I have a question concerning ethics and liability plus I guess I just want vindication on an issue similar to the one just posted about lifting lugs.
We received a large compressor roughly #27,000 assembled. There are 4 lifting lugs for handling 2ea welded to each end.
The lugs are 3” round bar with a flange welded on the ends. The ends welded to the case was beveled roughly ¾” @ 45’ for weld.
Apparently the customer had found cracks or other flaws in the factory welds and had done some NDE and excavation. There was ¾” Fillet weld on top of the bevel weld and customer had ground it all away. All the welds had been ground on and some down below the surface better than ¼” inch with cracks still visible at the bottom of the groove.
The instructions given to me was to continue excavating the cracks until they were gone and then re-weld.
I refused to do as instructed unless an Engineer put in writing that we were to weld over old defective.
My feelings were that if we struck an Arc any where near them we would be responsible as well as liable should one of the lugs breaks off and allow the unit to drop.
I don’t know that for a fact but it seemed to be logical conclusion.
I feel the only way we could handle it was to completely remove them and all the old weld metal, re-prep them before welding them back in place.
I got a lot of blank stares and head shaking before they conceded to give the go ahead mainly because the know how hard headed I can be.
My question---- Is there a code covering this aspect? Seems to me AWS would have something in this area.
Was I just being hardheaded? I already know the answer to that, but was my assumption correct?