Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Date
Pages
01
1998
New document
02
November 2012
New document
Table of Contents:
Page
CONTENTS
1
INTRODUCTION
WELDING OF TESTPIECES
TESTING
CERTIFICATION
10
APPENDIX I
11
12
13
14
15
16
APPENDIX 11
17
3 of 55
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1
Welding approvals
The practice of approval testing of welding procedures and welders has been employed for
over half a century. Approval testing is carried out prior to production commencing and it
is therefore essentially a quality assurance measure rather than a quality control activity.
1.2
Involves the production and testing of a welded joint in order to prove the feasibility
of a welding procedure.
A certificate that states all the relevant data / results from a welding procedure test.
Involves the production and testing of a welded joint in order to assess the capability
of a welder.
1.3
Other Standards e.g. BS 4872 parts 1 and 2 - Specification for approval testing of welders
when welding procedure approval is not required, remain current.
2.1
2.2
Essential preparation
It is vital that, prior to the SAFed member company representative (engineer
surveyor) arriving to witness the welding of testpieces, the manufacturer undertakes
adequate preparation.
The minimum requirement is a pWPS detailing the welding parameters necessary for the
welder to weld the testpiece satisfactorily.
Testpieces and consumables should be correctly prepared and stored, and the welder
briefed regarding his role in the approval process e.g. whether it is procedure approval or
welder approval only.
Preferably, some development testing will have been completed to ensure both that the
procedure will be acceptable and/or that the welder has undergone sufficient training.
The better the preparation, the greater the chance that failures, delays and associated
additional costs will be avoided.
2.3
Examining bodies
The Examining Body is an organisation appointed to verify compliance with the Standard.
In cases where contracting parties are involved the Examining Body must be acceptable to
those parties.
Acceptability varies between industrial sectors and it is therefore recommended that an
Examining Body which holds national recognition and international notifications
(approvals) and/or affiliations is chosen.
Where authority to issue welding certification is not fully defined by legislation, the major
UK Examining Bodies generally utilise notification under relevant European Union (EU)
Directives as the criteria by which to assess potential Examining Bodies. This approach
provides assurances of the Examining Body's quality system, technical competence in the
relevant technology and adequacy of liability insurance.
SAFed members adopt the above approach to assess the capability of members and other
bodies to issue welding certification.
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national accreditation body
recognized by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards.
Organizations that provide welding certification and testing should have this described in
their details of accreditation.
The engineer surveyor may not be present throughout all the welding operation although
for welding procedure testing he is likely to be there.
During the approval lest, the welder will be expected to show adequate practical
experience and knowledge of the welding process, materials and safety requirements for
which approval is being sought.
On completion of welding, the SAFed member company representative will visually
examine the testpiece for compliance with the relevant Standard.
3.2
4.0 TESTING
Following welding and visual examination, tcstpieces will need to undergo non-destructive
and/or destructive testing. Such testing may be undertaken in a SAFed member company
laboratory or by other organisations with suitable facilities and established expertise in
the requirements of welding and product Standards.
If the testing is undertaken by another organisation, the SAFed member company
engineer surveyor would attend the laboratory to witness, as a minimum, the tests that
cannot be verified on examination of testpieces e.g. tensile and impact tests and to assess
other completed tests e.g. radiography, bend and hardness tests.
The SAFed member company engineer surveyor will also assess all the documentation
e.g. material identification, record of welding and test results and take a decision on
compliance with the Standard.
Suitable facilities are provided by laboratories accredited by the United Kingdom
Accreditation Service (UKAS) against the requirement of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 - General
requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.
5.0 CERTIFICATION
5.1
Description of certification
When Certification is issued by the SAFed member company that witnessed the welding
approvals, it will be in a standard formal bearing the SAFed logo and watermark, the
member company's name and a unique identifying number.
The certificates contain translations on the reverse side as an aid to acceptability overseas
and their format has been agreed within CEOC the European Federation.
If manufacturers wish to use their own certificates, such certificates will be endorsed by a
SAFed member company provided they are typed/laser printed, technically and factually
correct and contain all data required by the relevant Standard.
In all cases, certification will only be issued on satisfactory completion of the approval
process and will only be valid when bearing the SAFed member company stamp, signature
and unique identifying number.
5.2
SAFed member companies arc able to give expert advice prior to approval on matters
such as:
This not only ensures technical accuracy but reduces costs and maximises the future
worth of the approvals gained.
SAFed member companies, via a nation-wide network of engineer surveyors, are able
to deal with all aspects of welding approvals including:
Witnessing,
Testing,
Issue of Certification.
production of British and European Welding Approval Standards, thus providing the
ability to give advice on known or anticipated future developments.
SAFed has a technical committee infrastructure that assists uniform application of the
relevant Standards and provides authoritative interpretations of key issues within the
Standards to aid the fabrication industry.
APPENDIX I
Welding procedure and welder approval certification
It is essential, for the validity of the certificates, that the details entered are
accurate and complete. (Examples of correctly completed certificates are shown in
the next section).
Welding certificates, correctly completed, potentially span many projects and can
therefore have a long life: they are valuable documents and their accuracy is of the
utmost importance.
Welding Procedure and Welder Approval Certification takes the form of one, or a
combination of, the following:
E3 - Test results
This certificate is used to record the results of non-destructive and laboratory tests on
the weld testpiece. It would be used for procedure approval tests without exception,
but for welder approval tests is not normally necessary since test result acceptability is
simply recorded on the Welder Approval Test Certificate (E4). Additional information,
for example photomacrographs or radiographic reports, may need to be appended to
this sheet as applicable. (See page 15)
APPENDIX II
Comparison of numbering systems for welding procedure and welder approval standards
BS EN 287 - Approval testing of welders for fusion welding
Original number
Title
New number
BS EN 287-1
Steels
BS EN ISO 9606-1 *
BS EN 287-2
BS EN ISO 9606-2
Original number
Title
New number
BS EN 288-1
BS EN ISO 15607
B5 EN 288-3
BS EN ISO 15614-1
BS EN 288-4
BS EN ISO 15614-2
BS EN 288-8
Approval by a pre-production
welding test
BS EN ISO 15613