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TWI
Vflfll. _ THE WELDING INSTITUTE

Materials Inspection:
Materials
Materials are defined as solid matter that we use to make things with. There are 2 basic
types of metallic materials I) Castings. and 2) Wrought Products. Most metals and
alloys commence life in the form of casting and may remain as a "Cast Product"
Materials with little or no ductility or malleability are normally formed in this way, such
as most Cast Irons. A casting may also go on to be formed by other processes i.e. forged,
hot/cold rolled, extruded, drawn and/or pressed etc. into the shapes that we are all
familiar with i.e. plates, pipes and beam sections etc. (A Wrought or Worked Product)
Imperfections may occur in cast or wrought materials due to poor refIning, or incorrect
application/control of a material forming process, producing a low quality metallic form.

Castings:
There are many type of casting methods used to shape metals. In the conventional
method of steel ingot casting, a ceramic lined mould is used producing a large ingot of
approximately 21 metric tonnes. The mould is fIrst fed with a charge of liquid steel as in
A below. During the solidifIcation process a primary pipe will be formed at the [mal
point of cooling and solidification at the centre at the surface of the ingot and is caused
by the difference in volumes between steel in the liquid and solid states. A secondary
pipe or shrinkage cavity may also be formed directly beneath this, as in B below. These
pipes will also contain any low melting point impurities i.e. sulphur and phosphorous
and their compounds which will naturally seek the final point of solidification as they
solidify at much lower temperature than the steel. Should the ingot be low quality steel
that has been poorly refined any low melting point impurities held in liquid solution will
segregate out throughout the structure at the grain boundaries by dendritic growth and
become trapped in that area. Finally, the ingot would then be cropped prior to primary
rolling when it is very possible that due to economics or misjudgement that a portion of
a primary pipe and all of any secondary pipe will remain in the [mal cropped ingot as in
C below. The cropped steel ingot would then be reheated and sent for hot rolling.

Liquid Cropped
steel
71:'.

II
Primary pipe ::::::::::::/:..J.
:::::::::::'::':\'

m·got ready >-.t:.-

.... :..~.:.: ..:.:..-.

Secondary pIpe/,
. t1f;;i>~
Ji}:}:X·:···:··· for rolling 'if/a/:;{

...ITI.. ····:·0::
l~::~~::::&~{::::::::~ti: ~~»;W&
Welding Inspection of Steels WIS 5 6.1
Section 06 Materials Inspection TWI WORLD CENTRE FOR
MATERIALS JOINING
Rev 09-09-06 Copyright © 2006 TWI Ltd VOl TECHNOLOGY
TWI
VIlfll. _ THE WELDING INSTITUTE

Rolling

Once an ingot has been cast it may undergo a variety of different forming methods to
produce the final shape required. Very often the first of these is primary and secondary
rolling. In primary rolling the heated ingot is rolled backwards and forwards through a
reversing mill. The ingot is plastically deformed under compressive forces into a section
until it is almost 1Hd of the ingots CSA, though now very much longer and is termed a
bloom. To enable the steel to deform in this manner requires a high level of the
malleability, or plastic deformation under compressive force. This is generally at an
optimum in steels between the temperatures of 1100 - 1300 cr, although exact
temperatures will depend on the chemical composition of the steel. After primary rolling
and working the ingot undergoes secondary rolling when it is [mally cut into a number of
manageable sized pieces termed billets. During these processes any inclusions and
trapped impurities in the ingot will be elongated or strung out, and may produce
laminations in the final form.

~ Direction of rollin!?: ~

Laminations

Segregation band

Laminations contain impurities and major inclusions such as slag that solidifies in the
ingot. When rolled out these major inclusions may exist throughout the plate thickness.
Gas pores in the solidified ingot can also cause laminations when rolled out but will
generally 'close up' during the hot rolling process. Laminations will become thinner as
the plate is rolled into thinner plate and may eventually become invisible to the naked
eye in thinner plates, however sulphur contents> 0.05% can cause problems in welding.

Segregation bands mainly occur at the centre of the plate where low melting point
impurities i.e. Sulphur or phosphorous compounds are segregated out mainly ITom
laminations within the plate. This effect occurs during time when the steel is subjected to
the high temperatures associated with the hot rolling process Segregation bands can best
be seen on polished and etched surface and have an appearance similar to a weld HAZ.

Cold Laps are caused during rolling when overlapped metal does not fuse to the base
material due to insufficient temperature, and/or pressure.

Welding Inspection of Steels WIS 5 6.2

Section 06 Materials Inspection TWI WORLD CENTRE FOR
MATERlALS JOINING
Rev 09-09-06 Copyright © 2006 TWI Ltd VOl TECHNOLOGY
TWI
Vlllll. THE WELDING INSTITUTE

All materials arriving on site should be inspected for

1) Size
2) Condition
3) Type/Specification/Schedule
4) Storage
In addition, other elements may need to be considered depending on the materials form
or shape, as most plate materials begin life as a casting, which are then rolled out into
sheets, plates, slabs or billets. Plate materials may then be further rolled into pipe and
welded with a longitudinal seam by the Flash butt welding process or helically welded
seam using Submerged arc welding. (SA W) Seamless pipes are generally extruded or
drawn, but may also be cast.

Rectangular metallic forms can generally be defined by their thickness as follows:

< O.Olmm Leaf

0.01- 0.10 mm Foil
0.10 - 3.00 mm Sheet
3.00-50.00mm Plate
> 50.00mm Slab

Plate Inspection
Condition

Corrosion, mechanical damage, laps, and laminations

Specification

Thickness

--
Size

Length
Width
I------------------ .•~
Additional checks may need to be carried out such as heat treatment condition,
distortion tolerance, quantity, storage and identification.
Welding Inspection of Steels WIS 5 6.3
Section 06 Materials Inspection TWI WORLD CENTRE FOR
MATERIALS JOJNING
Rev 09-09-06 Copyright © 2006 TWI Ltd VOl TECHNOLOGY
TWI
Vllfll. THE WELDING INSTITUTE

Pipe/Tube Inspection
Condition

Corrosion, mechanical damage, wall thickness, ovality, laps and laminations

Specification/Schedule

Welded seam

Size
Outside 0

Length

Wall thickness

Additional checks may also need to be carried out, such as heat treatment condition,
distortion tolerance, HilLo, quantity, identification and storage.

Pipe is a material form, which may be produced by one of 3 basic methods:

Seamless pipe

Helically welded pipe

Flash butt welded pipe

Welding Inspection of Steels WIS 5 6.4

Section 06 Materials Inspection
TWI WORLD CENTRE FOR
MATERIALS JOINING

Rev 09-09-06 Copyright © 2006 TWI Ltd VOl TECHNOLOGY

TWI
Vflfll. _ THE WELDING INSTITUTE

Seamless pipes Produced by the drawing or extrusion processes.

Helically welded pipes
Produced rrom flat plate material that has been helically
wound, then seam welded. The SAW process is generally
used and welded on both the inside and outside of the seam
at the same time. Fusion problems are commonly found on
the welded seam, which are usually caused by incorrect
setting of seam tracking systems. Helically welded pipes are
generally of the larger diameters.

Lack of root fusion/incomplete root

penetration caused by the insufficient
control of the process/seam tracking.

Pipe wall

IM%'m1Rtll$~
Spiral welded seam

Flash-butt welded pipe Produced rrom flat plate, which has then been rolled round.
Problems may be found in the welded seam caused by
insufficient preparation and/or poor process controL

It is often a requirement of line pipe application standards that a minimum degree of

distance shall be given between adjoining longitudinal seams at mating butt joints. This
is generally to reduce the risk of seam bursts caused by poor fusion in the welded seam,
however this will also increase the likelihood of the Hi-Lo effect in the pipe joint where
any ovality had been produced in the pipes during the forming or rolling process.

'//h'}''' / // /// // / / / / / / / / // / / // //// /// / / / /,

The welding of pipe joint that have a high degree of Hi-Lo may cause further
unacceptable welding imperfections to occur such as incomplete root penetration, or lack
of root fusion. Pipes must therefore be checked carefully for acceptable levels of ovality
prior to acceptance at site, as this problem may become either extremely difficult or even
impossible to rectify once production has commenced.

Welding Inspection of Steels WIS 5 6.5

Section 06 Materials Inspection TWI WORLD CENTRE FOR
MATERIALS JOINING
Rev 09-09-06 Copyright © 2006 TWI Ltd roOI TECHNOLOGY
TWI
VDOI. _ THE WELDING INSTITUTE

Traceability
In any quality system materials need to be traceable, a very simple line diagram is
shown below

ID Heat and Batch Number ®

Hard stamped at the Steel Mill Wit:) '--
Mill
Certificate

D
D
Mechanical and Chemical tests
carried out and Certificates Issued

b e/ Properties

Transfer of Stamp to be witnessed by TPI

(Third Part Inspector)

iJ ~
Test pieces may be taken and
Retested for Verification

~ ~-------
Finished component with:
Fully logged Traceability

Welding Inspection of Steels WIS 5 6.6

Section 06 Materials Inspection TWI WORLD CENTRE FOR
!>IATERlALSJO~~G
Rev 09-09-06 Copyright © 2006 TWI Ltd VOl TECHNOLOGY
TWI
V!JOI. _ THE WELDING INSTITUTE

WIS 5 Section 6 Exercises:

1) List three other main areas of inspection that the welding inspector must check
for all materials arriving at the construction site?

1. Size

2.

3.

4.

2) List 2 further imperfections, which may be introduced into a material during

the stages of primary forming?

1. Laminations

2.

3.

3) List 6 further inspection points of pipe materials that should be checked by the
welding inspector prior to acceptance?

1. Ovalitv
2.

3. ----------------
4.

5.

6. ----------------
7.

Welding Inspection of Steels WIS 5 6.7

Section 06 Materials Inspection
TWI WORLD CENTRE FOR
~TERlALSJO~G
Rev 09-09-06 Copyright © 2006 TWl Ltd VOl TECHNOLOGY