Welding processes have become increasingly important in almost

all manufacturing industries and for structural fabrication.

Major industries employing welding processes are

Ship building
Thermal & nuclear power plant
Oil pipe line construction
Chemical process plant
Automobile
Aerospace
Electronic industries

Basic types of welded processes: Welding can be broadly

classified in two groups

1) Liquid state (fusion) welding where heat is added to the base

metals until they melt. Added metal (filler material) may also
be supplied. Upon cooling strong joint is formed. Depending
upon the method of heat addition this process can be further
subdivided, namely

Electrical heating: Arc welding

Resistance welding
Induction welding

Chemical welding:
Gas welding
Thermit welding

Laser welding
Electron beam welding

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 2) Solid state welding: Here mechanical force is applied until
materials deform to plastic state. Bonds are then formed
through molecular interaction. Solid state welding may be of
various kinds, namely,

Cold welding
Diffusion welding
Hot forging

Welded joints

When two pieces of structural steel are to be connected by welding,

the way they are prepared for welding and placed together is known
as the Weld Joint.

Welded joints and their advantages:

Welding is a very commonly used as a permanent joining process.

Thanks to great advancement in welding technology, it has
secured a prominent place in manufacturing machine
components. A welded joint has following advantages:

(i) Compared to other type of joints, the welded joint has

higher efficiency. An efficiency > 95 % is easily
possible.

(ii) Since the added material is minimum, the joint has

lighter weight.

(iii) Welded joints have smooth appearances.

(iv) Due to flexibility in the welding procedure, alteration and

addition are possible.
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 (v) It is less expensive.

(vi) Forming a joint in difficult locations is possible through

welding.

The advantages have made welding suitable for joining

components in various machines and structures. Some typically
welded machine components are listed below.

a. Pressure vessels, steel structures.

b. Flanges welded to shafts and axles.
c. Crank shafts
d. Heavy hydraulic turbine shafts
e. Large gears, pulleys, flywheels
f. Gear housing
g. Machine frames and bases
h. Housing and mill-stands.
i. Tubes

Strength of welded joints:

Adequate care must be taken to enhance strength of the

welded joint. It is seen that strength of a welded joint gets
affected mainly by the following factors.

(i) Crack initiation: it is possible that cracks form while

cooling a melted metal.

(ii) Residual stresses: due to inhomogeneous heating of the

base metals, residual stresses may exist upon cooling.

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 (iii) Metallurgical transformation: in heat affected zone (HAZ)
metallurgical properties may change leading to weakening
of the joint.

(iv) Defects: of various kinds like incomplete penetration,

porosity, slag inclusion which affect the strength of a welded
joint.

(v) Stress concentration: abrupt change in the geometry after

welding may introduce stress concentration in the structure.

Welded Joint Design

The details of a joint, which includes both the ge-ometry and the required
dimensions, are called the joint design.

Just what type of joint design is best suited for a particular job depends on
many factors. Although welded joints are designed primarily to meet
strength and safety requirements, there are other factors that must be
considered. A few of these factors are as follows:

Whether the load will be in tension or compression and whether

bending, fatigue, or impact stresses will be applied
How a load will be applied; that is, whether the load will be steady,
sudden, or variable
The direction of the load as applied to the joint
The cost of preparing the joint

Another consideration that must be made is the ratio of the strength of the
joint compared to the strength of the base metal. This ratio is called joint
efficiency. An efficient joint is one that is just as strong as the base metal.

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THE FIVE BASIC JOINTS

There are five basic joints in common use for assembling metal.

1. BUTT JOINTS
2. T JOINTS
3. LAP JOINTS
4. CORNER JOINTS
5. EDGE JOINTS

BUTT JOINTS

A butt joint is formed when the pieces to be welded are laid side by
side and it is one of the most widely used types of joint.

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According to the shape of the grooves, the butt joints may be of
different types, e.g.,

Square butt joint

Single V-butt joint, double V-butt joint
Single U-butt joint, double U-butt joint
Single J-butt joint, double J-butt joint
Single bevel-butt joint, double bevel butt joint

T JOINTS

T joint is formed when one piece of metal to be welded is placed

vertically on another piece lying horizontally, to form the shape of an
inverted T.

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The vertical member is usually placed at 90 deg to the horizontal
member. One of the most widely used types of weld applied to a T
joint is the fillet weld. When a single pass or multiple passes are made
against the joint, the weld resembles a Triangle when viewed from the
side.

The T joint and fillet weld are the most frequently used joint and type
of weld. In the same way the edges of the butt joint may be prepared
for welding, the tee joints vertical piece may be prepared using a
Bevel, or J shape. The preparation allows the Welder to penetrate
into the root of the joint.
See examples below:

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LAP JOINT
A Lap joint is formed when one piece to be welded is laid down and
another piece is overlapped to form an edge for fillet welding or an
area to allow plug or slot welding.

Lap joints are often used when plug or slot welding thinner sections.

A plug weld is made by welding holes evenly spaced across the length
of one or both sides of the joint. A slot weld is similar except slots are
made instead of holes.

Other welds may be applied to laps such as projection, or seam

welding.
See examples below:

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CORNER JOINT
A corner joint is formed by placing one piece to be welded on
the other so that a corner is formed. The corner may be Flush; Half
Open; or Fully Open.

An edge preparation may be applied to one, or both of the pieces of

the joint for penetration and strength.

An Edge joint is formed when the two edges of the pieces to be welded
come together. This joint may be formed as a result of another
structural shape and is not as widely used as some of the other joints.

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Each type of joint has its own symbol. The basic weld symbols are
shown

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Welding symbol:

A welding symbol has following basic elements:

1. Reference line
2. Arrow
3. Basic weld symbols (like fillet, butt joints etc.)
4. Dimensions
5. Supplementary symbols
6. Finish symbols
7. Tail
8. Specification processes.

These welding symbols are placed in standard locations

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Example: If the desired weld is a fillet weld of size 10 mm to be done on
each side of Tee joint with convex contour, the weld symbol will be as
following

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