"I was under the impression that a company can test and qualify their welders to AWS D1.1 in house, but in order for them to be technically certified they have to have it done at an AWS accredited testing facility which my company in not."
As long as your company complies with AWS D1.1 and you certify the results (someone signs on behalf of the company accepting them); you are in compliance and your welders are "certified" in accordance with D1.1. There is no requirement that the testing be performed by an AWS certified facility (unless a job specification or contract requires it).
"I was also under the impression that if you have been tested in house to D1.1 you are only qualified and not technically certified."
Negative. Look at it this way (which is my take on it): Certification means someone with authority signs the record on behalf of the company. Qualification is a description applicable to a welder with the necessary skills. Certification is the company's acceptance of the test and test results.
"That's why I stated it means the same darn thing and the only difference is where you were tested. That is only if you have an in house AWS CWI on hand for it to be really the same thing ( qualified and certified). I understand that anyone can test a welder in house, but fluxuation could occur, so there is where the accredited testing facility would come into play."
This is probably why some clients require the testing at an independent (accredited) facility. However, requiring D1.1 certification does not imply that this the only way to satisfy the requirement.
"So let me ask you this. If Hobart or Lincoln were only giving away pieces of paper from prequalified D1.1 procedures in the past and now they want to do downhill short arc, would it be beneficial for them to qualify a procedure for downhill short arc so they could hand out a mostly wortless piece of paper afterwards?"
I disagree that what they were handing out in the first place is worthless. I believe it is based on a prequalified or qualified WPS (in either case - acceptable practices). If it was previously based on a prequalified WPS, now they would have to qualifiy the GMAW-S WPS and the WQTR would have the value that any interested company placed on it. In other words, if my company needed 20 GMAW-S (vertical downward progression) welders, and the contract allowed us to use welders certified by others, we could hire them if they were tested and certified by Hobart or Lincoln. However, we would have to confirm that the test parameters for each welder are within the essential variables established by our WPS.
Furthermore, on the topic of the document being worthless - Even if you have to retest a welder, at least if he/she possesses a WQTR you are interested in but can't accept because of the requirement to test them yourself, you can use it as a screening mechanism during the hiring process (ie - during the interview if a welder springs a WQTR on you, at least you know they aren't Be-essing about being a certified welder).
"I mean wouldn't it be better to just have them weld a downhill short arc test plate and then give them a piece of paper saying "congratulations you passed a Hobart downhill GMAW short circuiting test plate" and have all kinds of fancy writing and their name on it?"
That's kind of what it is in reality unless a company wants to accept it.
Charles - BTW, I'm kind of over the old green beer thing. Beer - yes; green beer - not a chance.