John,
I must agree that it is a bogus and foolish way of going about it, and one can only hope that if and when this catches up to them that no lives are lost as a result.
As far as passing an audit, I guess if the requirements of AWS D1.1 4.1.2.1 & 4.1.2.2 are met then it should fly, but I would not want it flying over my house/head/family.
I would venture to say that in the cases that you have described, they are probably not in conformance and if they are the EOR does not fully understand what they are signing off.
For example I had a case where EOR called out CJP welds that the welders were not qualified to weld. When approached by production about signing off so that work could proceed, EOR stated "sure, I can do that" however when I explained to the EOR that he would not be signing off on the joint configuration but rather the lack of documentation to show the welders ability to produce a code weld he decided that it was not in his best interest to sign off. As it turned out EOR could warrant calling out PJP, and with a few changes to the drawing we were good to go.
It is sad to say, but just as there are welders that are certified but not qualified, the same happens with inspectors as well as engineers, and I guess everything else for that matter.
jrw159
John W, Yes it would.
My response was in relation to employees who leave a company with a copy of their cert and go on to weld in the field with that cert. I see a potential problem with that, and because of that, I don't allow anyone to have a copy of their cert. If they leave without a copy of their cert, that eliminates any possibility of a failure being linked to you or your company. Even though a second company accepts a previous cert, and that company is then responsible, if there is a failure, for starters, someone's going to drag everybody into the lawsuit that they can possibly drag into it, and sort out the responsible parties during the hearings. I'm just saying that if you put your name out there, you're subject to that. That's all I'm saying.
In my opinion, and based on shop and field welds I've seen, and field welding issues I've been involved with, a guy's welds failing while he is working for the company is less likely to happen than should he choose to leave that company and go out on his own, because welding in a shop is in a much more controlled environment that is constantly being supervised and verified in process by Quality Control, and all welds are, at a minimum, 100% visually verified. In the field, some of the welds are not even looked at because the inspector arrives after some of the welds are made and covered up, or he was at another site that day, and when he returns he can't access the welds to look at them, etc. This stuff actually happens.
Even though it is quite foolish to use another company's welder cert, it happens. I've seen it. Lots of dishonesty and unethical practices going on out there. I just think you're opening yourself up to a potential issue that would not otherwise arise if you hadn't given a welder a copy of his cert.