Welder Performance Cert record

Date 12-08-2009 23:28

jsdwelder
I have the information required on a sheet of Paper, It resembles the forms found in AWS D1.1 and D1.5. It specifies a wps, and everything else required in both codes.
That is all I give when hands come by to qualify. Generally I am Qualifying them for another company and that is who gets the Welder Qualification Report not the person doing the test.
The company then can take the WQR and the welder down to the city and register them with some dept and there they give a card.
Company personnel I Qualify for my boss don't get any paper to take home. It is maintained in personnel dept. I update the WQR in a Log.
But that is just my experience.
Marshall

By pipewelder_1999 (****)

Date 12-09-2009 13:56

For my students I just provide the WPQ record from Cspecs Weldoffice software. I have taken that same data and applied it to pocket cards however I indicate on the card that the entire record of performance qualification is on file with my company.

For most of my experience, the previous record of performance qualification means nothing. It takes less time to run a bead than it does to examine the validity of a record prepared by someone else.

Gerald Austin

By Ke1thk

Date 12-09-2009 17:03

I give the Welder Qualification form from each code, exactly. I've copied them onto Excell forms.

I've made a "certification" card, including photo, to satisfy a customer. I even had it laminated. It cost me almost as much to make the cards as it did to cut, grind, and bend their samples!!!

The card is almost meaningless (it says they had a good day welding) but there is a strong demand for them (they can show their family and friends). Satisfy your customers.

Good Luck,

Keith

By 803056

Date 12-09-2009 18:55 Edited 12-10-2009 03:02

I issue a report with their photograph to those that pass. If they fail, they get an invoice indicating they paid in full.

I used to issue cards when I started back in "81,” but it is a pain in the butt and takes more time than it is worth. My card folded in half and was laminated, but it had to be hand typed. With my typing skills it would entail two or three cards before I had one with no typos. I guess you could use a blank card stock and feed it through an inkjet printer, but it is not worth the time and effort it takes. Testing welders is a lost leader for me. It is so much so that I rarely test individuals on a one on one basis any longer. I would rather test for a company where I can do three or four welders in the same time as it takes to test one welder.

I hate to say it, but welders are amongst the cheapest bastards in the world. They want to spend a day on their test and they expect you to do it for a hundred dollars. I might as well watch a show on the television for that price. When I ask them what they charge for a day's work, they get their underwear in a bunch and say it is not a fair comparison. That is when I give them a listing of "competitors" that will give them a "discount.” The competitor's usually screw up the paperwork, so I test them again at the jobsite where I charge the owner and he can back charge the welder for my services. It is like to old Purolator Filter add; "You can pay me now or you can pay me later."

I just tested a pipe welder (about a month ago) that had three 6G pipe tests under his belt. It took a day and a half of practice to get him to the point where he could pass the fillet break test in the horizontal and vertical positions. Then a half day to take the tests and evaluate the sample. The contractor squealed like a baby pig at the price. I told him he could have stopped the practice and gaven me a different welder anytime he wanted to.

Best regards - Al

By jsdwelder (***)

Date 12-10-2009 00:29

803056,

You brought up alot of the things I also experience. I asked a welder one time how much money he stood to make from the $100 test I was giving him and he told me that in his area the sky was the limit. $75-100 an hour if he passed the test. He felt the price of the test wasn't justifiable. I told him that for the price of the test he was getting my time to purchase the plates, bevel them, polish them, tack them together, the electrode's he would use, the machine and electricity to weld them, my time to cut the coupons, polish those, bend them and do the paperwork. Add in the cost associated with becoming a CWI and I felt he was getting a bargin. He didn't see it that way. I remined him that I didn't call him, he called me. Seems like sometimes people forget that my time and qualifications are worth something too.

By whip

Date 01-01-2010 07:02

After reading you guy's post's which I truly related to and enjoyed I could not help but hope you read this and reply because I wonder if you guy's ever have to contend with this, I test on the average around 80 welders a year 99.9% are done to the requirement's of Sect.IX or D1.1 and most have a QC manual that's the contractor's and the Customer's Requirement's that that add something to what is acceptable and what is Not, however the latter usually just has something to do with the way the test is given. Anyway Sect.IX and D1.1 make it plain and simple And I follow all that to the letter, I never ask a man to do more than the code period,and I have young men driving to these job's from great distances in all kinds of situation's. I hear and have heard every sad story there is to hear. But when I bend the strap's and they do not meet the Inspection criteria they fail. I always try to be as professional as I can and do it in a way that is most respectful to the man and to show him that I am really helping him and Now he knows that he need's to correct and or improve his welding technique and I've been around long enough that most everyone knows me are has heard of me,and thankfully most of the time we part and they know where I'm coming from and they listen to me take my advice and they know I'm really truly just trying to help them. But more times than I care to say I catch the devil and have a real hard time trying most of the time in vain to prove that I did not write the ASME SECT. IX nor did I write the D1.1 But they surely do always walk away knowing that I will not compromise what I represent a AWS CWI. The last shutdown I did me and the Welders on that job had a zero RT reject rate. Be a safe and have the best Year ever.
Whip

By 803056

Date 01-02-2010 21:41

Passing welders that are not capable of performing the required task isn't helping anyone. The codes delineate the minimum requirements to be met. With that in mind, it is to the employer's benifit to make sure the test is representative of the work to be performed as well as meeting the code's requirements.

I agree with your position that the code is the code and the welder has to at least meet those requirements. However, it is prudent to make sure the construction code is also considered when working to ASME B&PV or pressure piping codes. The welders must be capable of meeting the acceptance criteria of the construction code as well as Section IX if the welds are to be accepted. A welder that passes the requirements of Section IX may be "legally" qualified to weld to B31.3 High Pressure requirements, but he may not be able to meet the applicable acceptance criteria. It is better to apply the acceptance criteria of the construction code to the performance test than to waste time and money in the field with a welder that isn't capable of meeting the appropriate acceptance criteria. Cut outs cost dearly and it doesn't make the client feel confident the contractor is competent when he reads inspection reports with high reject rates.

The key is to make sure the welder is aware of what he is expected to do, how it is to be done, and what the applicable acceptance criteria is before taking the performance test. "No surprises" is something everyone can live with.

Best regards - Al

By mightymoe (**)

Date 01-02-2010 22:21

$100.00!?
You prep and tack the plates, you cut/prep the test strips too? Sounds like a bargain!

By Milton Gravitt (***)

Date 01-03-2010 00:23

I give the test plates with a WP and let the testing welder do all the prep work. Because the prep work is the hardest part of the test and it lets you know if they can follow instruction from the welding procedure, like the degree of bevel and also the depth of the bevel and other thing.

M.G.