I agree with welderbrent, who agrees with Al and Lawrence.
In my experience, at the bottom of the food chain where the welds are made and sold, there can be (and often is) an amazing variety of strange, odd and bizarre/goofy requirements placed on our work by people who have either no knowledge or just enought knowledge of the applicable codes (plus a large amount of missinformation, mixed with folklore/urban myth, mixed with a dose of farm code, mixed with what "uncle Joe the Best Welder Ever told them when they were but a tot", mixed with very limited personal experience, mixed with "heat it till the moisture burns off", mixed with internet(?!) wisdom) who try to impose conditions that have no relation to what the code or reality requires.
You can navigate those waters sometimes with the code book and qualified procedures in hand, asking for a specific reference, but lots of times that only makes the poor Guy In Charge very mad because he is wrong, you can easily show him (and his boss) he is wrong via code, but the bottom line is this guy often holds the key to the kingdom, ie what amounts to a year or two of business income for me (that being the ability to feed the kids:))
We don't run into this much in piping, but it's rampant in structural work.
So the end result, like welderbrent says, is that we sometimes conform to odd, wierd, off the wall demands because we have to survive in the workplace as it exists and it is after all a "harsh" economy and welding business' are dropping like flies right now.
If it only takes a few minutes of time to make the jerk happy then we do it for the sake of a years worth or more of income for several families. We do point out somewhat politely where they are deviating from code requirements but that falls on deaf ears usually, and always damages the fragile little egos involved.
Sometimes it's just not worth it and we make that plain and move along. Sometimes we just grin and keep on trucking and cashing the checks and making payroll.
But keep in mind that there are a lot of large construction projects in structural land that have people who just don't know in positions of authority.
I've been shut down numerous times on hard money jobs by ignorant (to be polite) inspection, only to have someone with enough knowledge eventually arrive to allow us to continue with the work. It's certainly not a perfect "code" world out there and you can never get away from the human element. Back charges always apply in those situations and that usually makes the "Powers That Be" rein in the overzealous "make it up as I go along I don't care if you lose money" code inforcers shut up.
So yes we keep printed continuity logs on hand (plus some other stuff), only because it makes us money.
Sometimes as a business owner it comes down to the amount of money involed, do I want to stomp my foot and draw a line in the sand over code compliance or do I want to just chuckle and jump thru a ridiculous hoop or two in order to take these peoples money.
Sometimes you have to deal with the world as it is, not the world as it should be ; )
My experience only.
JTMcC
FCAW maintains continuity for GMAW, correct?
We have the same issue, where in ASME we weld E71T-1 FCAW and all kinds of materials like high nickel GMAW(P). That's two way different sets of controls ands skills.
So, you could quaify for GMAW(P) Inconel, qualify for SA-36, weld FCAW for 30 years and you are still all set for the next Inconel job that come along.
If you are responsible for your companies weld quality, you'll do a little more than is required for continuity.
This is not in response anyones post by the way, just saying.
Um...
As far as D1.1 goes.. GMAW and FCAW are different processes. So continuity for them would be controlled separatly.
For the inconel and GMAWP....... I suspect that running GMAWP process fulfills continuity requirments for GMAW regardless of alloy.
Yes, D1.1 GMAW - FCAW are 2 different processes.
ASME Sect. IX, same as far as essential variables and continuity.
I didn't mean to get the thread off track throwing ASME in here, just a round about way of making the point of the "minimum requirements" that the codes call out.
Another way to look at this is to look at how welding machines have evolved since someones original qualification.
I know this has nothing to do with an individual who has their own machine, but in a shop we go out and buy the latest and greatest thing with all the buttons and dials in the world, doesn't mean that someone that qualified long ago, and has maintained continuity correctly even knows what half of the bells and whistles do and can't set them to make an acceptable weld.
Just trying to say there are alot of reasons to sometimes do more than the minimum, that's all.