×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Brinell hardness reliability

Brinell hardness reliability

Brinell hardness reliability

(OP)
Are Brinell hardness values concrete proof that a weld joint is mechinally safe after PWHT. For example P1 to P5A material using E9018-B3 with a hardness of 138 parent material,165 HAZ, 207 weld material, 135 HAZ, and 131 parent material. Are these hardness values for this type of joint acceptable?

RE: Brinell hardness reliability

ryanethan;
Portable hardness testing can be used as a process control check, nothing more. If the hardness test results are within an acceptable range for the service duty of the component (or based on client's specification requirements) along with other process checks (review of PWHT temp range and time charts, etc), the hardness would verify PWHT was performed.

Mechnically safe???? You have more than just PWHT requirements and hardness to deal with, you can have NDT requirements, which are equally as important regarding performance of a weld joint in service.

The hardness you mention are acceptable to what I would expect for the given dissimilar weld joint welded with E9018 B3.
 

RE: Brinell hardness reliability

(OP)
The dissimilar weld in question deals with B31.1 and is piping on the external of a boiler with MAWP 2500psi @354 degrees celcius.

RE: Brinell hardness reliability

The hardness values obtained are not atypical for the joint described after PWHT. The P5A material appears to have been in the annealed condition. What was the temperature and hold time of the PWHT?  

RE: Brinell hardness reliability

Did you or some other knowledgeable person review the hardness test procedure?  Technique, bar hardness, and reporting are all critical features of the process.

RE: Brinell hardness reliability

I find the hammer blow Poldi technique quite accurate if you can see the indentation and know what you are doing, I know some companies who struggle to get consistent readings with top of the range portable hardness testers.

I think if the reading varies 1/10 times on a calibration block it is not calibrated.  Our electronic one doesn't have that , especially on a rougher surface.

All that is slightly off topic but answer is given, no way is brinell hardness concrete proof. Just more information to be used in your evaluation.

Not all specs even call for a hardness check PWHT?
 

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources