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Aluminium Design and Construction John Dwight

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For welds of minimum or fatigue quality, the designer must indicate<br />

the quality level on the drawing. Where no such information is given, the<br />

fabricator assumes that normal quality applies. For fatigue quality joints<br />

the drawing should include the Fat-number <strong>and</strong> also an arrow showing<br />

the direction of the fluctuating stress. As explained in Section 12.7, the<br />

Fat-number defines the required fatigue class (24, 29, 35, 42 or 50), which<br />

may be less than the highest class possible for the detail concerned.<br />

The following is a summary of the main types of inspection method<br />

that are available for aluminium welds:<br />

1. Visual inspection before welding (surface condition, preparation,<br />

alignment, fit-up, etc);<br />

2. Visual inspection after welding (weld geometry, profile discon-tinuities,<br />

alignment, etc);<br />

3. Non-destructive testing (NDT), which aims at checking all surface<br />

<strong>and</strong> sub-surface defects (cracks, porosity, inclusions etc):<br />

dye penetrant testing;<br />

ultrasonic testing;<br />

radiography.<br />

4. Taking macro-sections from separate test-pieces, which are welded<br />

at the same time <strong>and</strong> properly represent the technique <strong>and</strong> conditions<br />

in the production joint.<br />

British St<strong>and</strong>ard BS.8118 provides comprehensive tables stating which<br />

inspection methods are needed when, <strong>and</strong> also the recommended<br />

acceptance levels for different kinds of defect. The amount of inspection<br />

called for depends on the required quality level, the type <strong>and</strong> orientation<br />

of the weld, <strong>and</strong> the Fat-number (when relevant). Minimum quality<br />

welds only have to be visually inspected. Dye penetrant tests are generally<br />

required for normal or fatigue quality, with ultrasonics or radiography<br />

being necessary as well at transversely loaded butts. Macros are required<br />

only for fatigue-quality welds of higher Fat-number.<br />

3.4 FRICTION-STIR WELDING<br />

3.4.1 The process<br />

The friction-stir (FS) process is a solid-phase welding process, invented<br />

in 1991 at the TWI (formerly The Welding Institute), near Cambridge,<br />

UK. [10]. It has been developed in the first place for welding aluminium,<br />

where it is set to become an accepted technique along with MIG <strong>and</strong><br />

TIG, <strong>and</strong> at the time of writing it is being exploited commercially in<br />

several countries [11]. Possible extension of the FS process to steel poses a<br />

Copyright 1999 by Taylor & Francis Group. All Rights Reserved.

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