Qualifications to certify the welders

By jon20013 (*****)

Date 06-29-2004 11:44

What are your Codes? If working to AWS D1.1 for example the verbiage is something like "any competant person or engineer" (Not a quote). If ASME IX, there are no specific qualifications for the person performing the act of certification to the best of my knowledge so, in my own opinion, as a Mechanical Engineer you would probably have acceptable qualification.

By GRoberts (***)

Date 06-29-2004 14:29

I don't know of any code that requires specific qualifications for a person or company performing welder or procedure qualifications. Some codes (generally military or European) require witnessing though.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 06-29-2004 14:47

The AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) requires that companies requesting certification through the AISC, have a CWI in it's employ at each location. I think this is where you may find other jurisdictions, like the AISC, or customers possibly requiring something other than; a person your company deems "qualified" to perform witnessing or testing of welding personnel.
John Wright

By GRoberts (***)

Date 06-29-2004 19:55

I don't believe that AISC requires the CWI to be the one that is responsible for welder &/or procedure qualifications does it?

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 06-29-2004 20:45

Maybe I should rephrase what I meant to say, They require a CWI to be in the employ of companies wishing to be certified by the AISC because, during the annual audit they check my certs to make certain they are still valid through the year we are auditing for. We had another plant a few hundred miles fom our plant and the guy that took the CWI exam only passed enough to be a CAWI, but they allowed him to work under my CWI for that particular year since they were a division of us. He retested and still didn't better the outcome any better than a CAWI. I'll try and find the exact wording by the AISC and post back. On the old "checklist" system of auditing, Item E.1.g "Does the fabricator have a welding inspector who holds a current AWS CWI in his employ?" I'm not sure of how it is worded or audited in the new "Standard", I'll have to check into that.
Didn't mean to confuse the issue,
John Wright

By CHGuilford (****)

Date 06-29-2004 21:05

A CWI is only required for the Major Bridge category. It's a nice idea for other categories but is not a "critical" or "essential" question in the audit.

I don't believe there is any written standard requiring a particular level of certification to oversee or sign-off welder and procedure qualifications. At least not in the more commonly used codes. It is assumed that the person performing those functions should know something about the subject. Naturally, that is not always the case, but the "Laws of Natural Selection" dictate that if you don't know anyting about the subject, you will either learn or be soon replaced.

Chet Guilford

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 06-29-2004 23:54

Hi Chet,
I remember pretty vividly the heated discussions with the auditor concerning the certification for our other plant. At the time, our inspector down there wasn't a CWI and the AISC auditor told me that we couldn't get that plant certified for complex buildings until we had either a CWI or a CAWI at that location. My boss was trying to get certification at that plant without hiring an additional person and wanted to run everything from our plant in the way of paperwork. This didn't fly with the auditor and we had to get our inspector certified as a CWI or a CAWI before he would continue the audit for that plant. He took the CWI exam again and passed as a CAWI and tried once more to improve his certification the following year only to pass enough for the CAWI again. My boss gave up on him and told him if he wanted to test again to become a CWI he would have to pay for the exam himself.
Long and short of it was the auditor(whether right or wrong, I don't know) wasn't letting us get that plant certified until we granted his wishes and was supplied a valid cert for that inspector, even though he worked for me.
John Wright

By CHGuilford (****)

Date 06-30-2004 13:26

I'll let you know how that works on Friday next week when our audit is completed. In a nut shell, the checklist for Simple Bridge does not require a CWI (Note question E.1.e is not "C" or "E"). In the Complex Building standard, question E.1.g is marked as "Critical" but remember that you can fail some critical questions and pass the audit.
The new Building Standard also does not require a CWI, although it does require personnel to be qualified for the position. It is understood that when a contract requires it, a CWI must be available.

We did not seek Major Bridge for this audit because we don't have a CWI yet and our other facility already has the certification. (Our inspector will be seeking certification this fall.) As I said, next week I will know for sure how our interpretation goes, but conversations I had with QMC have upheld it so far.

Chet

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 06-30-2004 13:44

Good morning Chet,
Keep me posted how your audit goes. Our case may have been a misinformed auditor in which we gave into. We needed the certification and didn't stand our ground. We were trying to run that plant from our location and I think it made the aditor nervous that I was traveling to cover the inspection at both plants until we were able to get that CAWI in place.
John Wright

By GRoberts (***)

Date 06-29-2004 23:13

You hadn't confused me, I just wanted to clarify to make sure I was thinking correctly on the issue. Making sure my memory wasn't fading too fast.

By vonash

Date 07-07-2004 21:44

The industry doesn't require a scientist to quaify welders. Just do what the code stipulates.
You, as the company, certify your own personnel. This certification is based on qualification by code standards. You don't have to send your coupons out, if you can provide the required bend tests or radiographs.
This is so that companies can qualify, and certify, their welders without some big complicated system.
If you have the knowledge, code information, test materials and facilities, (and most importantly a qualified person overseeing the qualifying/certifying/testing of welders); you can certify your own personnel.