Flush groove welds

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WELD PROFILES


• AWS D1.1 sec 5.24.4 Groove or Butt Welds, states groove welds shall be
made with a minimum face reinforcement ……………..


• AWS D1.1 sec 5.24.4.1 Flush Surfaces, states “butt welds required to be flush shall be finished so as to not reduce the thicknesses of the thinner base metal by……………….

• Question; if the requirement is to have a flush weld, should a reinforcement weld be applied and then dressed off flush, or should the groove be welded flush?

• I have always gone with the theory that the cap acts as an annealing process so applied the cap then dressed flush

• Can any of you guys out there give me any guidance on this?

 

[DVWE]

I agree with you however the cap should be thought of as a tempering step (not annealing).

I have had this discussion with several in the past, and even with cap grinding, there is still a small portion of the HAZ which does not get tempered unless a temper bead type technique is used.

There are lots of things to consider. Especially the material type, service conditions, and the amount of grinding. In general, it's a good practice, but you don't want to be counter-productive either (manually grinding 200' of weld).

 

[HgTX]

D1.1 doesn't have commentary on that paragraph, but D1.5 has it for the equivalent paragraph:

...groove welds in butt joints and the outside face of corner joints should be made with slight reinforcement, but limited to 3 mm in height, even when the specifications require the joint to later be ground flush. This ensures that there is no underfill and that full effective size has been produced.

Hg


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Thanks to you both for your response, it will help me back up my line of reasoning.

However for some common sense do’s not prevail and as AWS D1.5 is not a code I’m working with, I’m still left with the controlling code of AWS D1.1

 

[HgTX]

Guidance is guidance, and commentary isn't enforceable, so the D1.5 commentary should be almost as useful as if the same commentary had been in D1.1. It all comes down to, as you say, backing up your line of reasoning.

Hg

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