Now, if we’re looking at a partial penetration weld, we may not be as concerned about the overall thickness as a tolerance. If that isn’t taken into consideration, you risk all sorts of undesirable weld issues. We spoke about compensating for weld shrinkage in an earlier blog post.
This will play a critical role in the strength, repeatability and achievability of the weld. Depending on the weld joint configuration (assume autogenous for today), there may be two or more tolerances to consider. Thickness refers to tolerance of the cross section of the material at the point of welding. Welding tolerances come in many forms, and there’s one factor in particular that can wreak havoc on a qualified process.
