I am currently locked in a dispute with a manufacturer of long range tanks about the quality of the welding/fabrication on a tank I purchased.
I have photos of the welding and have shown them to the company who stalled and stalled, then offered a refund. I said I wanted a tank welded properly, not a refund.
The tank is pressure tested before leaving, and is leak free. My concern is longevity over corrugations and just the general shit my ute sees that results in worm drive hose clamps coming loose all the ShortyIQ time
So my argument is, the welding is
A messy.
B cold
C too fast
D going to crack
keep in mind the tank is made from 2.5mm plate, so should be plenty to weld to.
I can show this to my engineer and see what he has to say, but I would like to sort this without going to that extreme, and I respect alot of the guys on here who are great with the welder.
I dont expect the tank to be Tig'd to perfection, mig is fine, but professional shouldnt be too much to ask
I will include the email I sent, with links to the photos, if not the page will be too massive if I [img] all the photos.
And their less than satisfactory response.OK, I took some photos.
I have taken the time to write my issue with the welds with each link I have attached, please take the time to have a look at them and tell me your thoughts. At this stage I am not happy to put the tank in the vehicle as I do not trust this welding to hold 200KG for a long time over a lot of corrugation and shitty roads and rough terrain.
this photo shows the weld is very fast along the angle mount, and the speed control is poor. you can also see the weld holding the flat plate to the side of the tank has absolutely no penetration to the tank.
The other thing I want to mention here is the use of a continual weld all the way around the mounting angle to the flat plate, as far as my knowledge goes, this is a bad idea for a load bearing mount, as if a crack starts, it just keeps running, whereas if this was stitched, and one weld cracked, it would not create an issue. please explain?
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... f.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Again too fast and little penetration to the tank
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... f.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
this is ugly in several ways and maybe you can explain what has happened?
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... e.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
again too fast which equals not enough heat, the shape of the weld with the arrow like bead formation and high ridged form shows this
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... f.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is just ugly, can you explain what this is? It truly looks terrible and unprofessional
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... d.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... 5.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... 4.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
You can see these welds joining flat plate to the side of the tank are cold and fast with little penetration,
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... 9.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... 0.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... 2.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
this one is especially terrible seeings as it is used to hold the weight of the tank.
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... 6.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
you can see the height of this weld and how little penetration it has, very concerning.
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... d.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
just bad
http://s29.photobucket.com/user/arowlan ... 4.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Cheers, Andy
now that was months ago, and nothing has really come of it yet,
Sorry Andy,
The guy who runs factory was away Friday, and since its been out of my mind.
I spoke to them today and we looked at pics.
1
The secondary plates are stitch welded onto the tank and then the mount is welded to them. We only have these on the heavier tanks (larger capacity) it allows a small amount of flex from chassis thru mount to tank sidewall.
It dissipates these stresses.
The mount does not directly contact tank, so long term leaks around the mounts dont happen.
2
The tanks are pressure tested at low and hi pressure after welding. Any leaks are then 'weld-off'.
When those leaks occur in the internal corners, there is no way to gring them down and weld again, just have to weld over the top.
I can see that it looks quite ugly, but there is no loss of strength there.... it was probably a piece of slag that released, creating a slow leak. The slow ones are the ones that take some effort to stop.
If you have any further concerns, please email.
BTW, factory guys start at 5am and finish around 11-11.30am, so I have to get them early, otherwise they are gone.
regards
so, to me,
whether the mount directly contacts the tank or not, continually welding it still makes it more likely to crank and fall off with 180L of fuel in it, and poor welding
welding over slag is a big no no. to grind it out, I cant see why you cant use a die grinder? I am a chippy and that's what I would have done??
and also, if you are patching a leak, with the right penetration, it should be sealed on the first pass, am I wrong?
anyone with any input would be great. I am happy to be corrected, or have some professional input.
Cheers guys!
Andy