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Up Topic Welding Industry / Inspection & Qualification / Serving as Weld Inspector for Structural Steel and Aluminum
- - By CAM Date 11-11-2019 15:37
Hello Everyone,

I have been with my employer for nine months, and they are paying for me to receive CWI training and certification in December for the purpose of me taking over the qualification of their welds on both steel and aluminum.
They had issues in the past with large aluminum weldments breaking, and the overall quality of their welds being poor (of which AI have personally witnessed).

Since i have been tasked with establishing procedures and this will be my first time creating them by myself, I decided I should consult the wisdom of this collective to see what warnings or recommendations you may have, especially regarding using D1.2 for aluminum procedures, as I only have experience working with D1.1 prior.

The quality manager tasking me with this seems especially adamant with trying to keep any testing procedures in-house, in an attempt to eliminate testing costs for qualifying welders and joints.  However if I need to qualify dozens if not hundreds of welds for a project, it seems unlikely I can work through them in a timely fashion unless there are provisions to create pre-qualified aluminum documents for each project, but from what I have heard in the past pre-qualified WPS's for aluminum rarely work out, is there truth to that?

I appreciate any help or advice you can offer to an inexperienced engineer, have a great day!
Parent - By 803056 (*****) Date 11-11-2019 21:25
There are no provisions for prequalification for aluminum welds in AWS D1.2. There are a number of problems that can arise during the qualification effort when welding aluminum, almost a metal.

I hate to pop your balloon, but qualification as a CWI does little to prepare you for either developing, qualifying, or writing a WPS. The CWI is qualified to visually inspect welds, follow a WPS, and possibly witness the welding of the qualification coupon and record the welding parameters while the coupon is being welded.

You can do a "search" of the forum to see what has been said in the past.

I would recommend you hire someone that has the experience and a track record of qualifying WPSs for aluminum.

Al
Parent - By jwright650 (*****) Date 11-12-2019 12:03
I agree with Al, aluminum is almost a metal. It has it's own set of issues regarding making sound welds. Someone with experience in these issues should give you a hand until you get this under your belt.
Up Topic Welding Industry / Inspection & Qualification / Serving as Weld Inspector for Structural Steel and Aluminum

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