PWL#096 - Virtual Reality (VR) Welding Training, Fillets on Beam Reinforcements, Low Hydrogen FCAW Wire, Highway Bridge Fabrication, Underwater laser cutting, Ultrasonic-cleaning, Weld-bonding and much more...

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Please be advised that the Mid Month Bulletin is now integral with the regular PWL publication. You will find it further down, past the end of this Practical Welding Letter.
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However well informed and expert you may be, you could certainly benefit from a vast repository of online authoritative welding information.
The following may be just what you need...

This publication brings to the readers practical answers to welding problems in an informal setting designed to be helpful and informative.
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Note: References to articles or other documents are given here in one of two forms. If the links are "live" (usually underlined or otherwise highlighted) they are operated with a click of the mouse.

If they are URL's (Uniform Resource Locator), which is the analogue of an address, they begin with "http://..." or "www.". These are not live and must be copied and pasted entirely into the browser (after having been selected with the mouse or otherwise). If they are long they may be displayed in two or more lines. In that case one has to care that the URL be copied completely in a single line without any space, and Enter.

1 - Introduction

2 - Article - Virtual Reality (VR) Welding Training

3 - How to do it well: Fillets on Beam Reinforcements

4 - Filler Metal Advancement: Low Hydrogen FCAW Wire

5 - Online Press: recent Welding related Articles

6 - Terms and Definitions Reminder

7 - Article - Highway Bridge Fabrication

8 - Site Updating: Ultrasonic Cleaning, Weld Bonding

9 - Short Items

10 - Explorations: beyond the Welder

11 - Contributions: Underwater Laser Cutting

12 - Testimonials

13 - Correspondence: a few Comments

14 - Bulletin Board

1 - Introduction

This new Issue, number 96 of Practical Welding Letter opens hereafter with the review of a study conducted to evaluate the efficacy and the economy of Virtual Reality (VR) Welding Training.

This subject was introduced to our readers not long ago and the article referred to is quite important to all concerned with training of new welders. A download link is available to all.

Then a few observations follow an interesting question submitted by a reader: comments are welcome from those with practical experience with the matter.

FCAW wires were not know to be special for low hydrogen: now they are available and this fact should be useful to welders who could not use the regular ones for fear of cracking.

The publication announced in the following section can be useful as a reminder of current requirements to those involved in Highway Bridge construction and repair, and to those considering the use of High Performance Steel for their fabrications.

The Pages of this Month, introduced in section 8, were written on Ultrasonic Cleaning, a very useful process in the right cases, and on Weld Bonding a composite process summing the advantages of unrelated joining methods, quite effective under the proper conditions.

The need to perform laser cutting under water may not be compelling to most of the regular welders. It is however interesting to know that such a process exists and can be called for if necessary.

The rest of the regular departments can be found where they are supposed to be.

All the new website pages are found as usual in the Site Map and in the Index Page. Updates are generally given in the Blog page, distributed to RSS subscribers, and available to all directly by clicking on the button.

Readers are invited to Contact Us for questions, comments, feedback, and to inform their friends of this website: they may benefit from the quite extensive information available to all and can ask questions to obtain answers.

Bulletin #64, appended as PWL#096B past the end of the regular issue, offers resources on Ceramic Brazing with several links to authoritative Internet Sources. Don't miss it!

2 - Article - Virtual Reality (VR) Welding Training

In my previous article on Virtual Welding Training (see PWL#093), I regretted the lack of an independent comparative evaluation of the various proposed solutions presently available.

While a study with such a purpose was not yet performed to the best of my knowledge, a similar academic study was conducted to determine if Virtual Training is likely to provide in effect a tangible advantage over traditional training.

A Virtual Training facility in good standing was selected by the researchers, who hastened to affirm that no endorsement or recommendation is intended by their choice.

The working hypotheses that the project intended to verify or deny were:

1. Virtual Training would result in superior outcome than traditional training
2. Virtual Reality Training will result in increased level of team interaction and learning
3. Training with VR is considerably less costly.

Then a plan based on scientific principles for testing the working hypotheses was laid down, and two groups of students were engaged in the project. Students in both groups had generally no previous welding experience. Four students who had some previous welding experience were evenly divided between the groups.

All trainees were committed to 80 training hours in a period of two weeks. The purpose was to have them pass the certifying welding examination in four positions (2G - plate, groove, horizontal position. 1G - plate, groove, flat position. 3F - fillet, vertical position. 3G - plate, groove, vertical position).

The work group was trained for 50% of the time with virtual reality, and for the remaining 50% with traditional training, while the control group was busy all time with traditional training.

The results of the study are detailed in the paper quoted here. The conclusions largely confirmed the working hypotheses. With the confirmed advantages in shorter training, better results and improved economy, the only but remarkable hindrance to more extensive use of Virtual Reality Training remains the high cost of each installation.

Thanks also to the quoted study, the use and application of Virtual Reality in training of welders will increase and expand in the future.

Virtual Reality Integrated Welder Training
is the title of the article published in the Research Supplement of the Welding Journal, July 2011 issue, at page 136-s. See:
http://www.aws.org/wj/supplement/wj201107_s136.pdf

Interested readers are urged to download it and to learn the details of the study.

3 - How to do it well: Fillets on Beam Reinforcements

Q - I'm a brand-new subscriber...and need some feedback on the issue of using transverse welds on structural beams.
Legend has it that such an application is bad practice, but I need to understand the physics behind it. Typical application is welding a plate (clamp base, tap pad, etc.) with simple edge fillets onto the side of a structural beam (rectangular tube, mostly), which is loaded in bending. Some individual welders insist on full weld-arounds, others only weld the axial sides and then caulk to seal the unwelded, transverse sides. Textbooks seem to avoid the subject. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks very much.

A: - Thank you for your interesting question.
If I understand the situation you describe I think that the problem has to do not with physics but with metallurgy. And it may be that both opinions are valid.
If you are considering mild steel in a construction not heavily loaded and not severely subjected to fatigue, I would not think there are serious dangers of crack development in the transverse loaded fillet weld. Therefore I would not consider welding all around bad practice.

If however you are dealing with low alloy steels, possibly hardened and tempered, with elevate carbon equivalent, which needs precise procedures of preheating and post weld treating, then maybe you should be cautious with those transverse welds which might develop cracks expanding later to the whole structure.
I hope this helps.

4 - Filler Metal Advancement: Low Hydrogen FCAW Wire

A new low hydrogen self shielded Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) filler wire is introduced in a recent article published on the Welding Journal, July 2011, issue at page 26.

Designed for improved cold-cracking resistance, the new wire announced in the last edition of AWS A5.29 Specification demonstrates low diffusible hydrogen levels and minimizes the appearance of fish-eye defects. It is said to have passed successfully welding qualifications including ABS 4YSA (American Bureau of Shipping).

The article reports also on successful qualification tests completed for 6GR position (circumferential groove weld applied to a fixed pipe, at 45⁰ from the horizontal, with a restriction ring adjacent to the joint) WPS X65 pipe.

This filler metal is available from different suppliers, some possibly suggesting the use of additional shielding gas.

Interested readers are urged to see the original article as indicated above.

ANSI/AWS A5.29/A5.29M:2010
Specification for Low-Alloy Steel Electrodes for Flux Cored Arc Welding
Edition: 4th
American Welding Society / 18-Sep-2009 / 62 pages
Click to Order.

5 - Online Press: recent Welding related Articles

WELD-IT software estimates fabrication costs
The Engineer.

Automated pipeline welding systems: past, present and into the future
Sorry! Link removed by the source>

Technical seminar held at Institute of Rail Welding
Institute of Rail Welding.

EU Research Aims to Perfect Laser-Stabilized Plasma Welding
http://weldingdesign.com/processes/main/LZHclaim/

TWI - Connect May/June 2011
http://www.twi.co.uk/content/conmay11.pdf

6 - Terms and Definitions Reminder

Indirect Welding is a resistance welding secondary circuit variation where the welding current flows also along the workpieces, besides across them at the welds locations.

Joint Design consists in the configuration, the shape and the dimensions of the joint before applying the joining process

Laser Beam Expander is an optical device whose function is to increase the diameter of a laser beam.

Pulsed Power Welding is an arc welding process where the welding current is programmed to cycle between a low and a high current level.

Resistance Welding Downslope Time is that during which the resistance welding current is continuously decreased until cutoff.

Standoff Distance is measured between nozzle end and workpiece.

Tack Welder is the person who produces tack welds by manual or semiautomatic welding process.

Welding Tip in oxyfuel gas welding is the part of the oxyfuel gas welding torch wherefrom the gases exit feeding the flame.

7 - Article - Highway Bridge Fabrication

A new publication of interest to all involved with high performance steel fabrications is now available for direct download from the Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI).

The announcement informs that this third edition of the Guide Specification provides bridge owners, designers and fabricators with the latest recommended methodology to fabricate and weld structures using ASTM A709 or AASHTO M270, Grade HPS 70W (HPS 485W) steel. It replaces the previous edition, which was published in 2003.

The chairman of SMDI’s Steel Bridge Task Force and manager, customer technical service at ArcelorMittal USA LLC, Alex Wilson, said that this 2011 new edition of the Guide Specification is based on continued research with high performance steel (HPS) fabrication and welding practices conducted under a cooperative agreement sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Navy, and SMDI.

It includes certain consumables for the flux cored arc welding and gas metal arc welding processes, which were not part of the previous edition. This research advances HPS fabrication and welding practices to the next level, and is highly recommended for all bridge professionals who already work with steel or are interested in learning more about HPS bridges.

Wilson said that the research was overseen by SMDI’s High Performance Steel Steering Committee and the Welding Advisory Group, made up of nationally recognized experts that include steel plate manufacturers, welding consumable manufacturers, steel bridge fabricators, bridge owners, industry, academia and other experts.

A short review is given of the use of High Performance Steel into the bridge industry.

The first HPS 70W bridge was placed in service in December 1997, only three years after the onset of the cooperative research effort. Today, it is estimated that there are more than 400 HPS bridges in service in 44 states.

The Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI), a business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), grows and maintains the use of steel through strategies that promote cost-effective solutions in the automotive, construction and container markets, as well as for new growth opportunities in emerging steel markets.

SMDI’s steel bridge program is conducted under the Construction Market Council of the Steel Market Development Institute.

Interested readers are invited to obtain the publication

Guide Specification for Highway Bridge Fabrication With High Performance Steel (23 pages)

from the following contact:
Debbie Bennett
Manager, SMDI and Construction Communications
Steel Market Development Institute
Tel: 202.452.7179
http://www.smdisteel.org/

8 - Site Updating: Ultrasonic-cleaning, Weld-bonding

The new Pages of this Month tackle two different subjects. The first is about a quite popular and effective cleaning method that may give perfect surfaces as needed for successful plating, brazing and other processes. It can be used to remove fingerprints and other fine soil from the surface of metallographic specimens.

Find the new page at Ultrasonic Cleaning and see the critical parameters that must be selected to provide the best possible results in any given situation.

The other page introduces a joining process invented by TWI and developed there for specific mass production requirements. It is the combination of two well known processes, whose cumulative results exceed those available by each process alone.

See the details and what it can perform in the new page on Weld Bonding. The use of weld bonding can provide specific design and economic advantages to suitable applications.

Readers ready to share their own tips with this audience are welcome to send a short note, to be published in a future issue.

All the pages as usual are found in the Site Map and in the Index Page, but no effort is done to signal the last updates. These are generally given in the Blog page, distributed to RSS subscribers, and available directly by clicking on the button.

Readers are invited to Contact Us for questions, comments, feedback.

9 - Short Items

9.1 - Amalgam is a dental filling alloy produced by combining mercury with alloy particles of silver, tin, copper, and sometimes zinc.

9.2 - Baking is heating to a low temperature in order to remove gases or to drive off moisture. Also curing thermo plastics or hardening surface coatings such as paints by exposure to heat.

9.3 - Carbide Tools for cutting or forming, usually made from tungsten, titanium, tantalum, or niobium carbides, or a combination of them, in a matrix of cobalt, nickel, or other metals. Carbide tools are characterized by high hardness and compressive strengths and may be coated to improve wear resistance.

9.4 - Deformation is a change in the form of a body due to applied or residual stress, thermal distribution, change in moisture, or other causes.

9.5 - Electrical Discharge Wire Cutting is a form of electrical discharge machining wherein the electrode is a continuous conductive wire moving from spool to spool, while displaced orthogonally across a metal surface to follow the cutting pattern.

9.6 - Fiber is the characteristic of wrought metal that indicates directional properties and is revealed by etching of a longitudinal section or is manifested by the fibrous or woody appearance of a fracture. It is caused chiefly by extension of the constituents of the metal, both metallic and nonmetallic, in the direction of working. It is also the pattern of preferred orientation of metal crystals after a given deformation process, usually wiredrawing. As a transparent optical medium it is used for transmitting light signals through long distances.

10 - Explorations: beyond the Welder

Sustainable Development and Conservation of Freshwater
http://www.unesco.org/water/

Cyber Threats To Critical Infrastructure Spike
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/229401858

Large Hadron Collider Sees Tantalizing Hint of Higgs Particle
SA1.

NASA's Next Mars Rover to Land at Huge Gale Crater
SA2.

High Wired: Does Addictive Internet Use Restructure the Brain?
SA3.

11 - Contributions: Underwater Laser Cutting

A short article opening issue 172 (May/June 2011) of TWI Connect [see the last link in section 5 above] introduces the project supported by the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to demonstrate the potential of high power lasers for concrete scabbling and pipe cutting.

The applications refer to items located in a submerged environment, such as a nuclear fuel storage pool or reactor vessel, or to circumstances where, due to potential fire risk, elements have to be submerged before cutting can take place.

Options for use in offshore decommissioning are also being investigated. In addition to the laser beam, a gas jet is delivered concentric to it. TWI has used this gas jet to create a localized gaseous environment immediately adjacent to the steel or concrete surface being cut.

See also:
http://www.twi.co.uk/content/news_2011_05_13.html

12 - Testimonials

Tue Jul 05 10:37:19 2011
Name: David DeMartile
Describe Your Responsibility: Special Projects Manager
E-mail Address: removed for security
Country: United States

Questions and Feedback : I am looking for specific information [...]

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Name: Bruce Crawford
Email - Removed for security
Country: USA
Date: 13 Jul 2011, 08:57:44 AM
To Welding Advisers

Hello Elia,

Thanks very much for your reply.[...]

Bruce Crawford
Engineering Supervisor

13 - Correspondence: a few Comments

13.1 - Kind readers accepted my invitation to contribute with short notes derived directly from their welding experience. I am sure that nice stories could be told providing insight and understanding in a wide range of fields. I hope that these readers will find the time to write them down and I urge all readers having interesting observation to share, to put those in writing and send them to us.

13.2 - I read again recently the conclusions of a thorough search made a few years ago that the majority of welding operations are run without any monitoring whatsoever on the real costs. This is considered the most compelling reason why welding shops are run at partial productivity, ignoring the remarkable improvements that could be introduced with little efforts.

Readers with experience or comments on the above observations are asked to let us know their opinion on the matter.

14 - Bulletin Board

14.1 - Material Testing 2011
Sept. 13-15 - International Centre - Telford, West Midlands, UK
Sponsored by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing
www.materialstesting.org

14.2 - DVS Congress and Expo
Sept. 27-29 - Congress Center, Hamburg, Germany
Sponsored by Messe Essen and German Welding Society
http://www.dvs-expo.de/index.php?lang=en&content=000000000

14.3 - GAWDA 67th Annual Convention
Oct. 9-12 - Times Square Marriott Marquis, New-York, N.Y.
Gases and Welding Distributors Association
www.gawda.org/Activities/Annual-Convention/New-York-2011/

14.4 - Brazil Welding Show
Oct. 18-21 - Expo Centre Norte, Sao Paulo, Brazil
www.arandanet.com.br/eventos2011/ccm/index2.html

14.5 - Subscribe at no cost to:
AWS "This Week in Welding"
http://multibriefs.com/optin.php?aws

14.6 - See the First Day of the Rest of Your Life
http://first-day-of-the-rest-of-your-life.sitesell.com/Quark.html

14.7 - Here is the best Introduction to Site Build It! and SiteSell
http://www.sitesell.com/Quark.html

14.8 - Visit SiteSell Facebook right now and see for yourself.
Click on SiteSell Facebook.

BUILT BY:

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Please continue to browse down hereafter for the Mid August Bulletin.

Copyright (©) 2011, by Elia E. Levi and
www.welding-advisers.com
All Rights Reserved

Mid Month Bulletin 64 - PWL #096B August 2011

keywords: Ceramic Brazing, Active Brazing, ceramic-metal joints, joint strength, brazing residual stresses

PWL#096B - Resources on Ceramic Brazing, Active Brazing Alloys, Structural Ceramic Joining, Dissimilar Materials Brazing, Joint Strength Correlation, Metal-to-Ceramic Adhesion, Brazing Novel Nanotechnology, Interfacial Reaction, residual stresses in ceramic-metal joints, Residual Stress and Bonding Strength and much more...

However well informed and expert you may be, you could certainly benefit from a vast repository of online authoritative welding information.
The following may be just what you need...

Introduction

This Mid August Bulletin #064 is now integral with and appended to the regular PWL#096 publication. The subject of this Bulletin is a collection of Online Resources on Ceramic Brazing, as an extension of our website page on Brazing Ceramic.

Links to the Mid Month Bulletin Pages are listed in the regularly updated page on Welding Resources (Opens a new Window).

We urge our readers to Bookmark this page and to subscribe to our Welding Site Blog by clicking on the orange buttons under the NavBar in each Website page (www.welding-advisers.com). If you prefer not to subscribe, you may also click periodically on the Welding Blog button in the NavBar to see Updates.

The addresses reported hereafter were live and correct at the time of their publication. There is no guarantee that they will always be so, because they are administered by the sources themselves and are under their control.

Note: References to articles or other documents are given here in one of two forms. If the links are "live" (usually underlined or otherwise highlighted) they are operated with a click of the mouse.

If they are URL's (Uniform Resource Locator), which is the analogue of an address, they begin with "http://..." or "www.". These are not live and must be copied and pasted entirely into the browser (after having selected them with the mouse or otherwise). If they are long they may be displayed in two or more lines. In that case one has to care that the URL be copied completely in a single line without any space, and Enter.

If the information is important to you as we hope, you may save the selected pages in a suitable folder on your Computer for easy reference. You are welcome to forward this page to those of your friends who may profit of this information.

Resources

Ceramic Brazing
http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1079

Machinable Glass Ceramic - Process of Brazing Macor
http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4476

Brazing ceramics
http://www.twi.co.uk/content/ceramics_brazing.html

Active Brazing Alloys
http://www.wesgometals.com/products-materials/active-brazing-alloys/

Ceramic to metal direct brazing (10 pages)
http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/25/17/86/PDF/ajp-jp4199303C7162.pdf

9 new articles
http://titanium-brazing.com/publications.html

Active Brazing Filler Metals
http://pro.tanaka.co.jp/english/products/group_c/c_4.html

Is it possible to braze ceramics? (6 pages)
http://www.brazingandsoldering.org/faqs/faq4.pdf

Proceedings of the International Forum on Structural Ceramic Joining (19 pages)
http://eagar.mit.edu/EagarPapers/Eagar068.pdf

Joining of Dissimilar Materials
http://www.materialsresources.com/mritech/mritech.htm

Is Brazing Better?
http://www.assemblymag.com/Articles/Feature_Article/5ab34059616c9010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____

Research Projects in Brazing and Soldering (35 pages)
http://files.aws.org/associations/bsmc/BSMC_univ_2-05.pdf

Joining Ceramic Shaft to Metal Sleeve (Abstract)
http://papers.sae.org/930164/

Comparison of three different active filler metals (Abstract)
http://www.science24.com/paper/3670

Brazing High Temperature (List of Articles)
http://worldwidescience.org/topicpages/b/brazing+high+temperature.html

Brazing Refractory Metals (List of Articles)
http://worldwidescience.org/topicpages/b/brazing+refractory+metals.html

Active Metal Brazing (List of Articles)
http://worldwidescience.org/topicpages/a/active+metal+brazing.html

Ten Reasons to Choose Brazing
http://www.aws.org/w/a/wj/2000/09/0015/index.html

Microstructural characterization of SiC ceramic and SiC–metal active metal brazed joints (5 pages)
http://materials.mines.edu/rc/aeml/PrakashPeriasamy-ScriptaPaper.pdf

Active Metal Brazing Joint Strength Correlation (6 pages)
Correlation.

Metallization of Ceramics – Pushing the Boundaries
http://www.ien.com/article/metallization-ceramics-/113435

Mechanical & Industrial Ceramics (22 pages)
http://americas.kyocera.com/kicc/pdf/Kyocera%20Mechanical%20and%20Industrial%20Ceramics.pdf

Brazing of Ceramic and Ceramic-to-Metal Joints (Article for sale)
http://www.asminternational.org/
[Go to Store and type the Title in the Search Box]

Fundamentals of Metal and Metal-to-Ceramic Adhesion (Article for sale)
http://www.asminternational.org/
[Go to Store and type the Title in the Search Box]

Soldering and Brazing Metals to Ceramics at Room Temperature Using a Novel Nanotechnology (Abstract)
http://www.scientific.net/AST.45.1578

Selection and Design of Brazing Fillers for Metal-Ceramic Joints (Abstract)
http://www.scientific.net/MSF.539-543.4008

A Research on Interfacial Reaction of Brazing Joint of Alumina Ceramics to Metals (Abstract)
http://www.scientific.net/MSF.654-656.2732

Active Metal Brazing
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~rucmj/work.html

Improving aerospace engines with advanced materials
http://www.onlineamd.com/amd-0310-aerospace-engines-advanced-materials-ceramics-metal-alloys.aspx

Mechanical Behavior of Ceramic-Metal Braze Joints (Abstract)
Wiley.

Metals and Ceramics
http://machinedesign.com/article/metals-and-ceramics-1115

The constitutive response of brazing alloys and the residual stresses in ceramic-metal joints (Abstract)
http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/105207

Development of a New Ceramic-to-Metal Brazing Technique
(10 pages)
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/02/materials/weil.pdf

Brazing alloys for ceramic to metal joining (Preview)
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/14841

Residual Stress and Bonding Strength in the Electrical Sialon Ceramics Joint (7 pages)
http://air.lib.akita-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10295/750/1/ijsmer10-1m.pdf

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