What Condition Will My Material Arrive In?
Unless noted otherwise, you are buying RAW CUT STEEL – AS IT COMES FROM THE MILL. NO SECONDARY PROCESSES HAVE BEEN APPLIED – SUCH AS SURFACE FINISH / TEXTURE, PAINT COATINGS, EDGE PREPARATION, BURR REMOVAL, ETC.. WARNING – SHARP EDGES!
***If you are unfamiliar with mill steel, then you should consider having one of our approved fabricators assemble and weld these material kits for you. Sorry to be blunt, but we want to be up front with our customers.***
For example, mill steel, will have some sort of rust inhibiting oil applied to it. This oil is usually black and dirty – YOUR MATERIAL WILL ARRIVE WITH A DIRTY / BLACK COAT OF OIL ON IT!
RUST: While mill steel does have this dirty coat of oil on it which is designed to inhibit rust, your material could also have some surface rust on it. We try to keep surface rust to a minimum, because our lasers hate rust. We store our material inside and only source material from distributors that also store it out of the rain. However, it’s just the nature of the beast that we’ll get some slight surface rust.
EDGE QUALITY: WARNING – SHARP EDGES! 99% of the time, we’re going to use our lasers to cut your steel parts. With precision up to .004″ tolerance – Lasers can produce the highest edge cut quality available on the market today. Many times better than saw cut, plasma cut, or torch cut. HOWEVER – Several factors control edge cut quality. 1. Oil on the steel. 2. Rust on the steel. 3. Run time (speed of the laser). While we can control all of these factors to produce an unbelievably polished edge cut, they all come with a cost. Our goal is to provide the best edge quality, for the lowest price. Therefore, you will have slight burrs and striations on the edges. These burrs and striations that lasers produce can be knocked of with a wire brush or light sanding, but this extra step is usually not needed for welding applications.
Note: All burrs should be removed from the tabs and the intersecting slots, to ease assembly. WARNING – SHARP EDGES!
Metal Memory: Yes – steel has memory from the mill and your parts you received will have this to some degree. For example, flat plate is actually made from a coiled roll of steel. The mill ships these coiled rolls to metal distribution centers, to save space. Once there, the coil has to be processed by “de-coiling” and flattening it. Metal memory is an inherent part of the steel manufacturing process and cannot be avoided. The flattened steel wants to go back to the shape it was rolled in by warping and twisting itself. Some parts of the plate have more memory that others. Further complicating this memory issue is something call stress relief – which is why some areas of the flat sheet will warp and twist more that others, once the steel is cut.
Experienced welders, fitters, and fabricators know about metal memory and stress relief. Therefore, they have the tools and the experience with clamping the metal as part of the welding assembly. Another example is square tubing. Square tubing starts out as round tubing, rolled into coils from the mill. It is then processed through a series of dies an rollers to de-coil it and make it square or rectangle. Therefore, memory, and stress relief can affect tubular parts as well.
EDGE PROFILE: Unless otherwise noted, all edges will be cut 90 degrees (square). Therefore, if your Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) calls for a weld bevel, the end user will need to grind, cut or form a weld bevel.
SURFACE QUALITY: Mill Scale – The will be mill scale / oxidation on the surface. Scratches: THERE WILL BE A LOT OF SCRATCHES ALL OVER YOUR MATERIAL FROM THE PROCESSING AND HANDLING FROM THE MILL.
Preparation of the Material
The surfaces to be welded must be free from scale, grease, paint, water, etc. The basis here is to provide a good surface for welding. This is a very good practice and is mentioned in all welding codes. The surfaces must be sufficiently clean so that there is nothing that might contain hydrocarbons, which break down in the heat of the arc producing hydrogen, which can be absorbed in the weld and cause cracks. Preparation of the weld surfaces may be achieved by sand blasting, shot blasting, grinding, sanding, air carbon arc gouging, or a combination of any these process.
NEVER USE OUR KITS FOR OVERHEAD LIFTING OR OVERHEAD SUPPORT!
DISCLAIMER – AS IS WARRANTY: Weldables Inc sells material only. All of our materials must be welded, and / or assembled by the purchaser (or end user). Purchaser (or end user) welding skills, welding techniques, welding procedures, tools, equipment, equipment settings, welding design, competent mechanical ability, and assembly experience are the responsibility of the purchaser (or end user) and are beyond our control. Therefore, Weldables Inc. disclaims all warranty and liability for damage or injury that may result from the purchaser’s (end user’s) welded and/or assembled product. By purchasing our material, you understand and agree to this disclaimer. By purchasing our material, you also agree that our materials are not rated for use as safety devices, nor for assemblies used on public roads, nor for overhead lifting, (nor over any part of the body), nor in any circumstance that could cause property damage or bodily injury.
SAFETY FIRST! Purchaser (or end user) agrees to abide by all safety rules for welding and general construction. End user must use Personal Protection Equipment rated for welding and construction purposes. A good review for welder safety can be found here from the American Welding Society: http://www.aws.org/standards/page/safety-health-fact-sheets
*BY PURCHASING OUR MATERIAL KITS, YOU AGREE THAT THEY WILL BE WELDED BY A CERTIFIED WELDER, FOLLOWING A WELDING PROCEDURE SPECIFICATION (WPS) ACCORDING TO AWS D1.1 WELDING CODE STANDARDS – OR EQUIVALENT. YOU ALSO AGREE TO THE SAFETY WARNINGS AND SAFE USE, AS LISTED IN THE MATERIAL DESCRIPTIONS AND ON OUR ABOUT PAGE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHOULD ANY OF OUR MATERIAL KITS NOR THE END USER WELDED ASSEMBLIES BE USED AS SAFETY DEVICES, OR IN ANY APPLICATION WHERE A FAILURE MAY RESULT IN BODILY INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE!