E7018 electrode: 70,000 psi minimum tensile strength, all-position, with an iron-powder, low-hydrogen coating that runs on DCEP or AC. It gives tough, crack-resistant welds and smooth beads, so it is the default for structural steel, pressure vessels and pipe fill and cap passes. Its coating absorbs moisture, so open stock lives in a rod oven, typically around 250 to 300 °F, and exposure time outside is limited.
Fill and cap with 7018 out of the oven, anything sitting out more than four hours goes back for rebake.
Snap or scratch the glassy tip off a used 7018 before restriking it, or the first inch of the restart is full of porosity.
Also heard as
- seventy-eighteen
- low hydrogen rod
- lo-hi
- low-hy
Related terms
Rod
Shop word for a stick welding electrode, as in burning rod or a box of 7018 rod.
6010
A deep-digging cellulosic stick rod run on DCEP, the classic choice for open-root pipe passes.
Hydrogen cracking
Delayed cracking in steel welds caused by hydrogen, hard microstructure and stress acting together.
SMAW
Shielded metal arc welding: arc welding with a flux-coated consumable electrode, known in the shop as stick.
Filler metal
The rod, wire, strip or electrode metal melted into a joint to build up a weld or braze.