Friday, October 7, 2011

Welding, Welding Procedure, Personnel Qualification

In the past post, I already mention about welding, but now Piping & Fabrication will gave to you the detail of welding process and procedure or qualification, and hope that would be useful to all of us.

Welding. Welding constitutes the bulk of the work involved in fabrication of modern piping systems, so it is essential for all involved to have a good working knowledge of this subject.

Procedure and Personnel Qualifications. All of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Codes and most of the ASME B31 Pressure Piping Codes reference ASME Section IX for the requirements for qualifying welding procedures and welding personnel. The ASME B31.4,23 B31.8,24 and B31.1125 Codes also permit qualification to API- 1104,26 published by the American Petroleum Institute. ASME B31.527 permits qualification to AWS D10.9.28 The purpose of procedure qualification is to assure that the particular combination of welding process, base metal, filler material, shielding fluxes or gases, electrical characteristics, and subsequent heat treatment is capable of producing a joint with the required chemical and physical characteristics.

The purpose of personnel qualification is to assure that the welder or welding machine operator is capable of performing the operation in accordance with a qualified procedure in the required position.

Procedure Qualification. ASME Section IX requires the preparation of a Welding Procedure Specification (WPS), which lists the various parameters to be used during welding. When each WPS is qualified, the parameters used in the qualification are recorded in a Procedure Qualification Record (PQR). For each type of welding process, ASME Section IX has established a series of variables. These are base metal, filler metal, position, preheat, post weld heat treatment, shielding gases, joint configuration, electrical characteristics, and technique. Base metal must not only be considered from a chemical and physical properties point of view, but in piping, the diameter and thickness of the test coupon limits the qualification to certain sizes. Differing fluxes, use of solid or gaseous backing, and single- or multipass techniques are some of the other variables which must be considered. Careful study of Section IX, AWS D10.9, or of API 1104 as may be applicable is in order.

The variables for welding are classed as essential, supplementary essential, and nonessential. The manner in which the variables are classed can vary depending. on the welding process. That is, what may be classed as an essential variable for one may be a nonessential variable for one another. For a given process, each combination of essential variables must be qualified separately. A change in any one of them requires a new qualification. When welds must meet certain fracture toughness requirements, the supplementary essential variables become essential and the procedure must be requalified for the particular combination of essential and supplementary essential variables. Nonessential variables do not require requalification but should be referenced in the WPS.

Personnel Qualification. The fabricator and/or installer must qualify each welder or welding operator for the welding processes to be used during production welding. The performance qualification must be in accordance with a qualified WPS. Each performance qualification is also governed by a series of essential variables which are a function of the welding process for which the welder is being qualified. The welder or welding operator may be qualified by mechanical tests or in some cases by radiographic examination of the test coupon. The record of each performance qualification is kept on a Welder/Welding Operator Performance Qualification (WPQ). Under ASME Section IX rules, a qualified welder who has not welded in a specific process within a specified period of time must be requalified for that process. API 1104 and AWS D10.9 have similar requalification provisions.

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