Educating Welders about Quality Welds
During my life, I welded, supervised welders, engineered welds and inspected welds in many industries. Some welds were acceptable and some welds were rejected. It is important to note these terms, “accept and reject”. Every person (company and personal) involved in the welding operation needs to perform their assigned duties (design, materials, processes, and compliance). When there is a weakness in any one of these functions, the “welder” gets blamed for a bad weld.“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This is also true for welds.
Welders create their own problems by exhibiting lack of confidence and not wearing their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). “Certification welds” should be better than “production welds” because the weld coupons are new, clean and the weld surfaces are smooth. The weld test booth is clean, lighted and a safe workplace. Welders tend to overlook the fact that their success in providing a satisfactory demonstration of their welding performance is important to all parties.
Welding joins pieces of metal by the use of heat, pressure or both. Welding is among the most dangerous industrial activities. It requires an enormous degree of precautionary planning because of the risk of personal injury. Gases and fumes can be significantly reduced with process controls and shielding gases.
What is a CWI?