Welder Qualification

WHY AND WHEN WELDER QUALIFICATIONS AND WELDING PROCEDURE APPROVALS REQUIRED?
One of the essential safety requirements of the European Pressure Equipment Directive (97/23/EC) demands that for pressure equipment, permanent joining of components (Welding) that contribute to the pressure resistance of equipment and components which are directly attached to them must be carried out by QUALIFIED PERSONNEL ACCORDING TO SUITABLE OPERATING PROCEDURES.

ICLCL is providing services for these approvals as per EN 287-1 and ASME IX standards.The above requirement of PED calls for need of Approval of Welders Qualifications and Welding Methods and processes.

Welding is the most common method used for joining steel fabrications largely because of the speed at which joints can be made and the reliability and strength of these joints in service. However because most welding operations are now relatively simple to perform it is all too easy to forget the complexity of the chemical and metallurgical actions that are taking place when the weld is being deposited. Therefore not surprisingly welds can occasionally fail.

WHICH PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES REQUIRE APPROVALS FOR WELDERS QUALIFICATIONS AND WELDING PROCEDURES?
Welding activities which include safety critical welds are: • Work with pressure vessels • Work where safety and strength are critical factors • Work where equipment is subject to stresses and failure could cause injury • Work where equipment requires mechanical lifting • Load bearing structures

WELDING PROCEDURE SPECIFICATIONS
The design of the welding procedure for any critical weld (i.e. the way in which the weld is to be made) should be carried out by a person competent to do so. The output from the design of the welding procedure is a document which specifies the following requirements: i) A sketch of each type of welded joint involved, showing the geometry and thicknesses of the parts to be joined, the weld preparations required and the number and size of weld runs required ii) Parent material type iii) The welding process to be used iv) The welding position in which the weld is to be made v) The type and size of welding consumables to be used at the various stages of completing the weld. vi) The welding conditions, e.g. for arc welding current, arc voltage, travel speed, and any preheat requirements, for other types of welding the relevant controlling parameters. vii) Any surface preparation required before welding is carried out. viii) Any special requirements for storage of welding consumables prior to use.

This sample shall be tested which may include some or all of the following:i) Either non destructive testing or production of a macrosection to demonstrate soundness of the joint and freedom from defects ii) Hardness of the weld metal and the heat affected zone iii) Cross weld tensile tests for butt welds iv) Face, root or side bend tests v) V notch impact tests
The tests results shall be recorded.

ROAD MAP FOR WELDER QUALIFICATION AND WELDING PROCESS APPROVALS
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