2024 National Welding Month

So much has already changed since the earliest days of welding! In the late 1950s and early 1960s, as we wrote in week 1, pioneers like Sanford High facilitated the revolution of welding taking over for rivets in girder production, introducing long, curved, efficient members that forever changed the character of bridges.

The use of mechanization has proliferated, providing machine-quality long, straight, thick groove and fillet welds that are now so common on bridge members. Deposition has improved with the move to larger wires, more power, and sophisticated delivery systems. Perhaps most significantly, with modern steels and welding practices, quality has been enhanced, providing exemplary bridge weld performance in service. 

But, there is always room for improvement, and new technology is on the horizon. Some examples include the following: 

• Groove weld inspection - Phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) is a step up from current radiographic and ultrasonic testing and is already codified in the Bridge Welding Code. Like traditional UT, PAUT offers the advantages of using sound, plus it provides a digital record of the testing for robust documentation.
  High Steel is already qualifying inspectors in this method and using it on projects, such as the PennDOT emergency Cottman Avenue project (see photo). Other advances in the works, such as total focus, full matrix capture, and phase coherence, will facilitate still better flaw discovery and characterization. 
• Hybrid laser arc welding (HLAW) -  A mix of gas metal arc welding, (SMAW) and autogenous laser welding, HLAW is an excellent process, accomplishing complete joint penetration groove welds in a single pass from one side at upwards of 80 inches per minute. Wow!
  As laser technology has evolved, the cost of laser generators has dropped, and their power has grown, making them more cost-effective and productive. It is now reasonable to make HLAW welds in material that is one-inch thick or more. Already, Valmont uses HLAW to weld the seam on segments of high mast poles. 
• Collaborative robots (COBOTs) are coming into our industry to improve welds and to facilitate the use of a wide range of shop floor skills. COBOTs allow the ready adaptation of robotic welding to the unique steel elements that commonly characterize bridges.
  Using a COBOT, a welding operator can handily make machine-quality fillet welds in any position, just about anywhere (see photo).
  In the future, tele-manufacturing, currently being studied by the Edison Welding Institute (see EWI tele-manufacturing), will go a step further and allow for remote welding: using computers, the operator can be in the next room or building, readily making excellent welds. Such technology facilitates excellent welding in tough environments, like tight, hot spaces. 

High Steel has long been a pioneer in welding and other aspects of bridge fabrication. We look forward to carrying forward the High pioneer spirit in partnership with innovative owners and other engineers.  Together, we will help make steel bridges ever more robust and cost-effective and delivering the solutions needed for our modern and growing infrastructure.