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What Joe is describing is very much the same type of program that the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers "Common Arc" Welding qualification program works like as well which was implemented in the late 1980's and became fully implemented in 1993...
However, there are some pitfalls to administering programs such as Common Arc, or UA's own version of similar type of multiple contractor wide, one size fits all type of welder qualification program but before we get into those let's review what the Common Arc Program is...
The Common Arc Corporation - is a welder performance/qualification maintenance program designed to do away with multiple welder qualification testing. This program reduces the cost of testing for the contractor and the owner/client. A welder takes a single test administered by multiple contractors - National Association of Construction Boilermaker Employers (NACBE) . Welders are tested on their own time, not at contractor expense. All tests are conducted in keeping with ASME Section IX Welding Code...
Now, this is what they want everybody to believe with respect to having the single test administered by multiple contractors for the purpose of the performance qualification to be accepted by ALL of the multiple contractors, and this is simply not possible to achieve since All of the multiple contractors representatives cannot be at the testing facility everytime and in every location throughout the USA for one thing!!! We're talking 220 contractors, so realistically speaking - this would be impossible because for each test, all 220 contractors would have to sign off! They do come up with a system that works and it's all explained in the manual...
Then there are a multitude of major contractors who require additional testing besides what is required through the common arc program also... So this notion of the Common Arc Welder to be required to only pass one test is certainly a misnomer simply because there isn't only one test that covers every type of qualification that a welder would need to be qualified to in order to weld every type of process, every type of metal grade, and every thickness or diameter one would find in working @ every location within a power house of every conceivable design throughout the USA and Canada also!!! If it were that simple, then everybody would give a qualification test that would cover everything which is what one would have to design and implement in order to cover every conceivable variable necessary for the welder to be completely qualified to work with every contractor on any and every job site without exception!!! don't worry because it's explained in the Common Arc Manual below...
So instead, The Boiler makers, the NACBE came up with a manual which pretty much takes care of most, if not all of the potential pitfalls that could be encountered if the program was intended to be a one size shoe fit's all type of program which would realistically be impossible to achieve with only one test... So here is the Common Arc Corporation's Welder Performance Qualification Maintenance Program Manual... here's the link to the entire manual for anyone to review:
http://www.commonarc.com/manual/manual.pdfHere's the Homepage for The Common Arc Corporation:
http://www.commonarc.com/welcome.htm#topFor anyone who is interested in testing to this program, here are testing dates:
http://www.commonarc.com:5061/tests/These are the member contractors in NACBE:
http://www.nacbe.com/membership.htmlSo in summary, this how the Boilermakers do it Joe... I would imagine that the UA has more than likely a very similar program as the Common Arc Program by the Boilermakers! ;)
Respectfully,
Henry