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Up Topic Welding Industry / Inspection & Qualification / Inspection ethics
- - By Pipeslayer (**) Date 07-17-2008 15:09
I'm in the middle of a debate with a customer inspector who is contract by the way. my company is doing some gas line work to API 1104 and the testing lab is really out to get us for some reason. They were rejecting 80% of our welds for cracks. This is 6010 stuff and cracks are not that common. I took the film and had it reread by 2 different labs. Were only talking about 12 welds now all were bad and the 2 seperate labs found the welds acceptable. I tell the inspector our findings and he hits the roof. They are going to use the other lab no matter what and if we push this we'll get no more work. we've incurred over $30000 dollars in repair work and lost production. I've never delt with an idiot on this level of situtation before. Any advise?
Parent - - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-17-2008 15:21
Sounds almost like the clients contracted inspector has ties with the NDE company. You've probably made a mistake bringing it to him. He will have already spoken to the actual client by now. That inspector should have already raised a pile of flags for the heavy of reject rate, but if I understand your information correctly, he has not.
Your right about one thing, something doesn't smell right about the situation.
Parent - - By Pipeslayer (**) Date 07-17-2008 15:31
I agree as a representative for the customer he should have halted all welding with the rject rate so high with cracks and that is the verbage in the NDE reports Cracks. He sent the film to another lab with alot of prodding and they sided with us, all acceptable per 1104. our reject rate is now 11%. SO now I want all the previous film reread because I know we repaired welds that we didnt need to. We have not had the right meeting with the right people to date,but it is coming and I cant wait. He want us to just forget about the other welds and eat it. you'd think he'd be grateful for using exposing bad quality reporting.
Parent - By arrowside (**) Date 07-17-2008 22:32
Pipeslayer, where abouts are you located? Just a general area of the country will do. thanks.
Parent - By dbigkahunna (****) Date 07-17-2008 22:48
This will come down to how well you know the company you bothe are working for.
Hand him a change order with the repair cost listed. When he balks, go up the chain of command.
You may need a independent Level III with no ties to either the gas company or the NDT company.
There are people who will do this. Should cost you 3-4 grand to get a review from a good Level III.
But remember, this may mean no more work from this customer. But it better be a really good customer to give them 30K worth of work. That is 10% on 300K. Depending on the size of the job, that is a LOT of profit.
BABRt's
Parent - By mountainman (***) Date 07-18-2008 14:13
during the excavation in the repair were you able to find the cracks? i would be pretty upset if after repair and repair i didn't run into a crack even if it was said that it's in there somewhere.
Parent - By 3.1 Inspector Date 07-18-2008 09:16
Interesting, since cracks can be hard to see on RT :O
Parent - - By Jim Hughes (***) Date 07-18-2008 17:29 Edited 07-19-2008 12:10
Pipeslayer,
who is paying for the NDE lab? Your company or the client. If your company is paying for the lab and you find that they are not performing to your expectations then release them and go with someone else. If the client is paying for the lab then ask to have the film reviewed by the NDE labs level III. When talking with the client let them know that you believe they are not getting their monies worth and they are causing delays by performing poorly.

Thanks
Jim
Parent - - By Pipeslayer (**) Date 07-21-2008 11:14
I'm in the southeast U.S.  The Nde lab is payed by our client but reshots are on us. The welds we had reread were good and meet project criteria API 1104. This guy said he wanted them cut out anyway because he thought they looked crappy. I asked for the acceptace criteria for crappy since the welds do meet project code. I tested for CWI and not Ignorant peoples opinion.
Parent - - By jrw159 (*****) Date 07-21-2008 14:09
"I asked for the acceptace criteria for crappy"

Thats a good one. LOL

Next ask him for the calibration report for his eyes, since there is, to my knowledge, no such a thing as a "crappy gauge" :-)

jrw159

Parent - - By johnnyh (***) Date 07-22-2008 18:54
Once you drop your cam gauge from a scaffold it is a "crappy gauge".
Parent - By jrw159 (*****) Date 07-22-2008 19:27
True, and I suppose the verification procedure would be quite simple. Look at it and say "Yeppers, thats a crappy gauge." LOL :-)

jrw159
Parent - - By CWI555 (*****) Date 07-22-2008 16:01
Cut out for crappy???? LOL
If I were you, I'd sit down shut up and do exactly what he says, being sure to document in the nth detail each and every case of "reject for crappy".
When it's all said and done, the backcharges for the extra work should be worth a good bit of coin.

Regards,
Gerald
Parent - - By Pipeslayer (**) Date 07-22-2008 16:44
I'm writing a formal report  and attaching their specs (highlighted for reference) for their reading pleasure. Their specs only validate what i'm saying. I get paid to do this and it is fun sometimes. It's kinda like FISH ON reelhim in. Does anyone know where to look up crappy welds in the code.LOL
Parent - By jrw159 (*****) Date 07-22-2008 16:55
It might be found in FC2002. :-)

jrw159
Up Topic Welding Industry / Inspection & Qualification / Inspection ethics

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