You may want to check out the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training. There is a set of national certification standards pretaining to specific trades which boilermaking (the classification may be by another name) is one. Your company's in-house training program, if you have one, may qualify out-of-hand for sponsorship/recognition under the standards and allow national certification of individuals.

This happened to me too many years ago to mention when I completed a "company" training program. Several years later, the company applied for recognition of it's training program and was subsequently accepted by the aforementioned Bureau. Once this happened, anyone who was trained under the program submitted was issued a national certification for that specfic trade.
Hope this helps.

The certification required to work on welded boilers and pressure vessels is twofold.

1) The National Board of Boilers and Pressure Vessel Inspectors Boiler Inspection Code (NBIC) and Some State codes require that all work performed on Boilers and Pressure Vessels Pressure retaining parts be done by contractor that have a current NBIC "R" Stamp/Certification.

2) The NBIC requires that a Welder be certified in accordance with applicable industry standars such as ASME Sec IX and I also think they accept AWS Certified Welders.

I'm not sure what a certified boilermaker is. I have been working on Boilers in Power and Paper Industry for 13 years and have taken welding performance/qualification tests but I have never been referred to as a certified boilermaker. A term sometimes used to refer to tube welders is "Certified Tube Welder". There are other terms used but I won''t mention them on a public forum:)

A welder with a stack of certifications a foot thick can't work on a Boiler or Pressure Vessel Part without an "R" stamp.

A company with all the NBIC stamps, ASME stamps and postage stamps can't weld on a boiler or pressure vessel part without a certified welder and procedures.

The best place to contact is http://www.nationalboard.org/. They can let you know what you need to do your own repairs. The basics are Quality Manual, Welder, WPS. All of these things can be purchased or leased (A welder).

I don't beleive you have to qualify your own procedures anymore. You can use AWS Procedure that are already qualified. Thats too bad cause because guys like me used to make money helping people write and qualify welding procedures. If you feel the overwhelming need to write your own Welding Procedure Specifications and qualify them by testing for things that have been done over and over please contact me and I will help you use up some of your money :)



I hope this helps.

Gerald Austin

Web Page http://www.geocities.com/pipewelder_1999/

The NBIC rules may have changed as I have been welding and not involved as a QC inspector on any recent boiler shutdowns.

I am a Boilermaker Apprentice...(and in 8 months be a Boilermaker journeyman.) "certified boilermaker is not a real title"
Most companies whom we work for are section IX certified and have "R" stamps...That thereby qualifies any welder who has papers with that company can weld to the boiler or vessel. Boilermakers themselves don't have to have an "R" stamp for pressure vessels, just the companies.
We can mod anything or repair anything in the plant.
"We do your job right the first time"