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Up Topic Welding Industry / Welding Safety / Welding Slag
- - By Are Aye (*) Date 03-26-2018 11:00
Hi everyone!

Is it okay to dispose tons of welding slag in an open garbage yard?Where there any harmful effects in the environment?

Any suitable ways to dispose them?

What possible tests  to identify chemical compositions of slag?

Thanks for your inputs.

Are Aye
Parent - - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 04-28-2018 06:12
IF you mean the dross, referred to as slag from some type of cutting operation, torch, plasma ....then dispose of that at the scrap metal facility.   It is just highly oxidized metal but still metal.   If you mean the oxidized flux from welding like from SMAW or FCAW welding then I am not sure the best way to environmentally dispose of it.  You have me curious, NOW I got to research that.....good question.
Parent - - By Are Aye (*) Date 04-28-2018 08:11
Thanks for your info Tommyjoking, but the slag came from Submerged Arc Welding as you know it generates a huge amount of slag.
In history, we normally crushed the slag to consider as Recovered, mixed it with virgin Flux (25% Recovery and 75% Virgin) and used it in production, but we stop that practice due to Customer requirements and related quality issues.

Regards,
Are Aye
Parent - - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 04-28-2018 08:28 Edited 04-28-2018 08:52
Well from my time in asme vessel shops you can fill a dumpster with SAW flux pretty quick...... that melted kitty litter makes a helluva mess and gets deep quick.   So from that perspective let me ask a question or three,,,,,

Are you doing just carbon SAW or is it multiple processes I.E. Alloys....

Second question are you using multiple fluxs?  i.e. chemical composition

I still want to research this because it is a real world problem, it should be addressed.

One other thing you mentioned your own recycling efforts.....does the supplier offer any incentives or anything related to re manufacture.......if not do other suppliers offer that consideration?

there may even be potential recycling options that would turn that waste into profit.....after all Alcoa turned a waste product into a primary chemical composition used in the production of LCD displays and subsequently cornered the market as the supplier of that chemical.......who knows.

THE HARD question leading to the answer is simple: what is the chemical composition of the flux after the welding process (lab tested) then you have something to present to landfill or other authorities.   That is a question I cannot answer on the internet.
Parent - - By Are Aye (*) Date 04-28-2018 11:08
Are you doing just carbon SAW or is it multiple processes I.E. Alloys....
Ans: Yes sir, we manufacture Carbon Steel pipes only.

Second question are you using multiple fluxs?  i.e. chemical composition
Ans: We have two kinds of Flux: Agglomerated (Basic) and Fused  (all imported)

One other thing you mentioned your own recycling efforts.....does the supplier offer any incentives or anything related to re manufacture.......if not do other suppliers offer that consideration?
Ans: The idea of recycling the slag came from the flux supplier. That practice went well (about 15 to 20 years) and saved a lot of production cost until it was stopped few years ago.

I brought this issue to seek answers, maybe some have a better idea related to waste management. Sad to say, were not  an ISO 14001 certified.:sad:

Thanks Tommyjoking for your research efforts.

Are Aye
Parent - - By Dhrumil Chauhan Date 10-08-2018 11:29
Hello Are Aye,

Kindly provide your contact details as I'm eager to know about recycling and reusing slag with virgin flux.
I'm also involved with Carbon Steel Pipe manufacturing.
Parent - By Lawrence (*****) Date 10-08-2018 13:36
I could not find this position paper from Lincoln Electric online for free, but I'm pretty sure your local Lincoln rep can get for you in minutes.

They argue that their is a lot to be considered before a decision to recycle crushed slag back into welding flux.  It's a good read. 

There is just no way to attach an entire PDF on this forum so to get this you must approach Lincoln.

Ask them for:
Statement Regarding the Use of Crushed Slag as Welding Flux MC1091
Parent - By sslavick Date 12-05-2018 20:03
Sorry for the late reply, but the last posting is highly in-accurate!  Crushed Slag/Reprocessed Sub Arc Flux has been around for 60 years and is used by
many industries including: ASME Stamped Pressure Vessels, Building Steel, Tubing Mills and Hard Coating/Wear Plate build up.

Crushed Slag was recognized by ASME Section IX AWS D1.1 and AWS Specs A5.17 and A5.23 dating back to 1997 which allows its use, similar to new  flux specifications.
Harberts has been successfully performing "Closed Loop" crushed slag for over 20 years with as many as 40 plus cycles on a batch.

Typical Reprocessed slag/virgin flux ratios is 85/15% respectively.

There is more information known about the properties of Reprocessed/crushed slug than new fluxes This is because for Code Welding, each lot is required to have at a minimum: toughness testing(charpy impacts) and tensile tests passed before the lot can be re-classified and shipped to the end-user.

For more information, see the website : www.harbertsproducts.com
or contact me: Stephen A. Slavick, CWI Welding Engineer/Sales
mobile 586-904-0996
Parent - By mariagarcia (*) Date 04-19-2019 11:08
The health effects of welding, brazing and cutting exposures are difficult to list.
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