Keys to Success for a New Welding Engineer
Why it is critical that a welding engineer become knowledgeable in what welding standards exist and how they must be applied By RICHARD HOLDREN, a PE, AWS SCWI, and IWE, is a senior welding engineer with Arc Specialties Technical Services, Houston, Tex, and president of Welding Consultants, LLC, Columbus, Ohio. Reprinted with permission: The Welding Journal One of the biggest challenges for a welding engineer, especially when newly introduced to the position, is to understand the myriad welding requirements existing for various applications. Just determining the applicable welding standard for a given application can be a challenge. Once this has been established, the next task becomes the interpretation of welding requirements related to qualification, inspection, and acceptance criteria. Few schools provide instruction in this aspect of the job, so on-the-job training and experience are the primary means of gaining this knowledge. Becoming proficient requires years of experience. While there may be a shortage of training in the specific activity of standards selection and application, a welding engineer is considered relatively well prepared for this challenge. Welding engineering curricula require individuals to be exposed to the broad-ranging areas of expertise, including, but not limited to, welding design, materials, welding processes, and welding inspection and quality control. On a daily basis, a welding engineer may be required to interpret and apply drawings, specifications, and other related standards to understand the applicable fabrication and quality requirements existing for the job at hand. While it is not recommended for a welding engineer to commit this vast amount of information to memory, he/she must become proficient in maneuvering through the world of welding standards. To be successful, a welding engineer needs to realize that certain ground rules exist. While many products could not be effectively manufactured without welding, some designers either don’t understand welding or the standards governing welding design, and this often results in overly conservative designs that can give rise to the creation of designs and configurations that are less manufacturable. This may be further complicated by the stipulation of overly restrictive quality requirements. A welding engineer must understand these limitations. Few companies are of a size to warrant a separate welding engineering department or group, so most often a welding engineer is found in a manufacturing engineering position, which is an excellent environment because a welding engineer’s training makes him/her well suited for observation and control of the applicable manufacturing or fabrication processes, including welding and other ancillary technologies. I have also experienced situations where a welding engineer functioned as a part of the quality organization. In these cases, results were excellent since there was an effort to ensure that welding was being performed in a manner that would reduce scrap and rework, and therefore improve productivity. When the focus is placed on quality, the overall result is positive in terms of meeting both productivity and quality goals. Consequently, one of the keys to success for a welding engineer is to become fully aware of the quality requirements so that these goals can be attained in the most effective manner. Part of this awareness is to understand the distinction between weld quality and welding quality. While the two terms are considered synonymous, there is a subtle difference. Weld quality relates to the attributes of the finished weld in terms of attainment of the prescribed quality requirements. Welding quality is a more inclusive term, as it relates to not only the finished product, but also to all of those design and manufacturing steps affecting the resulting weld quality. It is this area where a welding engineer can be most effective in terms of ensuring that the required quality levels will be achieved. Consequently, the welding engineer must also be aware of the preliminary and in-process requirements and controls necessary to ensure that the manufacturing process will be successful. Quality Considerations Prior to Welding To ensure success, the emphasis on quality must begin long before the welding inspector examines the completed weld. In fact, the path to achieving the prescribed quality goals begins in the design stage of a project. If a product is not designed with an awareness of how the welding and other manufacturing operations will be performed, it may not yield a successful result. So, an area where a welding engineer can be most effective is in the execution of a design review. Some of the critical factors to be considered are as follows:- Is the product manufacturable? That is, can it be effectively manufactured to meet the quality and productivity requirements?
- Does the specification and drawing package contain all of the detailed information necessary to execute the design?
- Are all welding symbols present and correct?
- Are the applicable welding standards clearly identified?
- Are the weld acceptance criteria clearly specified?
- Do the drawings and specifications clearly specify the requirements for procedure and performance qualification?
- Do existing welding procedures satisfy the current job requirements? If existing procedures have been qualified in accordance with some other welding standard, will the customer accept those in lieu of the applicable specifications for the job?
- Are welding personnel properly qualified?
- If additional procedures or personnel require qualification, be aware that the acceptance criteria for the required qualification test welds are not necessarily the same as the acceptance criteria for production welding.
- If necessary to perform additional qualification testing, develop a qualification program that will result in the maximum coverage for the procedure or performance qualification, even if greater than that required for the current job being considered.
- Are the proper consumables being used?
- Have the consumables been properly stored and are they in good condition?
- Are the required preheat and interpass temperatures being maintained?
- Are welding personnel properly qualified, and more importantly, do they understand the limitations of the welding procedure and quality requirements?
- Is welding being done in accordance with the applicable fabrication requirements?
- Use of weld sequencing
- Use of subassemblies
- For welding thick sections, consideration of welding from both sides of a joint to balance the shrinkage stresses.
- Structural welding (AWS D1.1 through D1.9)
- Piping (Cross-country pipelines – API 1104, Power piping – ASME B31.1, Petrochemical piping – ASME B31.3)
- Pressure vessels (ASME Section VIII)
- Boilers (Power – ASME Section I, Heating – ASME Section IV)
- Aerospace (AWS D17.1)
- Specialty apparatus (Industrial and mill cranes – AWS D14.1, Construction and agricultural equipment – AWS D14.3 and D14.4, Rotating elements of equipment – AWS D14.6).