Arizona pipeline stacker bracket failure

Tom's insurance-adjuster consulting case. Carbon steel weld on a special bracket on a pipe-stacker forklift failed without I-beam deformation — Tom diagnosed defective welds from a single photograph using the Lincoln Electric reference: properly made fillet weld in mild steel will outpull the metal.

I've seen a picture of it. They were stacking pipe for a new pipeline out in Arizona, and this stacker, which is like a great big forklift that can carry five or six lengths of 40-foot-long pipe — weighs tons, just a huge forklift — well, it broke. They had built a special bracket, just a carbon steel weld. When I looked, there was no deformation of the I-beam. They didn't bend before the weld broke. All I had was a picture — kind of like from here to the back of the room — of the failure of these things that are this size. I called up the insurance adjuster and said, defective welds. He said, how can you tell? I said, the base metal didn't bend before the weld broke. I have a book by Lincoln Electric that's been around for 50 years that says, for mild steel, a properly made fillet weld will outpull the metal for any direction or magnitude of load. Mild steel — not HY80, but most steel weld is mild steel.