Chinese Rods

[123Cat]

For welding heavy beams , roof structure
Are chinese welding rods OK
Any feed back appreciated
Thanks

 

[123Cat]

Sorry I meant ordinary stick welding
Vertically up type
Thanks
Are they good rods , cheap I suppose
I really havnt heard the chinese weld rods before so was curious

 

[gazza285]

I've used the odd packet now and then. They welded fine but tended to have a rather strange smell! Having said that the welds I did with these rods were visual inspection only, we did not test the welds.

 

[CWIC]

123cat:
All the projects I have been involved with in Asia (China, Taiwan and Korea) are interesting with regards to field welding. I have many photos of the equipment and work in progress. Old AC transformers seemed to be the equipment of choice that is always hooked up to primary power in an extremely hazardous fashion. I gave up trying to see if any of the welders were in conformance with a WPS. I also noted the 1 tack-1 ton erection standard in another thread.

Many of the current designs utilize custom-fittings, castings and forgings, I have a photo of one of these fittings which cracked the enitre length of the weld due to the use of the wrong electrodes and lack of preheat.

On one job the field welders were using any electrodes they found rolling around the back of the truck including stainless steel, cellulsoic, etc. (the drawings required low-hydrogen electrodes.) Rod oven? What for. Preheat? Don't even think about it.

History has shown the direct results of poor workmanship, technique and materials. I have 100's of photos right after the 9-21 earthquake a few years ago. You notice I mentioned field welding in the above reply, in the shop there is a little more control but it depends entirely on the contractor.

Good luck.