Material Thickness on Weld Test

By snutt Date 01-31-2020 14:40

We are an open web steel joist manufacturer following D1.1. Our thickest material is 1 1/8". We use that material very rarely as chords on girders. My question is, do we need to have a D1.1 test plate thick enough to qualify at least the 1 1/8"? Or since we are only welding fillet welds on thinner materials that sit on top of the 1 1/8" material, would we be able to use a 1/2" test plate?

My current thinking is, i would test unlimited thickness or a 5/8" plate only on the welding operators that would be butt joint groove welding the 1 1/8" to splice it together for chords (only 5 teammates). Then, I would use a 1/2" test plate to qualify the rest of the shop up to 1".

By SWN1158 (***)

Date 01-31-2020 16:01 Edited 01-31-2020 16:14

The thickness of the test plates for fillet weld qualification are not like the thickness for full penetration weld qualification, where thicknesses less than 1” qualifies the welder for 2x the thickness.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 01-31-2020 16:55

Like Scott stated, thickness of material tested on is different for welder qualification for fillet welds.
AWS D1.1:2015
Clause 4.21.2 Fillet Welds for Non-Tubular Connections sends you to Table 4.11 where you will find the Fillet Weld Options and test plate thicknesses, specimen requirements and ranges of thicknesses qualified...etc You will probably use Figure 4.25 that gives you the specimen dimensions and locations from where they are to be cut from. Figure 4.4 shows test positions for fillet welds.

By 803056

Date 02-02-2020 16:12 Edited 02-02-2020 16:50

Why should we waste our time trying to figure what this individual is attempting to do?

How difficult is it to state whether he is qualifying a procedure or a welder?

Al