A retired guy at the Pittsburgh plant told me to always weld the stiffeners on after the main seams

We were talking about a big tank job I bid on, and he said he spent forty years putting them on first because the drawings said to. He saw a tank fail in '92 at a plant in Ohio because the stiffeners trapped stress from the main weld cooling. Now I'm looking at my next set of prints and second-guessing the whole sequence. Anyone have a strong take on weld order for large diameter vessels?

4 comments

4 Comments

robins831mo ago

That old timer's story hits home. So much real world knowledge gets lost when we just follow the print without asking why.

rowan9691mo ago

Yeah @robins83, that's so true. I mean, what's a specific example you've seen where just following the instructions caused a real problem? Like maybe a building code or a machine manual where the "why" behind the rule really mattered.

williams.sage1mo ago

Wait, but doesn't that depend on the joint design?

robin5911d ago

Wait, a tank actually failed in 1992 because they put the stiffeners on first? That's wild, I wonder how many other plants got away with doing it that way for years.