Welding 6061 Aluminum

[riggers1]

I recently had a "engineer" in a boat yard tell me we could not weld 6061 Aluminum in the repair of a sailboat spar. The spar section has a wall of approx. .287. As I have been involved in spar building and fab for many years using 6061 with no ill effects I know there to be no problem using some common sense. What specific issues may there be in welding 6061?

 

[grayseal]

Since 6061 is a heat treatable aluminum alloy, the heat of welding will reduce the materials strength by one third in the welded area. This can be recovered if the entire assembly is reheat treated.

grayseal

 

[pandithan]

since aa 6061 is heat treatable alloy and the raw materials are supplied in varius heat treatment condition like solution,solution and aging . if the raw material condition is in T6 (solution&aged), while welding this alloy,strengh in haz will be less than parent and weld metal
if the raw material in solution treatment,after welding weldmetal get aged naturally to get the parent metal strengh