new to board-question

By NDTIII

Date 05-19-2005 02:19

How else would you qualify your WPS?

By jon20013 (*****)

Date 06-07-2005 16:09

SWPS also do not and do not fall under the category of "pre-qualified."

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 06-07-2005 20:40

The AWS holds PQRs (sometimes multiple) for each SWPS they "sell." They just don't give them out. It is stated in the forward of SWPSs that the PQRs are available from the Welding Research Council.

For my purposes they are much less expensive than running PQRs for items that may not be pre-qualified such as short circuit GMAW in D1.1. (B2.1-004:2002)

I'm not exactly sure why SWPS don't classify as pre-qualified and I asked at the WPS building seminar in Dallas just a month ago. I know they are profitable, but there may be other factors. It may be that SWPS are not universally accepted?

A listing of SWPS can be found in "The Professional's Advisor on PQR's" Soon to be or Newly published By AWS.

Here is a listing of some SWPS available through the Cossaks at Global http://www.global.ihs.com/?RID=AWS Just type SWPS into the search function.

By jon20013 (*****)

Date 06-08-2005 12:13

Lawrence; SWPS don't count as "pre-qualified" because they are supported by PQR's, the only difference being is those PQR's are submitted by industry people to the AWS who in turn submits them to the WRC for evaluation and development of WPS' if the PQR's are considered "acceptable" and are not "unique" or "exotic" perse.

SWPS' are generally far less expensive than running one's own PQR's and have the added benefit of already being reviewed by the best and brightest people in our industry.

While they are not universally accepted as you say, the ASME has adopted and accepted numerous of these SWPS' and they have been included within many of the boiler and pressure vessel codes.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 06-08-2005 14:27

Thanks Jon,

Thats about how Ken Coryell explained it, and it does make sense as a valuable tool.

By NDTIII

Date 06-08-2005 12:55

An SWPS is a Standard Welding Procedure Specification. The AWS Prequalified procedures are referred to as SWPS's. SEE AWS B.21, para. 2.2.
Starfinder is talking about all Welding Procedure Specificaitons. Of course they need a PQR if they are not listed in the SWPS list.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 06-08-2005 14:47

The code experts may correct this (and if its wrong I hope they do) but my understanding is that Qualified Procedures, Pre-qualified Procedures and Standard Welding Procedure Specifications are 3 distinct items.

Procedure qualifications are covered in B2.1 as are Standard Welding Procedure Qualifications. While pre-quailfied procedures must be specific to a code.

SWPS are not specific to any code but may be accepted by authorities working with a variety of codes. They are not pre-qualified procedures, nor does the language of B2.1 2000 suggest that SWPS and Pre-qualified procedures are one in the the same. B2.1 does not address pre-qualified procedures. You won't find individual Welding Procedure specifications (WPS) in a code book, but you may find data to build one.

I do agree that Procedure Qualification Reports (PQR) are required for procedures other than Pre-qualified or Standard. Which is what the thread is all about :)

By Jim Hughes (***)

Date 06-08-2005 19:53

I think Lawrence is correct. I know that Sec. IX 2000 addenda is permitting the use of AWS SWPSs. It's covered in Article V QW-500 of Sec. Ix

By jon20013 (*****)

Date 06-08-2005 14:49

NDTIII; I hate to disagree, but the ONLY Code I'm personally aware of that has "pre-qualified" WPS' is D1.1. Perhaps this is just a technicality, but SWPS' are QUALIFIED (by others) and shouldn't be referred to as "pre-qualified" as that tends to be a D1.1 term meaning something entirely different than using SWPS.

By NDTIII

Date 06-09-2005 04:18

Jim, I stand corrected. Thank you for the insight.

By swnorris (****)

Date 06-09-2005 13:38

I think NDTIII is referring to ANSI/AWS B2.1, which is titled "Standard Welding Procedure Specification (WPS)". I think this is where he picked up the abbreviation SWPS, but nowhere in the copy I have is it referred to as SWPS. It is only referred to as WPS. The copy I have was given to me by an AISC auditor in 1994 and is a "standard" WPS for C02 shielded flux cored welding. There are 31 supporting PQR numbers shown from which this standard WPS was derived from, which were reviewed and validated by the Welding Research Council. A D1.1 standard WPS is based on prequalified criteria in Section 3. To answer the original post, any WPS containing parameters beyond prequalified criteria of must be supported by a PQR, at least from a D1.1 stance.