[Edition 1, Volume 1]

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO

WELDING DEFECTS
AND DISLOCATIONS AND
THE EFFECTS ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE

OPINION PIECE ESSAY

Christina Pickett

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Welding has many

advantages along with
disadvantages. Even with
welding having its
disadvantages, our world as we
know it today would not
function the way it does. If you
go to a park you can see the
welds that hold the entire jungle
gym together. Walking on
campus and looking at the new
fences, rails and even the light
fixtures you can see that the
welds are the foundation that
hold these objects together. This
is why knowing what is good
and what is bad about welds, as
well as advocating for honesty,
integrity, and skill among all
welders is important to pursue
onto others. After going into
detailed research, interview, and
from my own personal
experiences, I have learned that
the defects and discontinuities
from welds should not be taken
lightly and are of great
importance to share with, not
only welders and metallurgists,
but with the general public as
well. The research was
originally inspired by wanting
to improve myself as a welder.
The more one knows about a

particular topic, in this case

defects and discontinuities, the
more the negative effects can be
prevented. Most of the time, not
always, but defects and
discontinuities among welds
occur because of improper
welding techniques. Welding
does take many years of practice
and patience. Welding is easy to
learn but difficult to master.

accumulate these skills and be

Improper welding
techniques can lead to defects
because if a weld is not
performed at the right angle or
the right settings are not set,
contamination can enter the
weld because the weld was not
properly protected. In the Weld
Guru the topic of contamination
caused by improper welding
techniques is discussed.
Improper techniques could also
include not properly preparing
the base metal material and or
the welding machine. If the base
metal material, the electrode, or
the filler rod is not properly
cleaned, this can cause
contamination into the weld.

the improvement and or

Techniques such as this are

important to know as welders. It
does take time and patience to

able to perform them properly.

As a welder myself there is a lot
that I need to learn. Studying the
metallurgy behind welding and
the damage that it causes to the
microstructure can improve my
skills immensely. In the future I
hope to serve as a contributor to
development of new welding
technologies to help eliminate
damage to the microstructure
and chemical makeup of metal
materials.

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Christina Pickett
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