Shipbuilder welder qualification?

Date 06-22-2009 14:18

I was talking to a welder today and he asked me about a welder qualification test for shipbuilders. He said it was a company in New Orleans and the test was a 3G FCAW with ceramic backing bar and a 1" root opening for the rate of $32/hr.

My question is how do you weld a 1" root opening on ceramic?

Does this sound familiar and if not what would the test most likely be?

I am just curious and I don't know anything about shipbuilding.

By G.S.Crisi (****)

Date 06-22-2009 17:51 Edited 06-23-2009 12:06

The American Bureau of Shipping knows a lot. Search into their website: www.eagle.org
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil

By supermoto (***)

Date 06-23-2009 17:06

Couldn't really see any welder qualification info.

Anybody know of how they might be doing welder qualifications?

By G.S.Crisi (****)

Date 06-23-2009 19:23 Edited 06-23-2009 19:28

Open the ABS website: www.eagle.org
On the upper right corner there's the Search window
Write "welding qualification" on the window and click on "Search". I've found 35 results.
Now, instead of "welding qualification", write "welding procedures" and click again on "Search". I've found 70 results.
May be one of them could be useful for you.
Giovanni S. Crisi

By alan domagala (**)

Date 06-23-2009 21:14

We weld with ceramic all the time here with some pretty big root openings. I took the test you described and its not hard at all to fill joints that big with ceramic. The key is to keep the arc off the ceramic (ya cant weld ceramic!). Run it pretty cold and slow and keep building on top of your weld without touching the ceramic. (you'll know when you touch the ceramic backing) Once your done with the root, grind it down alot to make sure you get all the slag out around the toes especially. The ceramic will shape the backside of the root real nice. Run the 2nd pass pretty hot (but not too hot where you blow through the root pass) to make sure you get good fusion because all the root pass did was fill a giant gap pretty much. After that just run the rest as you would normally. Shipyards weld with ceramic all the time to fill big gaps and in areas where you cant get to the back side. (and maby because of crappy fit up).....anywase! We pass UTs everyday like this.