Section 8 - Execution of Welds

E, F, G

8-1

Section 8
Execution of Welds

A.

General

such applications shall be complied with.

1.

Scope, supplementary provisions

4.3
Welding consumables and auxiliary materials may
only be used with the electrode diameters covered by the
tests and for the approved welding positions. The
manufacturer's instructions and recommendations for use
(e.g. the type of current and polarity used) shall be complied
with.

1.1
This section contains universal rules applicable to
the performance of welding work, extending from the weld
preparation to the completion of the welded joints including
any finishing operations. For heat treatment see Section 9;
for testing of the welded joints, Sections 10 and 11.
1.2
The performance of the welding work is additionally
governed by the application-specific requirements stated
in the various Sections 12 to 16. The relevant provisions
of the respective Rules for Hull, Volume II, shall also be
complied with.
2.

Welding shop requirements

2.1
All workshops wishing to carry out welding work
shall comply with the welding shop requirements stipulated
in Sections 2 (Approval), 3 (Welder's Qualification Tests)
and 4 (Welding Procedure Tests), and where necessary,
Section 10 (Non-destructive Testing of Welds).
2.2
Workshops shall maintain up-to-date records of this
compliance and shall submit them to the Surveyor at his
request. If necessary (e.g. in the case of a prolonged
interruption to the work, cf. Section 2, A.4.2 and Section.3,
E.), the Society may reinspect the workshop.
3.

Materials, marking

3.1
Welding may only be performed on materials whose
identity and weldability under the given fabricating
conditions can be unequivocally established by reference
to markings, certificates, etc.

4.4
If necessary, welding consumables and auxiliary
materials are to be baked, prior to use, in accordance with
the manufacturer's instructions (keeping to the specified
maximum baking time) and are to be kept dry at the place
of work (in heated containers or similar).
5.

Overweldable shop primers

5.1
Overweldable shop primers which are applied to
plates, sections, etc. prior to welding and are not removed
must be tested and approved in accordance with Section.6.
5.2
Welding shops shall ensure by suitable checks
(especially on the thickness of the coating) and production
tests carried out at random during the course of normal
fabrication that the quality of the welded joints is not
impaired to an unacceptable degree.
6.

Manufacturing documents, company standards

6.1
Welds shall be executed in accordance with approved
drawings, welding schedules or company standards
recognized by the Society. Exceptions to this rule are subject
to the Society's consent in each individual case.
6.2
Compliance with the manufacturing documents is
the responsibility of the welding shop.

3.2
In case of doubt, the identity and weldability of the
materials shall be verified before welding commences.
4.

B.

Weld Preparation, Assembly

1.

Weld preparation

Welding consumables and auxiliary materials

4.1
Only welding consumables and auxiliary materials
tested in accordance with Section 5, approved by the Society
and of a quality grade appropriate to the base material to
be welded may be used. The various quality grades
corresponding to the different hull structural steels shall
be as shown in Table 12.1 in Section 12.
4.2
Welding consumables and auxiliary materials for
particular materials and those intended for special welding
processes which have been approved on the basis of a
(preliminary) welding procedure test may be used only for
the range of application specified in the relevant approval
certificate. Any special conditions or rules associated with

1.1
Weld preparation may be carried out by thermal
cutting or machining. Seam edges (groove faces) prepared
by thermal cutting shall be finished by machining (e.g.
grinding) if a detrimental effect on the welded joint as a
result of the cutting operation cannot be ruled out. Welding
edges of steel castings and forgings shall always be ground
as a minimum requirement; roll scale or casting skin is to
be removed.
1.2
Groove faces must be free from impurities and defects
liable to impair the quality of the welded joint, e.g. laps,
coarse grooves made by the cutting torch and slag. Prior

8-2

Section 8 - Execution of Welds

to welding, the welding edges shall be inspected for defects,

e.g. cracks, inclusions, blowholes or pores, using
non-destructive testing methods if necessary.
2.

2.2
The root opening shall not exceed twice the specified
gap. If the size of the gap permitted by this rule is exceeded
locally over a limited area, the gap may be reduced by
build-up welding of the side walls, subject to the consent
of the Surveyor. With fillet welds, the "a" dimension shall
be increased accordingly, or a single- or double-bevel weld
shall be made if the air gap is large. Inserts and wires may
not be used as fillers.
Alignment of components

3.1
Components which are to be united by butt welding
are to be aligned as accurately as possible. Sections welded
to plating shall be left unwelded at the ends for this purpose.
Special attention shall be paid to the alignment of (abutting)
girders which are interrupted by transverse members. If
necessary, such alignment shall be facilitated by drilling
check holes in the transverse member which are
subsequently closed by welding.
3.2
The permissible edge alignment error depends on
the nature, importance and loading of the component
concerned and is dealt with in the various section of Sections
12 to 16. Where special loading conditions or other
requirements relevant to the application necessitate a
limitation of the edge alignment error, the allowable error
shall be stated in the manufacturing documents.
4.

Tack welds and preparations for welding

4.1
Tack welds should be used as sparingly as possible
and should be made by trained personnel. Where their
quality does not meet the requirements applicable to the
welded joint, they are to be carefully removed before the
permanent weld is made.
4.2
Clamping plates, temporary ties and aligning pins
shall be made from the same material as the base material
or from a material of similar composition and should not
be used more than necessary. Any damage caused during
their removal shall be competently repaired.
4.3
With mechanized welding processes or when arc
striking and end crater defects in butt welds have to be
avoided, run-in and run-off plates shall be provided in
continuation of the line of the weld.
4.4

the welds. Any scale, rust, cutting slag, grease, paint (except
for approved overweldable shop primers), moisture or dirt
shall be carefully removed before welding.

Weld shapes, root openings (air gaps)

2.1
When preparing and assembling components, care
shall be taken to ensure compliance with the weld shapes
and root openings (air gaps) specified in the manufacturing
documents. With single- and double-bevel butt welds in
particular, care shall be taken to make an adequate root
opening to achieve sufficient root penetration.

3.

E, F, G

Components must be clean and dry in the area of

C.

Weather Protection, Preheating

1.
The areas to be welded shall be adequately protected
against climatic influences such as wind, damp and cold
and shall be preheated where necessary.
2.
The need for and degree of preheating is determined
by various factors, such as chemical composition, plate
thickness, two- or three-dimensional heat dissipation,
ambient and workpiece temperatures, or heat input during
welding (energy applied per unit length of weld). Details
are given in Section 9 and various section of Sections 12
to 16.
3.
Preheating shall be applied uniformly throughout
the thickness of the plate or component over a width of four
times the plate thickness, but not less than 100 mm.
Preheating may be as necessary for tack and auxiliary welds
as for fabricating welds.

D.

Welding Positions, Welding Sequence

1.
Welding should be performed in the optimum welding
position; positional welding is to be limited to the
indispensable minimum. The welders employed on positional
welding must be qualified for the welding positions
concerned. With regard to welding in the vertical-down
position, see Section 12, H.6.
2.
The welding sequence shall be chosen to allow
shrinkage to take place as freely as possible. Butt joints
in areas of plating shall invariably be fully welded prior
to attaching girders and stiffeners. The Society may require
an assembly procedure or welding sequence schedule to
be drawn up in special cases.

E.

Performance of Welding

1.
The welding shop shall ensure that the specified
welding parameters are adhered to and that the welding
work is expertly performed.
2.
Components shall not be subjected to any appreciable
movements or vibration during welding. Parts to be
assembled while suspended from cranes or floating shall
be clamped prior to tack-welding of the joints in such a way
that no relative movement of the parts is possible.
Components which have not been fully welded and which
are to be handled or turned must have welded joints of
adequate strength.

Section 8 - Execution of Welds

3.
Cracked tack welds may not be welded over, but
are to be machined out. In multi-pass welding, the slag of
the previous run shall be completely removed before the
next pass is laid down. Pores, visible slag inclusions and
other welding defects and cracks may not be welded over,
but are to be machined out and repaired.
4.
Welds must have sufficient penetration and must
display a clean, regular surface with "gentle" transitions
to the base material. Excessive weld reinforcements and
undercuts or notches affecting the edges of plates and cutouts
are to be avoided.
5.
Butt-welded joints must display full fusion over the
entire cross-section, unless otherwise specified in a particular
case. For this purpose, the root shall normally be grooved
and capped. Following a successful welding procedure test
confirmed by the Society, single-side welds, e.g. using
ceramic backings, may be regarded as equivalent to butt
welds executed from both sides. Other joints welded on
one side only, e.g. using permanent backings, are subject
to the Society's approval when scrutinizing the relevant
drawings.
6.
Single- and double-bevel butt welds are to be made
according to the design specification either with grooved
roots as full penetration welded joints or with a permitted
incomplete penetration at the root or defined, unwelded
root face subject to the appropriate reduction factors (cf.
Section 12, G.10.2). The type of weld is to be specified
in the drawings in each case and must have received the
Society's approval when scrutinizing the drawings.
7.
With fillet welds, particular attention shall be paid
to good root penetration. The penetration must extend to
at least the immediate vicinity of the theoretical root point.
The ideal fillet weld section is that of an equal-sided
flat-faced weld with smooth transitions to the base material.
At the ends of web plates, at cutouts and at welding
apertures, the fillet welds shall be formed round the web
to form a seal.
8.
Major cases of faulty workmanship or defects in
the material may only be repaired with the Surveyor's
agreement. Minor surface defects shall be removed by
shallow grinding. Defects which penetrate more deeply
into the material (e.g. cracks, or damage caused by the
removal of auxiliary erection equipment) shall be cleanly
machined out and where necessary repair-welded with an
adequate heat input.
9.
Repair (so-called production welds) on steel castings
and forgings shall only be made with the consent of the

E, F, G

8-3

Surveyor. If their volume is considerable, sketches and

descriptions of the repair work shall be submitted to the
Society's Head Office for approval, together with details
of the analysis of the base material, the welding process
and the welding consumables and auxiliary materials. The
Society may require stress relief heat treatment or, in special
cases, further heat treatment of the components after
welding.
10.
When working and welding higher-strength hull
structural steels, high-strength (quenched and tempered)
fine-grained structural steels, austenitic stainless steels and
aluminium alloys, attention should be paid to the relevant
information and instructions in the various section of
Sections 12 to 16. For this work, the Society may require
an appropriate welding specification to be submitted.

F.

Straightening, Tolerances

1.
Straightening operations (whether thermal or
mechanical) shall not impair the quality of the materials
and welded joints. The Society may require verification
of the suitability of the straightening method (e.g. by
means of a welding procedure test). This especially applies
to high-strength (quenched and tempered) fine grain
structural steels.
2.
Unless specific tolerances are stated in the various
section of Sections 12 to 16 or in the manufacturing
documents, the dimensional tolerances for welded structures
shall be as specified in the standards, e.g. EN ISO 13920
and for welded joints conforming to EN 25817/ISO 5817
or EN 30042/ISO 10042, (see Appendixes 6 and 7). The
degree of fineness and the evaluation category shall be
stipulated in the manufacturing documents. The Society
may specify other (tighter) tolerances where this is necessary
for reasons of strength and/or operational safety.

G.

Post-Weld Treatment of Welds

1.
If it is intended to carry out post-weld treatment of
the welds, e.g. to improve the surface finish in the case of
dynamic loading, such treatment shall not impair the
characteristics (mechanical properties) of the welded joints.
The Society may demand documentary proof thereof.
2.
For post-weld heat treatment, see Section 9; for the
post-treatment of surfaces for non-destructive testing, see
Section 10, F.1.