Welding — Arc-welded joints in aluminium and its alloys — Quality levels for imperfections

This document specifies quality levels for imperfections in arc-welded joints in aluminium and its alloys. It applies to material thicknesses above 0,5 mm.

Three quality levels are given in order to permit application to a wide range of welded constructions. They are designated by symbols B, C and D. Quality level B corresponds to the highest requirement on the finished weld. The quality levels refer to production quality and not to the fitness for purpose (see 3.2) of the product manufactured.

This document is applicable all types of weld (e.g. butt welds, fillet welds and branch connections), to, manual, mechanized and automatic welding, and to all welding positions.

It is applicable to the following welding processes:

- metal inert gas welding (MIG welding); gas metal arc welding /USA;

- tungsten inert gas welding (TIG welding); gas tungsten arc welding /USA;

- plasma arc welding.

It is not applicable to metallurgical aspects (e.g. grain size, hardness).