Stitch Welding vs. Seam Welding | Vista Industrial Products, Inc. http://www.vista-industrial.

com/blog/stitch-welding-vs-seam-welding/

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Britney Blue (Payne)

Many engineers and welders find themselves confused with the difference between stitch welding and seam welding since
they are often used interchangeably, but there is a definite difference between the two types of welds. In the welding
fabrication world, it is important to distinguish the two because both welds are have different strength properties and are used
for different purposes. Below are photos of each type of weld and a description describing the two.

How to Call Out a Stitch Weld on a Drawing:

Stitch welds generally have two numbers next to the weld call out to represent the length of the stitch weld and the pitch of the
weld. The length is the length of the actual stitch weld. Whereas the pitch number is the distance between the centers of two
stitch welds. Below is an image from Delta School of Trade that clearly represents the weld call out and the numbers for an
intermittent weld.

Stitch Weld

Also known as intermittent weld. Stitch welding is not a continuous weld across a joint, but a weld broken up by space gaps in
between welds, which results in a “stitch” look. It is not as robust and durable as a seam weld. It is used to
and to also . There are two common types of
stitch welds, fillet weld and butt joint weld. A fillet weld is a triangular seam weld that joins two surfaces at right angles to each
other. Butt welds are generally in a lap joint, T-joint, or corner joint, which is most common amongst welding pipe or tubes to
another surface where two pieces of metal are positioned coplanar and touching on one edge. Below are two photos of stitch
fillet welds.

— Fillet stitch weld

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Stitch Welding vs. Seam Welding | Vista Industrial Products, Inc. http://www.vista-industrial.com/blog/stitch-welding-vs-seam-welding/

— Butt stitch weld

Seam Weld

Also known as continuous weld. Seam welding is a continuous weld along a joint. Seam welds can be in the form of a fillet
weld and a butt joint weld. Seam welding is robust and is more durable because of the amount of surface area that is joined by
a weld. There are two common types of continuous welds, fillet weld and butt joint weld. A fillet weld is a triangular seam weld
that joins two surfaces at right angles to each other. Butt welds are generally in a lap joint, T-joint, or corner joint. This is most
common amongst welding pipe or tubes to another surface. Below is an image of a fillet seam weld:

— Fillet Seam Weld

The other common seam weld is a butt joint weld. This is where two surfaces butt up against each other creating a single
plane surface. A seam butt joint weld is one of the most common types of welds. Below is a photo illustrating a continuous butt
joint weld:

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Stitch Welding vs. Seam Welding | Vista Industrial Products, Inc. http://www.vista-industrial.com/blog/stitch-welding-vs-seam-welding/

— Butt Joint Seam Weld

We hope this clears up any confusion between the two types of welds. Be sure to visit our welding sections of our website to
learn more about the different types of welding that we do in-house. If you are looking for a quality fabricator that specializes in
precision welding services and is AWS Certified, you’ve come to the right place. We also provide sheet metal fabrication and
CNC machining services! Contact us today and provide us with dimensional prints for a quote.

This entry was posted in Engineering, Engineering 101, MFG, Principles and tagged seam vs. stitch weld, seam welding,
stitch welding, stitch welding call out, welding services by Britney Blue (Payne). Bookmark the permalink
[http://www.vista-industrial.com/blog/stitch-welding-vs-seam-welding/] .

11 THOUGHTS ON “STITCH WELDING VS. SEAM WELDING”

TAHIR
on October 2, 2013 at 4:41 am said:

NICE

Suniti Kumar Singh

on October 22, 2013 at 9:31 am said:

Nice narration

slemon
on December 1, 2013 at 10:56 am said:

very nice if u have all sources u can do more better than this

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Stitch Welding vs. Seam Welding | Vista Industrial Products, Inc. http://www.vista-industrial.com/blog/stitch-welding-vs-seam-welding/

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Manoj Mandal
on December 29, 2015 at 7:08 am said:

very nice

Ana Acosta
on November 17, 2016 at 9:15 am said:

Thank you so much. I was confused because I thought “seam” was refering to
a type of joint. However, it’s very confusing when in naval construction
literature, autors talk about butt weld and seam weld since a seam weld can
have a butt type of joint.

sezerovic
on March 6, 2017 at 10:17 am said:

thank you for information. it would be better, if you added symbolic

representation of stitch welding on drawing.

Britney Blue (Payne)

on January 13, 2018 at 12:22 am said:

Thank you for your feedback. I will look into adding some symbols in the
near future.

logesh babu
on October 27, 2017 at 11:07 am said:

very nice

Mengyang Lv
on January 6, 2018 at 5:14 am said:

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Stitch Welding vs. Seam Welding | Vista Industrial Products, Inc. http://www.vista-industrial.com/blog/stitch-welding-vs-seam-welding/

You’ve really helped me a lot！

Suresh Suresh
on March 19, 2018 at 4:43 pm said:

Stitch weld pt test need or not

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