Okay over and over at the Geosynthetics 2015 conference I kept hearing the same statement: “I thought that was fake.”
This sample of nearly everything that can go wrong with an extrusion weld was actually removed (along with others) from an installation by an inexperienced contractor.
(CLICK IMAGE for larger view.)
Many people who were present for my technical paper on extrusion welds, as well as others who stopped by our booth on the trade show floor, thought the extrusion weld sample displayed at the conference (see photo) was mocked up by an experienced welder. INCORRECT!
I mean in reality, I wish that it had been a mocked up. It is sad that after three decades of work in this industry I still see welding like this on new installations. This sample was one of about a half dozen that our CQA crew had removed from an actual installation on a drill pad site!
One thing I left out in the story about this sample is that we were not allowed to take destructive samples on either the fusion welding or the extrusion welding performed on this site. Yikes!
Talk about scary…
