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Welding Defects
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Dzevad Hadzihafizovic
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Welding Defects- Types, their causes, and remedies.
Most Common Welding defects causes and remedies
In welding, a number of defects occur due to wrong equipment setup, manual errors, and
environmental issues. Based on the location and appearance, the most common welding
defects are classified into:
1. Surface defects (face side), for example- face undercut, overlap.
2. Surface defects (root side), for example- excess root penetration, lack of root fusion.
3. Internal defects- Internal cracks, internal LOF, internal porosity.
Let us learn about different types of welding defects and their causes.
What are the External Welding Defects?
External welding defects refer to types of welding imperfection or defects that appear on the
weld surface or root side. Most of the welding defects are surface defects only with some
exceptions given later in the next topic. External welding defects are visible to the naked eyes
with or without magnification based on their magnitude.
Sometimes, surface NDT methods such as penetrant testing, magnetic particle testing, and
eddy current testing are also used for external welding defects inspection. These surface NDT
methods have very high sensitivity for these defects compared to visual inspection.
Examples of Surface (External) Welding defects are:
1. Undercut,
2. Spatters,
3. Crater crack,
4. Underfill,
5. Open to surface pore/ porosity,
6. Surface cracks (longitudinal, transverse, chevron and other types of cracks),
7. Overlap,
8. Lack of fusion on the surface or root side,
9. Excessive convexity/ concavity,
10. Pockmarks
11. High-low/ off-set/ Linear misalignment
12. Burn through
13. Distortion/ Warpage
14. Excess penetration/ excessive reinforcement
What are the Internal Welding Defects?
Internal welding defects are those welding discontinuities that are not visible on the surface of
the weld. Special NDT techniques such as radiographic testing, Ultrasonic testing are the most
commonly used internal defect inspection NDT method. These NDT tests are also called
volumetric NDT due to this reason. Internal welding defects cannot be found by visual testing.
Either an NDT method or a destructive test as such as a bend test or macro test is required to
identify and locate the internal welding defect.
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Examples of Internal welding defects are:
1. Internal porosity (any type),
2. Internal crack,
3. Lack of root fusion in fillet weld,
4. Lack of sidewall fusion,
5. Slag inclusion,
6. Fissures,
7. Shrinkage cavity
8. Tungsten inclusions.
SMAW, TIG, MIG, FCAW & SAW Welding Defects
In SMAW, TIG, MIG-MAG, FCAW and SAW, the main types of welding defects that occur are-
Undercut, spatters, crater crack, Underfill, open to surface pore/ porosity, surface cracks
(longitudinal, transverse, chevron and other types of cracks), overlap, lack of fusion on the
surface or root side, excessive convexity/ concavity, and linear misalignment, Internal porosity
(any types), internal crack, lack of root fusion in fillet weld, lack of sidewall fusion, slag inclusion,
fissures, etc.
These defects with pictures, their causes, and their remedies are given in this post for learning
and reference.
Welding Porosity
What is Welding Porosity?
Welding porosity is caused due to entrapped gases during the weld solidification. In carbon
steel, Nitrogen gas is the main gas causing porosity along with hydrogen & oxygen, In aluminum
welding, hydrogen is the main gas that causes porosity & in stainless steel welding, oxygen
causes the porosity.
The main types of welding porosity are:
1. Single pore
2. Scattered porosity
3. Linear porosity
4. Uniform porosity
5. Cluster or localized porosity.
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What could be the problem/ causes of the porosity in Welding?
The welding point was not sufficiently covered with shielding gas during weld
solidification.
The welding area is damp.
The welding area is contaminated.
The weld is coated with paint or inorganic material that is not cleaned before welding.
The welding electrodes/ flux are not baked or electrodes have excessive moisture.
How to stop porosity in welding?
Welding porosity can be controlled by identifying the root cause such as either its process error
or human error or environmental issues. High moisture in welding rod can cause porosity or
same time a longer arc length due to welder mistake can also be the reason for the porosity.
Following are the preventive measures for stopping the welding porosity:
Low heat input in welding, short circuit transfer mode in MIG-MAG Welding.
Oxides or scale on the welding fusion face.
The welding speed is too high.
You may have welded downhill direction that allows the molten weld pool to flow ahead
of the arc.
The arc was not centered on the weld joint i.e. wrong torch angle.
The arc is excessively long or lets us say high arc length.
Remedies (How to avoid Lack of Fusion)?
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Undercut
What is Undercut & How do I recognize them?
An undercut is the formation of irregular grooves due to wrong welding parameters such as high
heat input or high voltage during welding. The undercut is a small crack-like appearance
although metal is fused that follows at some distance from the melting line is the undercut. An
undercut is the excessive burning of weld edges due to high heat input, high voltage, or wrong
torch angle.
There are three types of undercut that can be found in welding as:
1. Continuous Undercut,
2. Intermittent Undercut and
3. Inter-run Undercut.
Causes of Undercut?
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Causes for Lack of root fusion
Excessive Convexity
What is Excessive convexity & How do I recognize them?
The weld seam (surface) is super-elevation or excess of material in the weld seam that gives a
convex weld surface appearance. In a concave weld, the weld seam seems to be overflowing
with the material. Excessive convexity is a defect for fillet welds as per ISO 5817.
Causes for Excessive convexity in Welding?
You are using too much filler material or welding too slowly.
The electrode diameter is too big.
The welding voltage is low.
Remedies for excessive convexity in Welding
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Causes for Asymmetrical throat size?
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The weld bead cracked due to welding residual stresses or metallurgical reasons resulting in
tear-off of the weld. The cracks can occur at various locations such as in the weld metal
(outside/ inside), HAZ and the fusion line. Watch the below video to understand and learn
various types of weld cracking and their causes.
Welding Cracks & Their Types with real pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFFChvbi0l0&ab_channel=MaterialWelding-
OnlineWeldingandNDTTraining
The ratio between the width and depth of the seam is unfavorable.
The components to be welded have a high internal residual stress.
You are using the wrong filler material.
Too high restrain on the weld joint.
Metallurgical causes such as low melting phases present in the weld metal.
High level of dissolved hydrogen in the weld metal in case of carbon steel & low alloy
steels.
How to avoid Weld Cracking?
Use a common ratio between the depth and width of the weld (e.g. 1: 1 for mild steel).
Tack the components without tension.
Choose a suitable filler material.
Low hydrogen electrodes must be baked prior to the use.
Use preheat to reduce the residual weld stresses.
The weld seam is insufficient to fill the root of the weld groove. Lack of penetration results in a
difference between the actual depth of penetration to the required depth of penetration as per
the drawing. In visual appearance, the lack of penetration seems too small to fill the gap
between the workpieces.
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Causes of Lack of penetration?
The weld seam is not prepared appropriately which can result in a high root face.
The welding heat input is too low.
The arc is too long.
The welding speed is too high.
Use of vertical downhill welding technique.
How to avoid a Lack of penetration?
Pre-inspect the weld joint before welding to have the right joint fit-up.
Secure the workpieces securely before welding.
Apply the correct weld sequence.
Dimension the tack welds sufficiently.
Other exotic materials such as austenitic or another type of stainless steel- they can reduce the
corrosion resistance of the base metal.
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Welder carelessness.
Loose earthing clamp.
Damaged welding electrode holder insulation.
Damaged earthing & welding holder cables that touch on the job.
What can I do?
WELDING DEFECTS- Porosity, cracks, undercut, lack of fusion, arc strike, underfill, LOF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54WBei_GDn0&ab_channel=MaterialWelding-
OnlineWeldingandNDTTraining
CSWIP 3.1/ 3.2 Macro Examination Welding Defects Identification and reporting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTinRMRDfi0&ab_channel=MaterialWelding-
OnlineWeldingandNDTTraining
Lec 39 - Cracking of Welded Joints I: Solidification and liquation Cracks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhwxMArIoSw&ab_channel=JoiningTechnologiesforMetals
The video above shows various types of welding defects that can occur during arc welding
processes on the face side & root side of welding joints. Weld defects or weld imperfections are
created due to various reasons associated with the welding process such as deviation in the
part geometry, change in welding parameters, inadequate gas shielding, etc.
The welding conditions such as filler wire, base material, surrounding conditions, and equipment
have a profound influence on the final welding result and hence they require stringent control in
form of welding procedure specification (WPS), qualified welders, welding maps, and welding
inspection, etc.
Prepared by: DSc Dzevad Hadzihafizovic
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dzevad-hadzihafizovic-61726256/
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