Thread: How to create weld procedures

Check out The Australian Welding Guide at Product News - Welding.com.au from WIA. Its a good reference tool and it will give lots of specs for different rods and materials. They will even post you a hardcopy.

Originally Posted by Conor87

Hi Guys,I've been working as a Mechanical Engineer in the mining industry in WA for a few years now. A lot of our work tends to involve welding - predominately structural steel and pipework (generally carrying water). I am competent in creating fabrication drawings (including weld symbols) and calculating weld strength. Structural steel I am involved with is mild steel (grade 250-350) and pipework is mild steel or stainless steel welded with either MIG or stick. In the past I have just specified all welds to the relevant Australian Standard for instance AS1554.1SP for structural work.My question is, how do I create weld procedures for these relatively simple welding processes? Do they have to need to comply with any standard? How do I know; which electrodes to specify, welder settings, pre/post weld heat treatment, weld speed etc. Is there a course I can do or textbook which covers the topic? I want to be confident in telling the welders what they need to do.Regards,Conor

Conor

hopefully Bob Collins will call by, but my recollection is that a properly ticketed welder knows all the stuff you are asking about -- it's part of their training and the ticketing process

the risk with creating a documented procedure at the level of detail you're looking for is that if you get it wrong, you have no recourse -- normally you would trust your welders

now if the welding is being done off shore ...

Hello Connor,

I'm a mechanical engineer working in maintenance and reliability. Ido a lot of work with the welding and repairing of pressure vessels and pressure piping.

Some standards you should read are:

AS 3992: Pressure Equipment Welding Qualification.
AS4041: Pressure Piping.
AS1210: Pressure Vessels.
And one you have already mentioned 1554.

AS4041 and AS1210 have fairly clear requirments for the requirements of welding depending on piping/vessel class. Most welding (except low class) requires three things.

1. WPS - Weld procedure specification. A document that contains all of the information required to do the weld.
2. WPQR - Weld Pocedure qualfication record. A document that contains the proof (by documented destructive testing) that the WPS creates a mechanically sound weld.
3. Welder Qualification. Documention that proves that the welder is capable of creating a sound weld from the WPS. This usually involves completing a test piece and having it tested. I think it is also possible to do "on the job testing" however if it fails, all the welders weld must be tested and repaired until it complient. Welders Quals only last 6 months before they require retesting.

It is my understanding that a ticketed welder cannot create a procedure for you. from what I have read in the standards, welders certification to AS1796 is not a requirement for any job. Employers may request it, but it is not a requirement.

The procedure I have followed before is:

1. Get a weld inspector (the one I use has accreditation with WTIA) to witness a welder doing a test plate of the desired weld in the desired position. 6G qualifies for all positions I think.
2. The inspector will take a run sheet recording all important parameters and use it to create a WPS.
3. The test pice will be tested to get the WPQR. At the same time the welder who done it can get his Welder Qualification.
4. Pay about $5K to the weld inspector's company and they give me the completed WPS and WPQR.
5. Get other welders I want to use to do a test piece to the WPS and get them tested so they can get their Welder Qual. Cost is about $300 per welder for the testing.
6. Do the job and assemble all of the relevant documentation (WPS, WPQR, Welders Quals, NDT, Weld Maps, Material Certs etc) into QA package at the end.

Unfortunately, welding managment is a time consuming and expensive process. I hope this makes it a little clearer.

Iggsy pretty well covered it all.
Not something that you want to get involved in unless you have to. For most structural work it will be unneccessary, pressure vessels and piping are a different story though.
I will say though that it is refreshing to find an engineer that actually wants to learn something about the welding side of projects, a great number I have come across have been great in their theories, but had no understanding of practicalities or general workshop procedures.

My advise for what its worth
Do not specify a brand of electrode or wire but rather a grade or Australian or international standard
I have come across many jobs which specify which company you must use and it can become expensive (I'm thinking cigweld here )