If you are a welder, you should consider pipe weld stress relief to ensure your products are durable and last a long time. Below is information about what this is, as well as how the stress relief is performed so you can decide if pipe weld stress relief would be right for you.

Pipe Weld Stress Relief

Stress relieving reduces or removes stresses that are generated while you are welding. Providing stress relief will improve the stability of your product. If you do not do pipe weld stress relief, the internal pipes could become distorted, and the pipes could corrode much quicker. Once the pipes are corroded, cracks will appear in the pipes.

Performing Pipe Weld Stress Relief

The welded material is cooled down to room temperature first. Once this happens, the material is then heated at a steady rate until it reaches a specified temperature. What this temperature is depends on the type of materials that were used during the welding process.

Once the decided temperature is met, the welded material is held at this temperature for a certain amount of time. How long this is depends on how thick the material is. In most cases, the materials are held for approximately one hour per inch.

After the holding time, the temperature is reduced slowly, and the part is then cooled until it is at room temperature. There are regulations and codes when it comes to the cooling rates. This is because if the material is cooled down too quickly, the pipe weld stress relief process will fail.

When heated, the material is placed in a furnace in most cases. This does depend on how large the part is, however. The furnace is different than a traditional furnace as it uses protective gas. This will protect the surface of the welded parts from oxidation.

If the part is not large, a small oven type furnace will be used. The smaller oven works much like the furnace but is not as large. If you know you will only weld small parts, using the smaller oven will save you a lot of space, as well as save you money since the smaller oven will not use as much electricity when compared to a larger furnace.

Talk to a welding company to learn much more about pipe weld stress relief. If you weld a lot of parts, you can hire a company to provide stress relief services for you to save you time.

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