Hello Tom;
No disrespect meant. I used to feel the same way in my previous life as a welder.
I saw little value in a written WPS; any welder knows how to weld XXX. I saw little reason to inspect a weld. I saw no reason to qualify a welding procedure by tests. There was no reason to, after all, I could fix anything but the crack of dawn and a broken heart. Then I graduated to inspection and discovered not all welders are welders. More than a few so-called welders are nothing more than rod burners with no appreciation for the finer points of the metals they were working with. A36, A992, A53, A106, if it rusts it is steel; root it with E6010 and fill it with E7018, "get 'er done!"
Hotbox for low hydrogen electrode? A waste of money and electricity, simply short the electrode against the iron and heat it up, that will drive out the moisture.
Preheat the steel until the moisture is driven out and start welding as soon as coffee break is over. The list of "standard practices” could go on for a few pages. Many of us in the inspection business started as welders and if we did not do the things I listed above, we have seen them done on job after job after job that we have worked on.
Inspection is one additional step to ensure the proper filler metal was used by a skilled welder to make a repair the will serve the customer as expected. Inspection is just one more step to ensure the welder used the right joint preparation to ensure the owner gets a repair that will serve him well. Inspection is one more step to ensure no one is injured because some idiot that thought he knew everything there is about running a bead or just graduated from Uncle Willie's 10 week School of Welding doesn't do serious damage to a piece of expensive equipment.
Call it the belts and suspenders approach to repair welding, but I've seen many instances where a qualified inspector could have saved the owner a lot of time and money had an inspector been called in to serve as a second pair of eyes and to review the planned repair.
How many jobs have you been called in on because the first welder screwed up the job? A welder worth his salt appreciates having a second set of eyes on the job to verify it was done properly. If there is one thing I have learned over the years it is that I am not infallible. I often use the services of another inspector or engineer as sanity check to make sure I have considered all the options and considered all the possible problems that could be encountered before starting the job. Is the right equipment available to do the job correctly and safely?
For a job where there is no danger of damaging the equipment or hurting someone, the services of a qualified inspector may not be necessary. I am sure the fellows I encountered in the following examples saw no value in having a second set of eyes on the job.
“There is no problem welding on a piece of heavy equipment with the work lead to the drawbar.”
“There is nothing wrong with welding a boom with the work lead connected to the track cleat”
"I use 1109 electrode for all my welding.”
I could go on for hours reciting the nonsense I have heard come out of a welder’s mouth. The one thought I keep in mind is that the “dumber they are, the more money I make.” That does not apply exclusively to welders by the way.
This is not to paint all welders as idiots, nor is it to say all inspectors are geniuses. That may be far from the truth, but the smart people recognize value of a second opinion, a second pair of eyes, or the value of having someone check the work. After all, it isn't the good welds we need to be concerned with. It just that all the welds a welder makes are good until someone looks at it and says, "This weld looks like crap! Who is the idiot that welded this?"
Good luck.
Best regards - Al
Al, I see where You are coming from, but probably the guy who needs the inspector the most is the guy least likely to hire one. What I mean by this is if a guy hires the low bidder who either cutts corners or just doesn't understand the scope of what is required to do the job properly, He isn't likely to hire an inspector.
Hopefully You most often verify that the proper procedures are being done and seldom have to blow the whistle on someone making a mistake.
By 803056 
Date 02-08-2010 04:54
Edited 02-08-2010 04:57
That was my point in the earlier post. The welder that needs the additional oversight is least likely to recognize his limitations and the owner is only interested in his wallet. So who is to blame when something goes terribly wrong? The welder or the owner?
Here in the U.S. the precedent is pretty clear, the owner is responsible to make sure anything on his property or anything he owns must be in proper repair. The owner is responsible for any repairs done, i.e., the owner is tasked with ensuring the individual/contractor hired to perform a task has to be qualified. The lowest bid does not cut it in a courtroom when the crap hits the fan.
It isn't unusual for a problem to have been identified by the time I get called in. One of the nicknames I have is the "Welding Nazi" and the other is the "Hatchet". The difference is whether I'm called in as the inspector at the beginning of the job or after the crap has hit the fan and they need someone to cut through the debris.
Best regards - Al
Well, I was a little offended, I'll admit. I was just commenting that heavy duty repair work, in my experience, is never inspected - who knows why. Some of it should be.
And there's no need to justify an inspectors role in the welding trade. I understand it's necessity.
But do we have to inspect every weld? I think not.
Tom
I apologize if I offended you. That wasn't the intent, but I agree with you on the point you made. That is not all welds need to be inspected. There are hundreds, no, hundreds of thousands of welds made under the auspices of the Farm Code that are never inspected and they hold together just fine until the next repair. ;)
I hope you enjoyed this little conversation as much as I did Tom. It's been a pleasure reading your thoughts on this subject.
As my parting word on the subject, just let me say, the best inspector is the welder that made the weld. If the welder checked the material, checked the filler metal, checked the joint fit-up, checked the joint to make sure it was cleaned, and visually checked his weld beads after each pass, he most likely did a first class job. Like it or not, every weld is inspected by someone, even if it is the welder or to operator that is using the equipment.
Best reqards - Al
The level of professionalism and civility put forth during this discussion has been a breath of fresh air. Thanks for taking the time to contribute, your efforts are appreciated and respected more than you know.
JMCInc
I agree, I about bit my tongue off. But I kept my thoughts to myself and let Al's eloquence speak.
Marshall
