Bad chinese A325 Bolts

[CTSeng]

The following is an email that was forwarded to me recently. Wondering if others have had similar experience.

From: S.E. LLC. [mailto:ajones566@charter.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 9:24 AM
To: Undisclosed Recipients
Subject: Fw: 1.6: Quality Control Alert for A325 bolts



Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 6:15 PM
Subject: FW: 1.6: Quality Control Alert for A325 bolts

FYI


Subject: FW: 1.6: Quality Control Alert for A325 bolts

Good Day Everyone! I belive this may be in the best intrest of any company that deals with Structural Steel.
This warning is in regard to A325 bolts which are normally used for structural steel connections.

It was forwarded to me from a colleague of mine in Nevada and originated from an engineer with Exxon Mobil.

I recommend visually inspecting bolts used on your projects.
The bolts were manufactured in China.

They are also sold by local suppliers.

This is reminiscent of the flawed/fraudulent B-7 stud bolts from China some 15 years ago.

These were going in our new unit 3 Absorber Stair tower.

Approx. 30 out of 100 sheared when torque was applied.

The 2 in the photo were taken out of the new box.

The “A325-” bolts were furnished by a China supplier.
The bolts came in a shipment of structural steel fabricated in China.

They were supplied by XXXXXXXXXXXX the designed/supplier of the system).

The head stamp on the bolt looks like an L with a z nested inside of it (refer to picture).

In addition to the linear defects, the heads appear to have been welded poorly to the threaded portion.

Please forward this to anyone else you think would benefit from the information. and please contact our supplier!

 

[jike]

We had a similar problem 15 or 20 years ago with counterfit bolts. We began specifying only domestically produced bolts and haven't had a problem since. Demand to see the paperwork from the supplier or have them independently certified as meeting A325 specs.