Heat Tint Recognition Chart For Stainless Steel Welding

Oxidation colours have many different variations.

We have assembled a few here as guidelines.

1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f 1g
Pictures 1a to 1 g provided by Norsok for the Norsok Standard M-601 Welding and Inspection of Piping (Edition 5 April 2008) (Annex B).

Legend:
1a Excellent gas coverage (Norsok).
1b Acceptable gas protection (Norsok).
1c Acceptable providing that blue areas are intermittent (Norsok).
1d Acceptable providing brown areas close to the weld are narrow and light coloured (Norsok).
1e, 1f and 1g Poor back purge not acceptable.

2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f
12 ppm 60 - 70 ppm 70 - 90 ppm 200 ppm 250 ppm 500 ppm
Oxygen level Oxygen level Oxygen level Oxygen Oxygen Oxygen
unacceptable unacceptable unacceptable
2018: These are the results of HFT® research using Argweld® Weld Purge Monitors®.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 10
10 ppm 25 ppm 50 ppm 100 ppm 200 ppm 500 ppm 1,000 ppm 5,000 ppm 12,500 ppm 25,000
(0.01%) (0.02%) (0.05%) (0.1%) (0.5%) (1.25%) ppm (2.5%)

Heat Tint AWS-D18.2_1999 Guide for weld discolouration levels inside Austenitic Stainless Steel Tube

Oxidation colours need to be eliminated for most applications today.

Use a Weld Purge Monitor® to eliminate oxygen to prevent oxides from forming and save the additional
work load involved in removing the oxide film.
Use Argweld® PurgEye® Weld Purge Monitors® to detect oxygen levels down to 10 ppm to eliminate
oxidation, weld reject and potential weld failure.

Huntingdon Fusion Techniques HFT® with over 40 years of high integrity, totally ethical business practices.
The only innovators and developers of Weld Purging Products.
The owners of the Weld Purge Monitor® Registered Trade Mark.

For more information, please contact hft@huntingdonfusion.com Tint Chart 24-05-2018 ME