I'll tell you of my experience as erector engineer, a long time ago.

I was in charge of the erection of a crude oil refining plant. The electrodes' brand for SMAW was chosen by my Company, not me. During the whole job, that lasted one year, the welders kept on complaining for the bad quality of the electrodes, which in their opinion was the reason for the poor quality of the X ray tests of the finished welds. I asked my company to change the eletrodes' brand, but they said they had signed a contract with the manufacturer for the supply of electrodes for the whole job and that this contract was very advantageous to my company from an economical point of view. In other words: "Swallow the electrodes 'cause they're are cheap and we're not gonna change them"!

After that job, I was in charge of another, smaller one: the erection of a natural gas compressing station. In this case, I was free to chose any electrode brand approved by international agencies such as ABS, Lloyds Register or Bureau Veritas. First thing I did arriving at the job site before erection got started was to call on all the welders (eight in total) and ask them which was their preferred electrode brand. I said clearly and loudly that I was going to accept the brand they selected because I didn't want them to blame the electrode quality to justify the poor quality of X ray films. In other words: "Chose the brand you like best, and don't come back to me blaming the bad quality of the eletrodes for the faulty radiographs". I don't remember now which was the brand they selected, and even if I did I wouldn't tell it in a public forum.

Even the client, which was a very stringent one, was surprised because of the very few faulty radiographs we had in a job like that.

Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil