Need Help Setting Up a Welding (Weld per AWS D17.1 GTAW Manu

Date 05-10-2012 20:48

Hi all, I am new here and to welding in general. I am the Quality Assurance Manager for a small aerospace machine shop and have come across a major problem in our welding process. When I was first hired I discovered our welders did not have the proper vision test requirements per AWS D17.1 so I quickly got that taken care of. The I found out we didn’t have a welding procedure or any WPS’s, PQR’s or certified welders. I have been reading though AWS D17.1/D17.1M:2010 and AWS B2.1/B2.1M:2009 and just need a little help in understanding what I need to do. I am hoping someone here can give me a little friendly guidance.

First thing is I need to know what steps to take. It looks to me like I need to create PQR’s get them qualified, then create WPS’s and then qualify our welders to a WPS. Please let me know if I am way off base here. I assume I can have our PQR’s qualified by a certified metallurgical lab along with our welders test welds for their qualifications.

Then I see AWS D17.1/D17.1M:2010 5.4.2 Procedure Qualification states ‘Qualification of weld settings for manual welds is not required”. All the welding we do is manual does this mean we don’t need to create PQRs for each process?

I know we should hire a welding engineer or consultant but we cant right now I want to do all I can to get us up to par.

I would be very grateful for any help.
Thank you,
James

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 05-10-2012 21:21

James

You have it right in your first two paragraphs and your last sentence.

You will need to qualify all PQR's and Welders by testing.

"qualification of settings" in my opinion is referring to the amount of amperage that can be delivered from a GTAW foot pedal... You don't need to set the GTAW power supply at a certain amperage exactly and qualify that, because the operator has a certain amount of flexability and control with that particular process.

You will need to record however, every input on your PQR's

James... You have a VERY big job in front of you.

Welcome to the forum and feel free to keep comming back with your questions.

By TimGary (****)

Date 05-11-2012 11:03

Hey James,
Good luck with that, as Lawerence said "You have a VERY big job ahead of you."

Keep studying the code book and you'll find it's all laid out for you.
Just pay attention to detail and don't try to cut any corners or you'll have problems with your customer's QC dept.

You'll find that you need to:
Certify the welding equipment first.
Decide which weld joints fall under the "Flight Hardware" and "Non Flight Hardware" as they very very different procedure requirements.
Qualify each process and joint profile by testing.
Write all of the applicable WPS.
Qualify each weldeer to the appropriate WPS.
Develop a detailed inspection and testing plan for production welds, and so on.

The best advice I can give is after you've done your best to plan out all of the requirements, consult with your coustomer's QC dept, let them review your plan before implementation. That way you can work out discrepancies before investing in completed product.

Tim

By jameslaz (*)

Date 05-11-2012 16:05

Thanks for the great information guys, I really do appreciate it. Tim you brought up something I had not known about, we have to certify our welding equipment to? We do only manual GTAW here so what do I need to qualify and how.

Also the PQR sample form in AWS D17.1/D17.1M:2010 is vastly different that the PQR sample for in AWS B2.1/B2.1M:2009. Any advice on witch to use?

Thank you,
James

By TimGary (****)

Date 05-14-2012 20:15

Hi James,

Yes, you do have to certify the equipment.
The requirements are detailed in the code book.

Use the forms in the D17.1 for everything you can.
Use the forms in B2.1 for procedures that fall outside D17.1 details.

Tim