Welding Tips and Tricks

Greetings all,

Being new in my welding career I am not familiar with qualifying welding procedures.

My current job, 54" stainless steel pipe butt straps. My PM originally wanted to weld it with SMAW 308L electrodes which is not very time or procedure efficient. At least that's my assessment. I recommended using MIG with 316L SS wire. But to do that I would need to certify for SS and to do that I need to provide the testing site a WPS.

Can someone, anyone explain to me, in a nutshell, the process to qualify a procedure as per AWS D1.6?

Thank you.

Don't mean to sound like an ass. But I don't think there is a nut shell big enough. Believe Steve is working on setting up procedures for where he works. Slightly different scenario but same size effort needed. I know there's a lot of paperwork and that you need to be knowledgeable about the code book. You will essentially be making up your own weld test. Based on what fillers it will cover and what parameters. I.E. pipe work, flat work, metal thickness, weld position, bevel, no bevel, backer/ or not, purge / or not, and an endless amount of other options.

HERE is a link to a PDF file in my dropbox, it may be some help

LtBadd wrote:HERE is a link to a PDF file in my dropbox, it may be some help

This helps. I will pass this along to my superintendent.

Easy10pins wrote:

LtBadd wrote:HERE is a link to a PDF file in my dropbox, it may be some help

This helps. I will pass this along to my superintendent.

I copied this from another forum, I'd advise you to contact a local testing lab that can assist you in this process, good luck and post back on your experience.

LtBadd wrote:

Easy10pins wrote:

LtBadd wrote:HERE is a link to a PDF file in my dropbox, it may be some help

This helps. I will pass this along to my superintendent.

I copied this from another forum, I'd advise you to contact a local testing lab that can assist you in this process, good luck and post back on your experience.

Unfortunately, there's only 1 ATF in my area and they do not test for stainless. I'd have to drive 3 hours to the next ATF which is another part of the problem.

Poland308 wrote:Don't mean to sound like an ass. But I don't think there is a nut shell big enough. Believe Steve is working on setting up procedures for where he works. Slightly different scenario but same size effort needed. I know there's a lot of paperwork and that you need to be knowledgeable about the code book. You will essentially be making up your own weld test. Based on what fillers it will cover and what parameters. I.E. pipe work, flat work, metal thickness, weld position, bevel, no bevel, backer/ or not, purge / or not, and an endless amount of other options.

Qualifying a procedure should not require you to test at their facility. You can ship the coupons. That's what we're doing for ASME B31.1 and B31.3 stuff. Actually, I welded my ASME IX re-qualification piece at my shop and shipped it for testing. You only need proctors/witnesses that you followed the procedure you're testing/qualifying. If you claim 6G but rolled it out, the testing facility will know.

Again, this is all ASME, and I can't promise AWS won't have different hoops to jump through.

Steve

Otto Nobedder wrote:

Poland308 wrote:Don't mean to sound like an ass. But I don't think there is a nut shell big enough. Believe Steve is working on setting up procedures for where he works. Slightly different scenario but same size effort needed. I know there's a lot of paperwork and that you need to be knowledgeable about the code book. You will essentially be making up your own weld test. Based on what fillers it will cover and what parameters. I.E. pipe work, flat work, metal thickness, weld position, bevel, no bevel, backer/ or not, purge / or not, and an endless amount of other options.

Qualifying a procedure should not require you to test at their facility. You can ship the coupons. That's what we're doing for ASME B31.1 and B31.3 stuff. Actually, I welded my ASME IX re-qualification piece at my shop and shipped it for testing. You only need proctors/witnesses that you followed the procedure you're testing/qualifying. If you claim 6G but rolled it out, the testing facility will know.

Again, this is all ASME, and I can't promise AWS won't have different hoops to jump through.

Steve

And this is where my lack of knowledge is pretty evident. LOL.

It's still a big learning curve for me, too!

Steve

Code books can be intimidating.

Poland308 wrote:Code books can be intimidating.

Yeah I started to read the d1.1 book and at 500 pages it is a long haul. And every tenth word I don't understand it seems like.