EXECUTION AND INSPECTION OF STEEL HOLLOW SECTIONS WELDED JOINTS

The hollow section welded joints require a number of actions before starting welding and appropriate supervision during this operation to achieve joints with adequate quality level, which should be confirmed by the post-completion tests. The execution of hollow section joints is associated not only with welding, but also with cutting and additional machining of edges. In some cases, weld surfacing is also applied to correct sections fit-up. Weld surfacing and thermal cutting can cause local hardening of connected elements. The welding has to be preceded by an assessment of the previous technological processes. The welded joints can be only executed on the basis of detailed Welding Procedure Specifications (WPS). It is advisable to manufacture – in accordance with previously prepared WPS – pre-production joints for testing, proving the ability of the welding personnel to execute welded joints with specified quality, using the available equipment. The quality of welded joints is proved by testing. A type of conducted tests, thus scope and type of welding defects possible to detect, depends on the weld type, wall thickness of connected elements and joint geometry. The authors’ experience indicates that the proper execution of the welded joint of hollow sections is difficult task, which often requires pre-production quality testing of the joints.

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[2] PN-EN 10025-6 Hot rolled products of structural steels. Technical delivery conditions for flat products of high yield strength structural steels in the quenched and tempered condition.

[3] PN-EN 1090-1 Execution of steel structures and aluminium structures. Part 1 – Requirements for conformity assessment of structural components.

[4] PN-EN 1090-2 Execution of steel structures and aluminium structures. Part 2 – Technical requirements for steel structures.

[5] PN-EN 1090-3 Execution of steel structures and aluminium structures. Part 3 – Technical requirements for aluminium structures.

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[7]           PN-EN ISO 15609-1 Specification and qualification of welding procedures for metallic materials. Welding procedure specification. Arc welding.

[8]           PN-EN ISO 15614-1 Specification and qualification of welding procedures for metallic materials. Welding procedure test. Arc and gas welding of steels and arc welding of nickel and nickel alloys.

[9] PN-EN ISO 4063 Welding and allied processes. Nomenclature of processes and reference numbers. 

[10] PN-EN ISO 5817 Welding. Fusion-welded joints in steel, nickel, titanium and their alloys (beam welding excluded). Quality levels for imperfections.

[11] PN-EN ISO 6507 Metallic materials. Vickers hardness test.

[12] PN-EN ISO 9013 Thermal cutting. Classification of thermal cuts. Geometrical product specification and quality tolerances.

[13] PN-EN ISO 9606-1 Qualification testing of welders. Fusion welding. Steels.

[14] PN-EN ISO 9692-1 Welding and allied processes. Types of joint preparation. Manual metal arc welding, gas-shielded metal arc welding, gas welding, TIG welding and beam welding of steels.

[15] PN-EN ISO 9692-2 Welding and allied processes. Joint preparation. Submerged arc welding of steels.