The Welding of Aluminium and Its Alloys

Book excerpt: The Welding of Aluminium and its Alloys is a practical user's guide to all aspects of welding aluminium and aluminium alloys. It provides a basic understanding of the metallurgical principles involved showing how alloys achieve their strength and how the process of welding can affect these properties. The book is intended to provide engineers with perhaps little prior understanding of metallurgy and only a brief acquaintance with the welding processes involved with a concise and effective reference to the subject.It is intended as a practical guide for the Welding Engineer and covers weldability of aluminium alloys; process descriptions, advantages, limitations, proposed weld parameters, health and safety issues; preparation for welding, quality assurance and quality control issues along with problem solving.The book includes sections on parent metal storage and preparation prior to welding. It describes the more frequently encountered processes and has recommendations on welding parameters that may be used as a starting point for the development of a viable welding procedure. Included in these chapters are hints and tips to avoid some of the pitfalls of welding these sometimes-problematic materials. The content is both descriptive and qualitative. The author has avoided the use of mathematical expressions to describe the effects of welding.This book is essential reading for welding engineers, production engineers, production managers, designers and shop-floor supervisors involved in the aluminium fabrication industry. - A practical user's guide by a respected expert to all aspects of welding of aluminium - Designed to be easily understood by the non-metallurgist whilst covering the most necessary metallurgical aspects - Demonstrates best practice in fabricating aluminium structures