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WELDING A brief introduction to stud welding.
DONE WELL
BY DUKE PERRY
STUD WELDING meets a broad variety of fabrication and
construction requirements—and is particularly useful with
composite beams and girders in buildings and composite gird-
ers in bridges.
Compared to other composite anchorage methods, it can
be faster, easier and stronger, and can involve a lower installed
cost. But how does it work? Following is a brief description
of the process and equipment necessary for a successful stud
welding job.
Components
Let’s start with stud welding equipment, which is composed
of a few key pieces:
1) A power source to generate the welding energy.
2) The weld tool (gun) that is used to automatically strike
the welding arc and hold the fastener during the welding
process.
Shear studs on embedded plates.
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3) The stud and the ceramic arc shield (ferrule) themselves.
4) Accessories that are suited to the particular welding
application.
5) While none of these components appear complex, like Setup
any system they require the proper set-up, use and Critical in the stud welding process is equipment setup. In
maintenance to ensure proper welding and maximum fact, improper setup causes 90% of all issues with successful
job uptime. (For example, cables that run between the stud welding.
power source and the weld tool. The cables can become First, one must have the proper accessories. These are the
a critical component if they are undersized or if a user components for the stud weld gun that accommodate the par-
attempts to put too much cable onto a power supply that ticular stud being welded. This includes a chuck to hold the
cannot handle the cable load.) stud and legs and feet to hold the ferrule.
Once the proper accessories are selected, there are three
critical adjustments that must be made. The first is the lift. Lift
Duke Perry (dukeperry@ is how far the gun “lifts” the weld stud off of the work piece;
[Link]) is this is similar to striking an arc with a stick welder. This lift
a general manager with distance controls the arc length of the welding arc, and the arc
Bluearc Stud Welding length correlates directly with the weld voltage and has a direct
([Link]). impact on the amount of weld energy poured into a weld.
The second adjustment is determining the proper plunge
depth. The stud will protrude beyond the ferrule a given dis-
tance. This distance is referred to as “plunge” and is the dis-
tance that the tool will try to plunge the stud into the molten
weld puddle.
Third is ferrule alignment. The ferrule must be centered on
the stud being welded. Proper centering prevents improper lift
and/or improper plunge, which can cause a bad weld.
JULY 2014
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Shear stud thru deck and typical stud gun.
Process
The stud welding process is similar to the stick welding
process in that the electrode is melted using a constant-cur-
rent power source. However, unlike stick welding, stud weld-
ing is automated and does not demand the same level of weld-
ing skill.
Here’s how it works: The operator loads a stud and a ce-
ramic shield into the welding tool; the ceramic shield serves
to contain the molten pool of steel during the welding process.
The stud, like the stick, is the electrode in this welding process.
The stick process is a continuous process; therefore, the
stick is entirely covered with flux to support this continuous
welding process. Stud welding is a single-shot process, so it
only contains a single ball of flux loaded by the manufacturer
into the weld end of the stud.
The operator places the stud tip against the work piece
and presses the gun downward compressing the plunge spring.
This moves the stud rearward and the result is that both the
stud and the ferrule are flush with the work surface.
The operator then presses the trigger. The power supply
then activates the internal mechanism in the gun to create
the lifting action initiating an arc. Once the arc is established,
the power supply provides the necessary weld current to suffi-
ciently melt the stud and the base material. The power supply
maintains this arc for the appropriate duration (typically less
than one second) and then plunges the stud into the molten
pool of steel created by the arc. The ceramic shield (ferrule)
molds the molten pool of steel until the steel cools, and then
the ceramic shield is broken and discarded. This automatic
process means that the welding of fasteners is extremely fast.
Once the ferrule is discarded, the result is a full cross-sec-
tional weld. Although it is permissible as an alternative to weld
shear studs with a fillet weld around the perimeter of the stud,
the welding described here is usually more practical.
Fasteners
Because the weld produced by the stud welding process of-
fers high structural integrity, excellent productivity and other
benefits, many different styles of fasteners have been designed
to tackle different demanding applications. Here are some of
the most common: Shear stud welding accessories.
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Shear stud. The shear stud is probably the most com- A bridge girder with 7⁄8 shear studs.
monly used stud in construction by volume. This headed stud
is well-known and is widely used in composite beam construc-
tion. The headed stud is also commonly used in embed plates
for concrete core walls, concrete tilt-up wall construction or
in earth retaining wall applications.
Deformed bar anchor. Deformed bar anchors (DBAs) are
used to provide anchorage with surrounding concrete. Unlike
conventional deformed bar (rebar) DBAs are weldable using
the stud weld process. This means anchorage can be welded
quickly and reliably into a wide variety of spaces and surfaces.
Threaded studs. Threaded studs also have their place in
construction and fabrication and have been used in window
retention, drop ceilings, wire way routings and many other
applications. ■
Modern STEEL CONSTRUCTION