FABRICATION, WELDING AND INSPECTION BASICS FOR MAINTENANCE ENGINEERS

Metal identification a Precondition for Welding

By Mr. Ansuman Sen Sharma; POMC

If you know the metal, you have means to find out a way to weld it. What if you do not
know the metal? Quite often Maintenance Engineers find themselves in such tricky
situations.
Let us first have a quick look where maintenance welding stands when compared with
production welding in a manufacturing shop
Production Welding - requires very high skill and speed in application, but working on
known and fresh base metals with defined welding processes and with NO DOWNTIME
PRESSURE.
Maintenance welding Most of the times need to work on unknown, contaminated
base metal, which could have been exposed to long time heat. Welding is to be done insitu with positional restrictions and poor weldability. All these when the management is
breathing fire for a quick restart can make the odds staked against a maintenance
engineer. Your therefore require ingenuity, confidence, imagination and knowledge of
physics, chemistry, metallurgy and engineering in addition to skill and speed.
In-situ Identification: When you land up with a metal with specification un-known, you
have to first identify it before deciding on the correct welding process. There are some
means of rapid identification of metals. These methods, however, do not provide positive
identification but then when the DOWN TIME PRESSURE is on you, every little help
counts. Combine them with your knowledge of metals used for a specific service and your
experience; you have good chance for a positive identification.
Let us take a hypothetical situation where you are confronted with a repair item and you
have no idea about the MOC. In this case Material-identification could start with checking
the surface appearance.
Sometimes it is possible to identify metals by their surface appearance. A surface
examination does not always provide enough information for identification but should give
us enough information to place the metal into a class

FABRICATION, WELDING AND INSPECTION BASICS FOR MAINTENANCE ENGINEERS

Magnet Test: This will require a magnet of the simplest type. Ferromagnetic materials,
like iron and steel, give a strong response, easily determined. Nickel, cobalt and work
hardened stainless steel may give some, weak response.
If the material is magnetic, it could be either regular steel or magnetic stainless: to go
ahead with Material-identification and find which is which, a simple spot check can be
performed.
Chemical Spot Test: Put on the cleaned surface of the material (remove oil or grease
remnants with acetone) a drop of Nital 10% solution (10% nitric acid, HNO 3, in alcohol or
methanol) from an eye drop little bottle: if there is no reaction the material is probably a
stainless, otherwise, if it is regular steel, one can see a certain reaction with tiny bubbles,
and a dark stain remains on the surface.
Then one should check if there is a plating or a surface treatment. The appearance could
tell but only experience will help. A bright shining layer could indicate chromium or nickel
plating. A drop of 10% copper sulfate (CuSO4) in water would drip away without a trace
on a plated steel, while it would leave a bright copper stain on an unplated steel surface.
Other quite common plating materials could be zinc or cadmium, usually designed for
corrosion protection of mild steel: the nature of the plating should be determined
separately.
One can readily distinguish between light alloys like aluminum and magnesium with a
simple test, but you should use the help of a chemist. Aluminum is attacked by caustic
soda (NaOH), which is a dangerous material, and also by alkaline solutions, while
magnesium is not. Conversely magnesium is attacked rapidly by usual inorganic acids
(excluding hydrofluoric and chromic acid), while aluminum is not attacked by acids like
nitric and sulfuric. Also aluminum density is about twice that of magnesium.
Hardness test: it comes next for Material-identification. Recommended is Portable
hardness testing using rebound type digital hardness tester which are available for
carrying out hardness testing at site. This is particularly useful for large objects and
where cutting of sample is not possible. But if you cannot test for hardness, at least you
can always try the chip test if the sample permits.
Chip test: The chip test is performed by removing a small amount of material from the
test piece with a sharp, cold chisel. The material removed varies from small, broken
fragments to a continuous strip. The chip may have smooth, sharp edges; it maybe
coarse-grained or fine-grained; or it may have saw-like edges. The size of the chip is
important in identifying the metal. The ease with which the chipping can be accomplished
should also be considered. The information given in table below can help you identify
various metals by the chip test.

FABRICATION, WELDING AND INSPECTION BASICS FOR MAINTENANCE ENGINEERS

If the file does not take chips, the material is "file hard" and also, probably, hard to weld.
You can go for a spark test using a grinding m/c.
Spark Test: It can be used to get a rough classification. The length of the spark stream,
the color, and the form of the sparks are features are what one should look for.
The effect of the alloying element may slow or accelerate the carbon spark or make the
carrier line lighter or darker in color. Molybdenum, for example, appears as a detached,
orange-colored spearhead on the end of the carrier line. Nickel appears to suppress the
effect of the carbon burst; however, the nickel spark can be identified by tiny blocks of
brilliant white light. Silicon suppresses the carbon burst even more than nickel. When
silicon is present, the carrier line usually ends abruptly in a white flash of light.

FABRICATION, WELDING AND INSPECTION BASICS FOR MAINTENANCE ENGINEERS

Referring to figure, in low-carbon steel

(view A), the spark stream is about 70
inches long and the volume is
moderately large. In high-carbon steel
(view B), the stream is shorter (about
55 inches) and the volume larger. The
few sparklers that may occur at any
place in low-carbon steel are forked,
and in high-carbon steel, they are
small and repeating. these metals
must be distinguished from each other
by Both metals produce a spark
stream white in color.
Gray cast iron (view C) produces a
stream of sparks about 25 inches in
length. The sparklers are small and
repeating, and their volume is rather
small. Part of the stream near the
wheel is red, and the outer portion is
straw-colored.
Monel and nickel (view D) form almost
identical spark streams. The sparks
are small in volume and orange in
color. The sparks form wavy streaks
with no sparklers. Because of the
similarity of the spark picture, some
other method.
Stainless steel (view E) produces a
spark stream about 50 inches in
length, moderate volume, and with
few sparklers. The sparklers are
forked. The stream next to the wheel
is straw-colored, and at the end, it is
white.
The wrought-iron spark test (view F)
produces a spark stream about 65
inches in length. The stream has a
large volume with few sparklers. The
sparks appear near the end of the
stream and are forked. The stream
next to the wheel is straw-colored, and
the outer end of the stream is a
brighter red.
One way to become proficient in spark testing ferrous metals is to gather an assortment
of samples of known metals and test them. Make all of the samples about the same size
and shape so their identities are not revealed simply by the size or shape. Number each
sample and prepare a list of names and corresponding numbers. Then, without looking at
the number of the sample, spark test one sample at a time, calling out its name to
someone assigned to check it against the names and numbers on the list. Repeating this
process gives you some of the experience you need to become proficient in identifying
individual samples. It would be even better if you can keep some known samples ready
for immediate comparison.
The following tabulation gives compiled responses to various tests as discussed here for
different class of stainless steel.

FABRICATION, WELDING AND INSPECTION BASICS FOR MAINTENANCE ENGINEERS

Magnetic, spark, hardness and acid identification tests of austenitic, martensitic

and ferritic stainless steels
AISI
Type

Grade

Group

Magnet
Test

Spark
Test

Hardness Sulfuric Hydrochloric

Test
Acid Test Acid Test
Strong
attack Rapid reaction
green
- pale bluecrystals
green solution
and dark
surface

302

303Se

304

Spoiled egg
odor - heavy
black smudge

Few forks
- short,
reddish

303

ChromiumNonAustenitic
Nickel
Magnetic

308

Full red
without
many
forks

309
310

Garlic odor
Strong
>165
attack Brinell
green
Fast attack after
crystals gas formation
heated to and dark
1800oF
surface
and water
quench

Few forks
- short,
reddish

316

317
321
Chromium

Magnetic

410
Long
white with
few forks

414
416

Martensitic

420

431

430F

> 280
Brinell
after
heated
to
Long
o
1800
F
white-red
with burst and water
quench
Long
white with
few forks

Rapid reaction
- dark green
solution
Spoiled egg
odor - heavy
black smudge
Garlic odor

Long
white-red
with burst

440 A, B,
C
430

Very slow
attack

Fast attack gas formation

347

416Se

Slow
attack tan
surface
turns
brown

Ferritic

Long
180 - 250
white with Brinell
few forks
after
heated to

Spoiled egg

FABRICATION, WELDING AND INSPECTION BASICS FOR MAINTENANCE ENGINEERS

odor - heavy
black smudge
430FSe
446

Garlic odor
Full red
without
many
forks

1800oF
and water
quench

By this time you would have a fair idea on the identity of the metal. But all these tests
are there to reconfirm your initial idea about the possible identity of the metal based on
your experience and your knowledge on the property of metals required for different
services. That would be the single most important factor in successful identification of the
metal.
The single best and most useful qualitative Material-identification test that is available
(although unsuitable for the lightest elements) is called X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF)
Spectroscopy. It is immediate and non destructive, and is performed using special
equipment, fixed or portable.
The method consists in exciting the atoms of the elements present in the sample with
primary x-ray photons of the required energy. Excitation means removing certain
electrons from the atoms to an unstable (ionized) status. The relaxation from the excited
condition is accompanied by characteristic spontaneous x-ray emission called
fluorescence.
As each element has a unique set of known electron energy levels, the x-ray emissions
have a well defined energy level for each of the possible electron transitions, providing a
"fingerprint" for Material-identification. The computer analysis of the spectrum of all the
collected x-ray emissions (arranged according to their energy or wavelength) permits at
least a qualitative Material-identification with various degree of precision depending on
the details of the program used.
More Tests: If you need more definitive and precise analyses for Material-identification,
those can be performed by well equipped laboratories using Spark Emission
Spectrography or quantitative Chemical Analysis (called by interesting names like AAS or
ICP), but these are costly and specialized tests which are rarely required for routine
welding, except if incurring in unexpected difficulties.
Summing up, even if one cannot identify through Material-identification procedures the
exact composition of an unknown item to be welded, knowing to which "family" it belongs
and what hardness it presents should be sufficient to devise the best procedure to be
applied with the welding process available. It is strongly recommended to make a welding
trial and to test it to destruction to reveal any problems, before tackling the job itself.
It is obvious that in case of failure of the test, the Material-identification should be
pushed further and the reasons for lack of success should be determined before starting
production.
Many other tests are available to determine the Material-identification of metal samples.
One quite simple but most useful (acceptance) test consists in performing on a small
specimen the usual heat treatment (mostly hardening and tempering if it is steel) and

then checking the hardness obtained. If the result is not what it should be, the material is
probably different from what presumed.
Another, called the Thermo-electric comparative test, displays a value of electromotive
force (similar to that obtained from a thermocouple) on a dial, when touching the surface
of the sample, located on the instrument base plate, with a heated copper electrode: the
required ranges have to be determined beforehand with known samples.

FABRICATION, WELDING AND INSPECTION BASICS FOR MAINTENANCE ENGINEERS

We may mention that other tests for Material-identification require more specialized
knowledge and laboratory equipment, probably not readily available to most welding
shops. One of the most informative and useful for welding purposes, even more than
complete chemical analysis reports, consists in metallographic examinations, performed
under optical microscope on specially ground, polished and etched specimens, by
knowledgeable metallurgists.