing what your base metal is. In house testing is done to make sure welds are being made correctly on a daily basis, but I want to make sure I am documenting everything correctly. A weld is a weld. A failure in fabric weld can be just as bad as a failure on a steel weld.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 01-09-2018 18:06

That sounds very interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing with the forum.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 01-06-2018 03:00

Welcome Kabur

I'm with John, in the sense that I am interested in what you do but cannot offer any guidance at all.

Hopefully somebody can help and in the meantime you feel welcomed

Cheers

By 803056

Date 01-07-2018 04:09

I will touch base with a gentleman I know on the west coast that retired from a company that specialized in such structures. He may be able to provide some insight.

Send me a private message with your email and I will forward it to him.

Best regards - Al

By Kabur Date 01-08-2018 15:18

Thanks Al! I just did.

By 803056

Date 01-10-2018 04:07

If you sent me your email, I never received it.

Al

By Kabur Date 01-10-2018 13:33

Sent it to the "amoore999" address? I have just resent.