[TheForge] Welding Liberty Ships

[xlch58 at swbell.net]

I have heard this repeated before, but the engineering texts that I have 
read case studies in did not mention it.  If anything, poor technique 
was cited more often for rivet failures.    The American Welding Society 
tell it different too:

 <http://www.aws.org/about/blockbuster.html>

Here is the relevant excerpt:

"During this period of assimilation, eight Liberty ships were lost due 
to a problem called brittle fracture. At first, many blamed welding, but 
history would soon prove that the real cause of brittle fracture was 
steels that were notch sensitive at operating temperatures. The steel 
was found to have high sulfur and phosphorus contents. Another cause was 
design-related discontinuities, such as hatch openings, vents and other 
interruptions in the structure. By far the highest incidence of fracture 
occurred under a combination of low air temperature and heavy seas."


Charles

Ron Childers wrote:

>The welders were paid by the number of rods they burned. When the ships
>broke apart the inspectors found that the rods were just thrown into the
>keel and welded over. This practice consumed large quantities of rods, but
>resulted in very poor welds.
>
>Ron C
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
>[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of David E. Smucker
>Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 8:19 PM
>To: Sponsored by ABANA
>Subject: Re: [TheForge] Welding advice -- Now Heavy Welds
>
>Chuck / James -- this all make sense -- the use of riveted structures for 
>ships -- As almost all heavy industrial structural steel was still using 
>riveted design well into the 1950's.  (I know that based on older mill 
>building in the company I worked for being riveted construction.)  In fact 
>if I remember this correctly some of the first welded ship construction was 
>the "Liberty" Ships built during WWII and a number of these ended up with 
>stress cracking failures while at sea.
>
>  
>