Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter Outline
Welding Procedures 112

There have been discussions and sometimes arguments about whether weld-
ing is an art or a science. Mundane as it might appear, the question is perti-
nent and in my experience some well-meaning experts often miss the point as
to which part of the term ‘welding’ they are referring to support their argu-
ments. Welding as the physical and practical process of joining two materials
in most part is an art, however the study of the heat and melt flow solidifica-
tion, and the prediction of material behavior under heating and cooling cycles
associated with welding is a science. Hence welding is both the art and sci-
ence of joining metals by use of adhesive and cohesive forces between metals.
Welding, brazing, and soldering are joining processes which produce metal-
lurgical bonds.
Both process metallurgy and physical metallurgy, as discussed in previous
sections of this book, are involved in welding. Welding is a unique metallurgi-
cal activity as it involves a series of metallurgical operations similar to metal
production, like steelmaking and casting, but in a rapid succession and on a
very small scale. Generally the thrust of the study is on the material’s behav-
ior during the application of localized heat, and on the physics of cooling and
solidification.
Welding is often compared in a very rudimentary way with casting,
because in welding a volume of molten metal is solidified (cast) within the
confines of a solid base metal (mold). The base metal may have been pre-
heated to retard the cooling rate of the weld joint, just as in casting the molds
are preheated to slow down cooling and reduce ‘chilling’ of the casting. Upon
solidification, the weld deposit or casting can be directly put into service, as
welds are often used in as-welded condition – or they may be heat-treated or
worked on as required. However such comparison is not an accurate depiction
of the welding process. For example, in welding the base metal ‘mold’ is part
of the weld, unlike the mold of a casting, which is removed after solidification,
so unlike the casting process, what happens to the ‘mold’ is of significance
Applied Welding Engineering: Processes, Codes and Standards.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 111
112 SECTION | 2  Welding Metallurgy and Welding Processes

in welding. Also, in contrast to casting, in welding the solidification and the

nucleation of the weld metal takes effect on the basis of the base metal grain
structure that is immediately adjacent to the molten metal of welding, and a
unique set of metallurgy is created in the base metal that is heated to above
austenitic temperature range. This small band of base metal is called the heat
affected zone (HAZ). We shall discuss this phenomenon in more detail in this
section of the book.
Welding involves a small area relative to the base material of the entire
structure. Thus a weld is a very small mass of metal, and is mostly confined to
two metals that are heated very rapidly by intense heat, and then cooled rap-
idly. The dissipation of heat takes place via all three modes; conduction, radia-
tion and convection. Often the large surrounding mass of colder base metal is
heated by conduction, which is the major source of heat transfer from weld.
The heating and the cooling process after welding are dynamic; equilibrium
conditions are seldom seen in conventional welding operations, and generally
welding conditions represent a great departure from equilibrium. This is the
reason that weld zones often display unusual structures and properties within
the confines of the very small area affected by the welding process.
It is thus important that a welding engineer has very good understanding
of ‘heat’ in welding. An understanding of heat generation and the physics of
welding are important steps in making a good welding engineer. In the next
chapter we start with a basic understanding of the physics of welding. In that
we will review the process of heat generation, which is an essential part of the
welding processes, along with the cooling, nucleation and solidification phys-
ics of molten weld metal and its effect on the parent metal. We will also review
heating rate, peak temperature, HAZ and the changes these bring in the prop-
erties of weld metal and the metal being welded.
Welding is carried out on the basis of a well thought out and specific plan
in order to attain the required material properties. Many regulatory and indus-
trial specifications have well developed plans in this respect. Such plans are
called welding procedures. The following is a brief discussion of welding pro-
cedures and their role in welding applications.

WELDING PROCEDURES
A welding procedure is a statement of execution; a specific plan prepared by
the welding contractor. The procedure details the various variables associ-
ated with the proposed welding process, giving an assurance that the result-
ing weld will guarantee that the required mechanical and metallurgical
properties will be met. Any format of form may be used to develop a welding
procedure, as long as it gives the essential details. Some international speci-
fications that address welding requirements have developed a format for this
purpose: AWS D1.1 has the E-1 form for pre-qualified procedures, similarly
ASME Section IX of Boiler and Pressure Vessels Code has a set of sample
Chapter | 1  Introduction 113

forms, QW-482 for Welding Procedure Specification, QW-483 for Procedure

Qualification Records (PQRs), and QW-484 (A&B) for Welder Performance
Qualification (WPQ) and Welding Operator Performance Qualification
(WOPQ).
The plan details all essential and non-essential variables that are important
to achieve the required quality of weld. These variables are welding process
specific. In ASME section IX, these variables are listed for each welding proc-
ess, subdivided into essential, supplementary essential and non-essential vari-
ables. However these variables are not specific to ASME but are in general
agreement with welding technology.
Essential variables are those to which a change, as described in the spe-
cific variables, is considered to affect the mechanical properties of the weld-
ments; hence any change in any essential variable will require requalification
of the welding procedure. The supplementary essential variables are required
for metals for which other sections specify notch-toughness tests and are in
addition to the essential variables for each welding process.
The non-essential variables, on the other hand, are those to which a
change, as described in the specific variables, may be made in the WPS with-
out requalification.
Some special processes, such as corrosion-resistant and hard-surfacing
weld metal overlays, may have different additional essential variables. Only
the variables specified for special processes will apply. A change in the corro-
sion-resistant or hard-surfacing welding process requires requalification.
The correct electrode diameter is one of the variables, which, when used
with the proper amperage and travel speed, produces a weld of the required
size in the least amount of time. Selection depends on the thickness of the
material being welded, the position of welding in relation to the gravity of
the earth, and the type of joint to be welded. The welder’s experience is also
important, since more skill is required to control the weld puddle in out-of-
position welds. Inexperience may lead to poor quality welds that may have
defects such as inclusions, lack of fusion, incomplete penetration, or porosities.
Welding current can be either direct or alternating, depending on the proc-
ess, type of electrode and available power supply and material being welded.
DC provides a steadier arc and smoother transfer as well as good wetting
action and better out-of-position control. Reverse and straight current polari-
ties are used for specific applications. Reverse polarity produces deeper pen-
etration and straight polarity produces higher electrode melting rates.