Aluminium Design and Construction John Dwight
Aluminium Design and Construction John Dwight
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.