Qualification of Welders and Welding Procedures

Welding codes and standards address all aspects of design and fabrication of welded components, including welding procedure specifications, quality control and quality assurance during welding and necessary welding skills for a given welding procedure in all industry sectors. The relevant code is often specified by the end user or client as a contractual agreement in order to control the characteristics of the welded components that may affect the service requirements. Compliance to these welding codes is therefore a must.

In cases involving pressure vessels, compliance to welding codes for different product standards is even a prerequisite to obtain the necessary pressure vessel certification. Without this, you will not be allowed to place your product onto the market.

Our welding inspectors are aware of what codes or standards are applicable in a certain area and understand the requirements of the relevant document. We can perform various qualification and testing services in order to verify that the welder or welding operator is capable of making welds within the scope of that standard or that the instructions in the welding procedure specifications are accurate.

We provide qualification of welders and welding procedures for welding compliance with the American Welding Society (AWS) API test on welds and guidelines from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), diverse pressure vessel regulations in Europe, such as PED, TPED, SPVD or the German pressure vessel code AD 2000-Merkblatt, ISO 3834, EN 1090, EN 15085, or DIN 2303.

With our qualification of welders and welding procedures you can:

• Be sure you employ welders whose skills are verified and can follow the instructions in a given welding procedure specification.
• Be confident that your welding procedure specification will produce a welded component with properties that satisfy the design requirements.
• Ensure the quality of welded components.
• Rely on our qualified experts with extensive experience in welder testing and welding procedure qualification.
• Comply with applicable codes and standards.
• Benefit from our fast inspection and testing times.
• Reduce the risk of company liability with documented safety standards.

Please contact us at TÜV Rheinland to learn more about how our services for qualification of welders and welding procedures can benefit your company.

The term “qualification” means that a welder or welding operator has met the requirements of a given standard and is qualified to perform welding within the scope of that standard. Certified welders must possess the skills necessary to produce a sound weld, which is visually acceptable and also meets testing requirements.

TÜV Rheinland employs experienced, American Welding Society certified welding inspectors (AWS CWI) who are available to test your welders. The qualification of welders can be accomplished by making radiographs or by using bend tests, as required by many welding codes.

In Europe, welder qualifications are determined in accordance with EN ISO 9606 or ISO 14732. We can also qualify welders involved in the fabrication of pressure vessels falling within the scope of the PED.

To document welder capability, we issue the welders’ qualification test certificate or welders’ performance qualification.

Welding procedure qualification verifies compatibility of materials and techniques able to produce welded components that are in compliance with welding codes and have acceptable mechanical properties.

In order to achieve an accurate welding procedure specification, we help you to develop and assess welding procedures on a qualification weld. The qualification weld is then inspected by the following mechanical and non-mechanical tests in preparation of the procedure qualification report (WPQR):

• Different strength testing such as tensile strength testing and proof load testing
• Non-destructive testing
• Bend testing
• Macro etching
• Charpy impact testing
• Metallurgical analysis
• Hardness testing
• Slow bend testing
• Rolling load testing

We provide consulting and training, allowing companies to achieve their goals in meeting industry standards for qualifications of welders and welding procedures for most materials.

Our experts support you with comprehensive engineering services that cover the full range of welding activities such as welding engineers on staff for consulting in design questions, procedure witnessing or failure analysis.

Our TÜV Rheinland Academy provides welder training courses in-house or in one of our TÜV Rheinland Authorized Welding Training Centers.

Below, you can find some of the most important regulations and standards regarding qualification of welders and welding procedures.

ASME
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers' (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) is one of the oldest and most well-known regulations for boilers and pressure vessel equipment. This code establishes rules governing the design, fabrication and inspection of boilers, pressure vessels and other equipment.

PED
The Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) is an EU product directive that has been mandatory since May 2002. The PED is a guideline for the design and manufacture of pressure equipment with maximum allowable pressure greater than 0.5 bar.

ISO 3834: Quality Requirements for Welding
This certification provides a method to demonstrate the capability of a manufacturer or fabricator to meet quality requirements of a specification, a product standard, or a regulatory requirement and demonstrate compliance with European and International Standards.

EN 15085: Welding of Rail Vehicles and Rail Vehicle Parts
Application for certification and inspection for the welding of railway vehicles and components. Applicable throughout Europe, EN 15085 is the European standard related to the design and fabrication and testing of rail equipment.

DIN 2303: Quality Requirements for Production and Maintenance Organizations of Military Structures
Quality requirements to be met by production and maintenance companies for military products. The DIN 2303 standard specifies minimum requirements for quality systems and methods for manufacturer qualification in the military sector.

EN ISO 9606: Qualification testing of welders
Systematic qualification test specifying requirements for the qualification testing of welders for fusion welding of steels.

ISO 14732: Welding personnel - Approval of welding operators
This standard specifies requirements for the approval of welding operators for fusion welding and resistance weld setters for fully-mechanized and automatic welding processes of metallic materials.