One of the most common mix-ups between engineers and their manufacturing vendors is with welding symbols. Providing your manufacturer the proper design notations can be the difference between a great product and a distorted, ugly mess.
Here’s your guide to making things easy for your vendor to understand. And if you’ve specified an aluminum weld and want help picking the ideal grade, check this out.
Here are the common welding symbols we particularly receive a lot from customers:
This graphic illustrates the most common welding symbols:
Typical elements of weld symbols include:
(Photo courtesy Structural Engineering Professional)
If you expect a certain part to be welded a certain way and you mark your drawing incorrectly, prepare to be disappointed. This is how you end up with a fillet weld instead of a bevel weld -- and back at square one.
Your manufacturer is forming your part based on your specs -- don’t leave the interpretation up to the vendor.
Like many relationships in life, the best way to avoid mix-ups is to communicate with your vendor. The sooner in the process this begins, the better.
Many manufacturers are willing to help you in the early design phase of your project. How does this specifically relate to welding symbols? Your partner can:
When a weld symbol appears to be incorrect, dedicated manufacturing partners will start a dialogue between you and their engineers or sales teams, depending on the issue. Sometimes it’s OK to ask for help!
(Editor's Note: This blog was originally published in September 2017 and was recently updated.)