Weld Joint fit Up Information for a Tube Welder

One aspect of orbital tube welding that is different from the initial weld specifications is the weld joint fit-up. This requires a look at tube straightness, weld concavity, reinforcement, and drop through.

If there is no such specification, the mismatch between tubes is naturally compensated for during the welding process at the weld joint. The molten material helps to eliminate any tube mismatch. It is important to discover these differences before you begin the process.

Any tube welder knows of the importance of this. A typical tube welder should be able to determine if the tube diameter will cause a weld mismatch or arc gap variations.

When determining the welding gap between two pipes, it is important to consider two things. First, any gap should be less than five percent of the total wall thickness. It is possible to weld up to six percent of wall thickness, but the quality of the weld will suffer greatly, and it will be more difficult to repeat welds.

At most it is recommended to do five percent of the total wall thickness. Anything more than five percent of the total wall thickness will risk the quality of the job. This makes your company look incompetent to your clients.

Second, wall thickness variations at the weld zone should be plus or minus five percent of the nominal wall thickness.

There is typically an allowable wall difference of twenty-five percent of the wall thickness. The end result is typically of poor quality, so for the sake of your company’s reputation, it is important not to try and push the welding past five percent of wall thickness.

It is important to try and avoid the high-low mismatch of the tubes to be welded. There are numerous ways to avoid this. One such way is to use engineering stands and clamps to align the two tubes that need to be welded. By using this system, it is possible to remove the mechanical requirements of aligned the tubes from the orbital weld head.

If you follow these recommendations, there is a higher chance to avoid making crucial errors in the beginning process of the weld.

Most of these are simple items that can be inspected before a weld begins. By performing these little tasks, it is easier for the tube welder to complete the tasks assigned with little or no issues. This is a great way to promote the efficiency and high quality of work that your company provides.