Welding calculators: heat input to WPS

Intro

This video walks through the welding section of BenchMaths: six calculators that take you from heat input to a finished WPS.

Heat input

Open Welding in the main menu. The first tab is heat input. Choose the process, then enter voltage, current and travel speed. Heat input and arc energy follow EN ISO 1011-1, with the thermal efficiency factor of the process. Open Formula and source to see exactly how it is calculated.

Preheat

Next, preheat. Choose the steel grade, for example S690QL, the plate thickness and the hydrogen class of the filler. The heat input can be taken over from the previous tab with one click. The minimum preheat follows EN 1011-2, Annex C, and the table shows it for other thicknesses too.

Filler metal and gas

In Filler and gas, choose the two parent metals and the process. You get the matching filler metal in AWS and EN ISO terms, the shielding gas, and the reasons behind the choice. Dissimilar joints work the same way. Steel to stainless 304, for example, gives a 309 type filler.

Consumables

Consumables calculates the weld metal for a given seam. Choose the joint type, the throat thickness and the seam length. You get the filler metal needed in kilograms, the arc time and the shielding gas. The process values are typical, so adjust them to your own shop.

Heat input check

The heat input check compares your welding parameters, run by run, with the range allowed for the material. Here, a 20 millimetre S690QL butt weld. The gauge shows whether the heat input is too low, in range, or too high, and the table lists every run with its heat input and cooling time t8/5.

WPS

Finally, the WPS. It is built step by step, following EN ISO 15609-1. Fields marked with a star are required. Values from the other tabs are filled in as suggestions: parent metals, filler, gas and preheat. Check them, complete what is missing, and move on with Next. In the weld runs step, enter current and voltage for each run. Heat input is calculated for every run. Last, enter who prepared and who approved the WPS. On the right you always see which required fields are still missing. When everything is complete, create the WPS as a PDF.

Try it

That's the welding section. Try it for free at benchmaths.com.