Best Practices in Product Quality Assurance and Control

of Structural Bearings & Expansion Joints

Pratik Sen
8th & 9th March / ING-IABSE Workshop / Guwahati
Flow of presentation

1 Quality Control & Certification

2 QA/QC Stages in Production process

3 Best practices – Bearings and Expansion joints

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 2

Flow of presentation

1 Quality Control & Certification

2 QA/QC Stages in Production process

3 Best practices – Bearings and Expansion joints

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 3

How can one judge the QUALITY of a product?

The quality of a product

• Cannot be ascertained over few specified days of product inspection
• Cannot be governed by the strictest of QAPs
• Cannot be verified with adherence to codal provisions

It can only be ensured by the manufacturer and their in-house practices.

Quality should be in the genes of the organization and the people
responsible for it should be the torchbearers. It is more of a habit and less
as a task/guideline.

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 4

Ingredients to ensure quality of a product

Manpower:
• Certified in-house welders
• Certified in-house Inspectors
Resource • Certified in-house sprayers
Manpower
Resource:
• Management Policy
• Plant & Machinery
Certifications
& Audit • Defined processes

Certifications & Audit:

• ISO 9001 & 14001
• CE Certification
• EN 1090 & ISO 3834-2
• AISC
• CWB / CSWIP / AWS
Quality of a Product
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 5
Flow of presentation

1 Quality Control & Certification

2 QA/QC Stages in Production process

3 Best practices – Bearings and Expansion joints

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 6

QA/QC stages in Production process

Shop floor drawings and • Establishing ITP/QAP and necessary circulation

ITP/QAP • Compliance to project specific requirements

Raw material • Preparation of raw material summary and

procurement and In- necessary sourcing
process checks • Establish traceability and in-process checks

• Checking the finish product as per approved

Final in-house checks drawing and project specification
and External inspection • Offer the finished product for External inspection

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 7

Approved QAP/ITP
Defines the Type
/ Frequency of
check

Extent / Scope if
inspection of
stakeholders is
clearly defined

Type of record
and its
acceptance
criteria is clearly
mentioned

Approval of all
stakeholders as
per contract
guidelines

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 8

Shop floor drawing in compliance to specification

Detailed shop floor drawings are prepared in line with project and codal
material specification
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 9
In process quality control

Checking after each stage of production

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 10
In-house check on finished product

Final checking is done by a QA/QC representative not linked to the same

factory shop floor
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 11
External Inspection

Representatives visit us from across the world

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 12
Flow of presentation

1 Quality Control & Certification

2 QA/QC Stages in Production process

3 Best practices – Bearings and Expansion joints

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 13

Stages of QA/QC

Procurement Traceability

Cutting & Machining

Welding
QA/QC
Fabrication
Best Corrosion Protection
Practices
Assembly & in-process

Special Measures
Finished stage
Design life
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 14
Traceability

Colour code assigned to each procurement lot

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 15
Traceability

Manufacturer
details

GRN details

Comparing
material and
project
specification

Joint
sampling /
witnessing of
all
stakeholders

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 16

Cutting & Machining – Plasma Cutting

Cuts carbon steel upto 10 times faster than normal oxy-fuel cutting, hence
improving productivity
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 17
Cutting & Machining – CNC Cutting

Tolerance of ±0.1mm
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 18
Cutting and machining - Burnishing

Smoothness achieved Rz6

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 19
Cutting & Machining - Chamfering

A chamfer is a transitional edge between two faces of

an object. A form of beveled edge created at 45° angle
to two adjoining right angles.

Where are chamfers used:

• Poured in place concrete work

• Furniture

• Glass edges

• Mechanical & Manufacturing engineering

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 20

Cutting & Machining - Chamfering

For metal plates, providing chamfer relieves sharp burrs, scale and slag
deposits. Ensures proper coating of corrosion protection
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 21
Cutting & Machining - Sandering

The contact surfaces of a bearing are sandered (smoothened)

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 22
Welding – Full penetration Butt weld on lamella beams

The joint is also UT Tested after the welding process

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 23
Welding – Stud welding

Process 783 as per ISO 14555, Drawn arc welding

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 24
Welding – Stainless steel

GTAW (TIG) Process – Welding of Alloy steel to carbon steel

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 25
Welding – Stainless steel

The weldzone is provided with an additional strip of corrosion protection

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 26
Corrosion protection – Grit Blasting

Automated, airless chamber; Surface achieved: SA2½ or SA3

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 27
Corrosion protection – Grit Blasting

Automated Grit Blasting chamber for preparation of steel laminates of

Elastomeric bearings
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 28
Corrosion protection - Metallizing

Need to protect surfaces from the degradative actions of nature

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 29
Corrosion protection - Metallizing

Controlled Zinc spray Metallizing chamber

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 30
Corrosion protection - Metallizing

Test for Metallizing surface coat

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 31
Assembly & In-process – UHMWPE Fixation

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 32

Assembly & In-process – UHMWPE Fixation

x
y

UHMWPE cooled to -40°C, tightly fits into the recess on attaining ambient
temperature
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 33
Assembly & In-process – HSFG bolts and Torque tightening

The bolts are tightened to a shank tension so that the transverse load across the joint is
resisted by the friction between the plated zone rather than the bolt shank’s shear strength
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 34
Special Measures – Sphericity of a Spherical bearing

Spherometer - Used to measure the Concave and Convex curvatures in

Spherical bearings
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 35
Special Measures – Tilting Gap

Tilting Gap – Total gap in between the top and bottom surfaces to check for
height ensured for design rotation
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 36
Special Measures – 100% compressive load test for EB

100% of the Elastomeric bearing production lot is tested for 100% Compressive
load internally
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 37
Special Measures - Testing & Inspection of EB

Rebound Resilience Test Machine and Moving Dye Rheometer to check

properties of elastomeric compound mageba | 09.03.2019| page 38
Special Measures - Testing & Inspection of EB

Dynamic testing machine for regular verification of properties of

elastomeric compounds as per ISO: 4664.
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 39
Design life of Elastomeric bearings

“…..design life of Elastomeric bearings shall be more than 50 years……”

Why determination of life-time of Elastomer required?

• Most commonly and widely used bridge bearings are elastomeric bearings
• All steel laminates are covered with elastomer. Steel laminates will only get affected if the
elastomer degrades.
• Hence, fairly accurate estimate of lifetime of elastomeric bearings can be done, if the lifetime
of the elastomers has been determined.

Are there any international codal references for estimating service life ?
Yes, EN 15129 does talk about ageing test conditions equivalent to 60 years and interpretation
based on Arrhenius Law.

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 40

Arrhenius Equation

The rate of a chemical reaction normally

increases with increase in temperature. By
exposing test pieces to a series of elevated
temperatures, the relation between the
reaction rate of degradative mechanisms
and temperature can be deduced.
Estimates can then be made by
extrapolation of the degree of
degradation after a given time at a given
temperature or the time at a given
temperature to reach a given degree of
degradation.
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 41
Degradative property & Threshold value

Loss of elongation – degradative property at threshold value of 50% loss

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 42
Plot of % loss of elongation w.r.t. original value of ageing time

Temp. (°C) Temp(K) (1/T)X100000 Lifetime (hrs) age (years)

140 413 242.13 18 0.0021

120 393 254.45 55 0.0063

100 373 268.09 401 0.0458

This chart has again been plotted with lifetime in hours in logarithmic scale along Y axis and
100000 X inverse of absolute temperature corresponding to °C along X axis in linear scale
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 43
Arrhenius Plot

mageba | 09.03.2019| page 44

Design life of Elastomeric bearings for average exposure
temperature

Temp. (°C) Temp(K) (1/T)X100000 Life-time (H) Lifetime (years)

32.5 305.5 327.33 461417.8 53

30 303 330.03 639589.1 73
27.5 300.5 332.78 891389.1 102

25 298 335.57 1249259 143

20 293 341.30 2496474 285

15 288 347.22 5110245 583

For an average exposure temperature of 27.5°C the design life of Elastomer can
be estimated to be 101 years
mageba | 09.03.2019| page 45
Thank you for your attention
WeTransfer link: https://we.tl/t-U3wYB76bdb
engineering connections®

Pratik Sen
We are what we repeatedly do Sr. Project Manger
mageba Bridge Products Pvt. Ltd.

Excellence then, is not an act but a habit….

Tel: +91 33 2290 0250-53
Mob: +91 98 7403 3310
Email: psen@mageba.in