In all actuality, the defects/discontinuities that have become more visible after blasting should have been fixed beforehand. The inspector should have visually inspected the required welds, and if there was slag, dirt, grease, spatter, etc., this should have been cleaned and removed to allow proper visual inspection. If visual inspection is to be performed BEFORE sandblasting, it is the inspector's responsibilty to make sure that the welds are acceptable prior to that operation. Sure, blasting may make things pop out at ya that where hard to see before, but regardless the inspector should have caught it. Yes, mistakes will be made, and is pretty impossible to catch every thing every time, but had the inspector made the welders clean there welds, performed a thorough inspection and had dfects removed/repaired, there would be less hold up going to paint because the inspector missed something.
my 2 cents is done
If ya'll think undercut, porosity, etc. shows up more when the material is blasted, wait until after it's been painted! Undercut, porosity, etc on a painted surface will stand out like a turd in a punch bowl.
As for tightly adhering slag, C-5.30 is a little more specific, indicating that the removal of slag is mandatory to allow for visual inspection.
Maybe I'm reading something into your comments. The inferences that I do get when reading your comments is troubling. Does the company operations manual assign the inspectors the authority to direct the welders to clean their welds or any other work or is that management's responsibility?
As a third party inspector, I wouldn't have the authority to tell the welders what to do. I may even be asked to leave if I were to start directing their work. As a third party inspector I might be inclined to wait until the welds were grit blasted clean, especially where the shop management doesn't insist on the welders cleaning their welds.
It sounds like all is fair game in your shop, as long as the inspector doesn't "catch it", paint it before he does! I may be wrong, but it sounds like the company policy is that the inspector is the whipping boy for anything that gets through the system. Your comments infers that it is the inspector's responsibility to "catch" every discontinuity. Any discontinuity not "caught" is fair game and the welder or fabricator "gets away with it". Where's does the welder's responsibility lie? Is the welder responsible to check his/her work before passing it on to the inspector? At what point does management step in and hold the welders accountable for their work? Why didn't management insist that the welder chip and wire brush the welds as required by the "code"? Is it more convenient to condone an adversarial relationship between QC and Production?
It sounds like an interesting situation in shop management or the lack of it.
Again, maybe I'm reading something into your comments that doesn't reflect how the fabricator really operates. I hope I'm wrong.
Al
When I was doing first line inspection and didn't have authority to direct welders, I would simply tell the welder I couldn't accept a part for a certain reason and 99 times out of 100 that welder was more than happy to fix whatever was bothering me about a certain part.
I didn't read the whipping boy bit into the posters comments but agree wholeheartedly with the others stating requirements that the welds need to be clean before inspection can take place. Several months back we had a mega thread on who is responsible for cleaning welds... sure hope we don't repeat that mess!
I just don't understand how you can do any type of code work and not clean the welded area???
There was a post about trying to convince the welders that arc burns were bad, and must be avoided/repaired. Is structural work really that sloppily done???
Do owners accept this level of quality?
JTMcC.
dan ,try (5.15) , (5.30) , (6.5.2) , (6.9) , table 6.1(5) from D1.1 2006 . you might want to put on your hood to check (6.5.2) . willie
Piss on AWS D1.1......cleaning of welds should be a matter of pride in workmanship.
I figure any welder who is either too busy or too lazy to clean his weld, should probably not be welding.
Or, maybe he's trying to hide a crappy weld?
The place I work demands welders to clean their welds, not only of slag, but of spatter (BB's) as well. Any undercut or other imperfections can be seen by the welder during cleaning, and repaired as necessary....Before blasting.
Stops/starts, wraps, corners are required to be blended....no lumps or holes.
After blasting, there are always wraps and various other areas, such as corners that show undercut, lack of fusion, slag inclusions, etc. So there are always repairs.
However, with good technique, repairs in these areas can be minimalised.
I have a gripe about welders who, don't go all the way to the corner, they don't give the next guy anything to weld into. And in stacking stringers for larger fillets out of position, are so shakey that their stringers look like rope, and their finished weld needs to be sanded to the point that the fillet looks like chrome caulking. These welders also have a lot of undercut, maybe 50% or more OAL. They also ignore short wraps....(while they're "there") this costs extra time & money when a second welder has to come back to the same place and "touch-up" the corners and wraps.
My employer insists on clean, flawless welds...on a unit that goes hundreds of miles out to sea....never to be seen by the general public.
I think it's really sad that some of the products I build have flawless welds, while other products such as high-end motorcycle frames (no names mentioned) have welded joints with severe hideous spatter/undercut/lack of fusion, and I have even found 1/4" long weldwire nubs sticking out of the welds on my hd frame.
What happened to pride in workmanship? Quality products manufactured with pride in the USA?
I personally would be embarassed to put my stamp on a mediocre weld.
I swear, the crap that is turned out today makes us look like slather-ass hooligans.....why?....Because everybody feels like they're being cheated by their employer, therefore, nobody gives a rat's ass about the quality of the finished product. Just slap it together ASAP.
Bottom line, all welds should be clean, (no slag), wrapped, blended, etc., free of undercut, lack of fusion, porosity, BB's, etc.
If you can't do those few simple things, maybe you should consider a career as a janitor, librarian, or a frenchfry technician at McDonalds.
Forum
