© 2012 Stream Engineering Solutions

Stream Engineering Solutions Limited is a Company  Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales.  Registration Number  04950317

Made by Magic Magic

When joining plant items together, whether by welding in the case of metals or welding/adhesives in the case of non-metals, the quality of joints is critical to the reliability and safety of the process plant.  Choosing the most effective method of joining is therefore a crucial step in the design process.

Vendor Approval (see dedicated page) is also part of achieving high reliability and safety by ensuring that plant manufacturers and fabricators adopt and carry out the correct procedures for the work they undertake, including verification against national and international fabrication and welding standards.

From choosing the correct consumables, welding process or adhesive system to providing Weld Procedures, Qualification Tests, Fabrication Monitoring and post joint testing, staff at Stream ES have a long history of providing guidance and advice at all stages of a project.  

With experience in mechanised and automated welding as well as the common manual welding processes, and with a position on the Welding Sub-Group of the European Hygienic Equipment Design Group (EHEDG), Stream ES is also well placed to assist in the specialised area of hygienic and aseptic welding of stainless steel pipework for food, pharmaceutical and increasingly personal product manufacture, and can provide guidance on technique selection, parameter setting and trouble-shooting in this critical field.

From the outside (top) this weld appeared to be adequate if a little inelegant.

It is clear, however, that it is a badly executed weld containing defects not detectable visibly from the outside, but resulting in an inner surface which could never be hygienically cleaned and which has already acted as an initiation site for fatigue cracking.  This problem could have been avoided easily by the use of a suitable weld procedure and quality plan.

This can be carried out at Fabricators’s premises if staff are not already qualified or can be done on-site to simulate the  conditions  under which the site welding will be carried out.

"Fitness for Purpose" engineering assessments can also be undertaken for plant which was built to no recognisable standard, which has deteriorated in service, or which has been repaired to an unknown (or non-existent) standard, either to allow the plant to continue in service or to determine appropriate remedial measures.