Get a tailored quotation for pressure vessel heads, stainless spheres, or firepit bowls. Our engineers review your drawings, materials, standards, and quantities to provide accurate pricing and delivery options.
Get a tailored quotation for pressure vessel heads, stainless spheres, or firepit bowls. Our engineers review your drawings, materials, standards, and quantities to provide accurate pricing and delivery options.
Oil on my shirt. Shouting in the welding bay. That’s how I met the “straight face” of a dish end.
Carl—the chain-smoking fabricator who’d already saved my career twice—jammed a grease-stained finger at a cracked weld. “See that gap? No straight face. Rookie mistake.” He didn’t say my rookie mistake. But his eyes did.
Picture a soda can. Now imagine cutting off the very top rim—the flat part where the tab attaches. That little straight section? That’s the straight face. On pressure vessel dish ends, it’s the short, cylindrical “skirt” between the curved head and the main tank shell.
Not glamorous. Not curved. Just… straight. Exactly.
It’s a peace treaty between metal and physics. Without it: Welders can’t reach the joint properly Stress concentrates at the curve’s edge like angry hornets Cracks spread faster than gossip in a break room
I learned this when a $200k reactor head failed during testing. The weld split clean open. Steam hissed. Safety alarms screamed. All because some designer (not naming names) skimped on the straight face to “save material.”
Don’t Mix Them Up. Here’s where beginners trip. A flat head is just a metal plate welded flat across the tank. Weak. Dangerous under pressure. A straight face? It’s part of a curved head. Like training wheels on a motorcycle—temporary support where chaos happens.
Carl made me sketch it on a napkin during a coffee break:
Curved dish (the fancy pressure-handling part) Straight face (the no-nonsense 1-2 inch cylinder) Weld groove (where the real magic—or disaster—happens) “No straight face?” he growled. “You’re asking for a divorce between that head and your tank.”
The Midnight Phone Call That Changed Everything 3 a.m. My phone buzzed like an angry wasp. “Tank’s leaking at the head weld,” said a voice I recognized—Raj, the site supervisor. “No straight face on these torispherical heads. Just… curve straight into weld.”
I drove through fog to the plant. Watched welders grind out cracked seams. Smelled burnt metal and frustration. The repair? $37,000 and three lost production days. All because a CAD model looked “cleaner” without that straight section.
Carl’s 10-Second Rule Before ordering any dish end, Carl taught me this: “If you can’t fit your pinky finger between the curve and the weld prep, walk away.”
That’s the straight face. Your pinky’s width. Your welder’s sanity. Your client’s budget.
Demand the drawing – Circle the straight face length. If it’s zero, scream. Ask the welder – Not the designer. The guy with the torch. “Can you actually reach this?” Check standards – ASME VIII says minimum 1.5 inches for tanks over 24” diameter. No excuses. I keep a bent spoon in my desk drawer now. When designers argue about “aesthetics,” I slam it on the table: “This spoon cracked because someone ignored the straight face. You wanna be next?”
Your Welder Is Begging You That straight face isn’t extra metal. It’s extra time. Time for welds to cool slowly. Time for stress to chill out. Time for your project to survive past Tuesday.
Zoom in. Find that straight section. Measure it twice. Then buy your welder a coffee. Black. No sugar. They’ll need it when your* design lands on their bench.
Go check your prints. Carl’s watching. I can feel him.
