Trailer Design Guideline > Manufacturing
Weld quality
If the flanges of the longitudinal beam have to be welded (which is not recommended) in order to increase the length of the flange or beam, use a temporary sacrificial plate for critical weld starts and stops. The temporary plate can easily be re-moved by grinding after welding. See photo below.
Pay attention to the stops, which are placed on the sacrificial plate. This plate is then removed by grinding.
Grind the edge with a smooth grinding wheel and make sure that the direction of the grinding scratches is longitudinal to the loading direction, as in the illustration below. Another alternative is to design the weld joint at a 45-degree angle to the length of the flange in order to avoid a principal stress flow in the transverse direction of the weld.
Proper direction of the grinding scratches oriented longitudinal to the stress.
Welding with rutile cored wires has the tendency to create very smooth transitions between the weld metal and the base material. This property could be used in order to increase the fatigue performance of the weld, especially in critical areas like the landing gear attachment and the hanger bracket attachments.
To secure the weld quality, it is important to examine all welds. Defects that are especially detrimental for the fatigue performance of the trailer are surface-breaking weld defects such as:
- Undercuts
- Root defects
- Lack of fusion
- Cold laps
- All types of cracks
The information in this report is only applicable to SSAB’s products and should not be applied to any other products than original SSAB products.
This report provides general results and recommendations for SSAB steel products. This report is subject to SSAB’s Terms of Use. It shall be the user's responsibility to verify that the information contained herein is correct and is suitable to be used for the particular purpose and application of the user. The report is intended to be used by professional users only who possess adequate expertise, qualification and knowledge for the safe and correct use of the results and recommendations in this report. This report is provided “as is”. The use of the report is at user’s own discretion and risk and that users will be solely responsible for any use of this report. SSAB disclaims any liability for the content or potential errors of this report, including but not limited to warranties and condition of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or suitability for individual applications. SSAB shall not be liable for any kind of direct or indirect damages and/or costs related to or arising therefrom, whether special, incidental, consequential or directly or indirectly related to the use of, or the inability to use, the report or the content, information or results included therein.