Ron
Assuming you have a real working QC program, and not just a "paper show." It would also depend on the size of your organization. I always kept a record of my own failures even though I was a self employed one man company. I would expect a larger organization to have an extensive file on welder qualification tests and results. On my own failures, I wrote "FAIL" diagonally across the sheet so that I did not accidently submit a copy to a customer / regulator.
I always advocated keeping the records of failed tests. I feel that it adds to the legitimate "look" of your QC program. You would keep track of the inspection reports when they had notes about defects and repairs. Why wouldn't you also keep records of the welder test results? I don't think there is any company where every welder will pass every test the first time. There would surely be some failures, why wouldn't you also keep records of them? When I do an audit, if there are no records of failures, I suspect that the files are "Doctored" or sanitized, or just "wallpapered".
A record of the failures may also useful for personnel / HR use, when the company wants to get rid of someone. It can also be used as HR back-up, to justify the merit basis of temporary furlough choices. I know that this can also be abused, but it can be used by HR to show that the choice was "objective" and not based on favoritism. This is especially important in larger companies with last in first out policies, or combative union problems.
I WOULD NOT supply a copy of the failed tests to the QA inspector or Auditor / Assessor as part of the "Deliverables" submission packet. However, I would allow the QA inspector / auditor to see the failures in the Welder Qualification Record file, if he was going to look through the "Welder Qualifications" file.
Joe Kane
I used to keep all of my pass/fail bent coupons until the pile became so large that I ended up purging out the oldest and kept only the most recent. As for failed welder qualification records; I never did keep them, I handed them back to the welder marked as such and we worked on the problem until they could pass or we decided that welding just wasn't the position for them.
Late last year there was a similar thread, and it seems like Al Moore got burnt by "failed records".
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