Steve,
That is a very broad question. CWI's can have a very wide range of responsibilities. In house QC, field QC, QA, pipe, structural, bridge, brazing, SMAW, GTAW, FCAW, PAW, SAW, and on and on. The list would baffle the mind. Working for a testing lab, the engineer for the job, the fabricator producing the job. NDT, which is what most CWI visual work is, to destructive testing in a lab to find out if the yield strength, tensile pull, CVN's, etc are good.
And this is a broad, vague, partial list of possibilities.
The basics are: they measure welds, check profiles against an accept/reject criteria list, fill out a report, and get into arguments with the welders and leadmen on the job.
The easier question would be, I am interested in ... Does that need a CWI?
Have a Great Day, Brent
Currently I am working on a power plant being built. I qualify all of the welders for the project. Boilermakers,Fitters,Ironworkers,Millwrights even a few Electricians.
I also do the visuals on all of the welds and supervise all of the X ray and penetrant testing. I frequently find myself evaluating products. I had to pull a dual shield product because it wasn't as 75/25 compatible as their literature implied. Being a CWI is a lot like being a Circuit court judge in the law of welding. The Supreme court's in Miami. The important thing is knowing what you don't know and how to find out. I have a network of CWI friends and weld forums that I use when I run across new things. You will be expected to be an expert on all things welding Safety, Products, Procedures etc. I spent 25 years in the field which gives me a much different perspective from the pencilneck college CWI. I see my role as protector of all things welding. I just had to replace the fitters foremen because they were putting the welders in untenable positions which was affecting the quality of the project. With much power comes much responsibility. Oh well these guys are finishing the GTAW part of their UA61 so I need to go check some welds in the racks before they cap out. Happy Metal People