The influence of welded joint quality on safety and reliability in operation

The quality of welded joint is an assumption of long-term reliability in operation. On the contrary, defective work of bad quality welded joint leads to fracture and crashes of plants. In this paper the authors state that experimentally obtained causes of rails and pipes fractures were the result of bad realization of welded joint. Pores, blowholes, slags, lack of fusion, non-plastic non-metallic particles, cracks, shrink holes were the defects observed in the welded joint area. These defects substantially decreased the load-bearing cross section and the final result was fracture. The railway and high-pressure gas lines out of operation are undesirable and accompanied by considerable financial losses.