(1) Document control The manufacturer must define the sequence of each item indicated in Fig. 4.

3 and make it into documents. It should be made clear that these documents, including the ones from outside like drawings from the customer, are of the latest edition and so controlled that all the related departments and sections can use the proper edition. (2) Secure of management resources Management resources mean so called 4M (Man, Machine, Material, and Method) that are necessary for management, implementation of operations, and activities for verification. The manufacturer must define and secure the management resources for welding fabrication. Personnel The manufacturer must secure sufficient number of competent personnel for planning, fabrication, monitoring, inspection, and investigation for welding fabrication. For the personnel to be equipped with sufficient competence, education and training must be conducted and the effectiveness of such education and training must be evaluated. Furthermore, welders, welding coordination personnel, and non-destructive testing personnel should be certified by appropriate standards like the JIS standard.

 Equipment The equipment can be classified into manufacturing and testing equipment and inspection and measuring equipment. Such manufacturing, inspection, and testing equipment indispensable and suitable for welding fabrication must be secured. Such equipment includes the following. a) Welding power sources and other machines b) Equipment for joint preparation and cutting, including thermal cutting c) Equipment for preheating and postweld heat treatment including temperature indicator d) Jigs and fixtures e) Cranes and handling equipment used for welding production f) Protective devices and other safety equipment for welding personnel g) Depository, drying equipment, and portable container for welding consumables h) Cleaning goods i) Destructive and non-destructive testing equipment

The manufacturer must prepare a maintenance plan for equipment, implement maintenance check regularly, and refrain from using defective equipment.

Especially, inspection and measuring devices must be calibrated at a designated interval and records of calibration must be maintained. In case calibration proves that the equipment is inaccurate, the results of measurement made by the equipment since the last calibration must be reviewed for reevaluation of their validity and corrective action must be taken.

Examples of items of maintenance check are as follows: a) Condition of the guiding device of thermal cutting equipment and the fixing jigs for welding mechanization. b) Condition of ammeter, voltmeter, and flow meter for operation of welding equipment c) Condition of electric cables, hoses, and connectors d) Condition of the control system of mechanized and automatic welding equipment e) Condition of instruments for temperature measurement such as a thermocouple f) Condition of wire feeder and wire conduit The manufacturer must prepare and maintain a list of the equipment that contains the following items. a) Name of equipment b) Identification of equipment such as manufacturing number c) Specifications of equipment such as capacity, shape, and dimensions d) Date of maintenance check (calibration date or validity of inspection and measuring instruments)

 Welding consumables The manufacturer must secure a place for storage of welding consumables needed for welding production in order to avoid moisture absorption, oxidization, and damage.

Welding sequence and welding procedure The manufacturer must prepare the sequence documents indicated in (1) Document control. Such sequence documents are generally called a fabrication standard or working standard. For a new welding procedure, a prior verification test must be conducted to verify its appropriateness. Especially, approval of the welding procedure regulated by legislation must be acquired in advance.

(3) Contract review The manufacturer must confirm the contractual requirements indicated by specifications, design drawings, and other means prior to acceptance of the order. This is for the purposes of ensuring that the manufacturer has capability of fulfilling the contractual requirements of welding and those requirements orally given and all the amendments to the contract from tender documents made prior to contract are clearly documented and accepted by the purchaser.

The information obtained by the contract review must be conveyed to and used by all the related departments such as the design department and manufacturing department.

(4) Design review When the manufacturer designs by themselves, a set of management activities are to be performed, which consist of planning of design, review of appropriateness of input, approval of output, design review, verification, review of validity, and design amendment. These management activities are carried out when the design department works out the design for the final product including welding design. Whether the design data are supplied by the purchaser or are made by the manufacturer himself, the manufacturing department must conduct design review to confirm the contents of the design, assess capability of fulfilling the requirements and propose a solution if there is any problem. When the design data are supplied by the purchaser, such design review is to be conducted when confirming the contents of the contract. There are such companies that have a rule of designation of responsible personnel to conduct design review for each specialized field and of convening a design review meeting of these responsible personnel for discussing important matters and the fabrication work to be done for the first time.

(5) Purchase control The manufacturer must carry out the following control activities to ensure that the purchased products fulfill the requirements. Assessment of suppliers (subcontractors) Suppliers must be assessed and selected based on their capability to supply products that satisfy the requirements of the manufacturer. Purchase documents The manufacturer must prepare purchase documents that contain the items mentioned below, confirm adequacy of the specified requirements and place an order. a) Identification of model, kind, and grade b) Such technical data as specifications, drawings, process requirements, and inspection instructions c) The name, number, and version of the standard of applied quality system Verification of purchased products The manufacturer must define the activities to verify the purchased products and put them into practice. In a case where such verification activities are done at the supplier by the manufacturer or the customer of the manufacturer, the procedures of verification must be provided in the purchase documents.

(6) Welding fabrication Manufacturing plans The manufacturer must define and plan the manufacturing processes that directly affect the quality of the product. In the plan, the following items must be contained at least. a) Procedures of manufacturing welded constructions and the sequence of final assembly (preparation, approval, and issuance of so called fabrication sequence drawings) b) Identification of individual processes for manufacturing welded constructions c) Reference to appropriate procedure specifications for welding and related processes d) Sequence of welding fabrication e) Sequence and schedule of practicing each process f) Inspection and testing specifications including those for independent inspection organizations g) Environmental conditions (e.g. protection from wind and rain) h) Identification of batches of materials, components, and parts per an appropriate unit

(7) Inspection and testing Inspection and testing are conducted at appropriate points in the manufacturing process based on the manufacturing plan in order to assure compliance with the contractual requirements. Inspection and testing prior to welding Prior to welding, the following matters must be checked where necessary. a) Conformity and validity of certificates of qualification of the welding personnel b) Conformity of the welding procedure specifications (WPS) c) Identification of the base metals and welding consumables. d) Groove preparation (configuration and dimensions) e) Conditions of fit-up, fixing by a jig, and tack welding f) Special requirements in the welding procedure specifications (e.g. prevention of distortion) g) Preparation for manufacturing production tests h) Conformity of working conditions including environment for welding

 Inspection and testing during welding During welding, the following matters must be checked at appropriate intervals or by continuous parameters, where necessary. a) Indispensable welding parameters (e.g. welding current, arc voltage, and travel speed) b) Preheating and interpass temperature c) Perfection of cleaning and shape of runs and layers of weld metal d) Back gouging e) Welding sequence f) Correct use and handling of welding consumables g) Control of distortion h) Intermediate inspection (e.g. checking of dimensions)

 Inspection and testing after welding After welding, the compliance with relevant acceptance criteria must be checked, when necessary. a) Visual inspection testing b) Non-destructive testing c) Destructive testing d) Shape and dimensions of welds and welded constructions e) Results and records of postweld treatment (e.g. grinding, postweld heat treatment, and aging)

Inspection and testing status Whether or not the welded construction has been inspected and tested and the status of judgment (accepted or rejected) must be either marked on the weld construction or on the routing card for identification to prevent a welded construction yet to be inspected and tested or a nonconforming welded construction from being transferred to the subsequent process.

(8) Nonconformance and corrective action Nonconformance control In order to prevent inadvertent miss use or delivery of a nonconforming product, the product that does not conform to the designated requirements must be identified and controlled. When repairing or readjusting the nonconforming product, appropriate repair specifications must be ready for use and the repaired or readjusted product must be re-inspected in accordance with the original requirements.

Corrective action In order to prevent recurrence of nonconformance, identification of the cause of nonconformance, assessment of necessity of preventive activities, and necessary corrective action must be determined.

(9) Identification and traceability In order to avoid inadvertent miss use of base metals, welding consumables and half-finished products, the product must be identified all through the manufacturing process. In cases where traceability is in the contractual requirements, the product must be specifically identified and controlled. Traceability is a function of tracing back history, use, and location of the product by means of recorded identification.

It is useful for removal of a nonconforming product and for search of causes of the nonconformance when nonconformance is found after installation of the product.

(10) Quality records Quality records must be maintained as the evidence of conformance to contractual requirements and of effective operation of quality system. Rules of identification, storage, search, and period of retention must be decided to control the quality data. Quality records relating to manufacturing by welding are as follows: a) Records of contract review and design review b) Certificates of materials c) Certificates of welding consumables d) Records of approval tests of welding procedure specifications e) Certificates of welders or welding operators f) Certificates of non-destructive testing personnel g) Records of heat treatment and welding procedures h) Non-destructive testing and destructive testing procedures and records i) Records of dimensions j) Records of repair and other records

4.1.4 Preparation, approval and recording of welding procedure specifications As described in the foregoing section, it is important in welding as a special process to determine its procedure specifications in details clearly and to determine the proceeding of their approval objectively. ISO 3834 refers ISO 14731/ISO 9606 which regulate certification of personnel and ISO 9956 in terms of preparation, approval, and relevant records of welding procedure specifications. These four standards are called a set of standards with ISO 3834 as the core. Of the series of standards (old edition of ISO 9956) relating to specification and approval of welding procedures of metallic materials, here are explained) JIS Z 3420 (ISO 15607-2000)(General Rules), JIS Z 3421-1 (ISO 15609-2000) (Welding Procedure Specification for Arc Welding), and JIS Z 3422-1 (ISO 15614) (Welding Procedure Test) that were taken into the JIS standard in 2003.

As for the JIS standard for welding procedure test, there are JIS Z 3040 (Method of Qualification Test for Welding Procedure) and JIS B 8285 (Welding Procedure Qualification Test for Pressure Vessels) .

These standards are expected to be unified into a new JIS standard compatible with the ISO standard in the future.

Likewise, the ASME and AWS specify the similar standards. These standards are desired to be unified into an international standard in the future.

(1) Procedures of preparation and approval of welding procedure specifications (pWPS) : (Method of welding procedure test)

Firstly, provisional preliminary welding procedure specification (pWPS) is made based on the past experience, expertise, and results of research.
Then, test assembly is welded in the same conditions (regarding materials and welding parameters, for instance) as those written in the specification, and designated test is performed.

If all the results of non-destructive testing (including visual inspection) and destructive testing are satisfactory, the pWPS is approved and becomes an approved welding procedure specification (WPS).

In case the weld test assembly fails to satisfy the requirements of either visual inspection or non-destructive testing, one additional test assembly may be is welded and the same tests are performed. In case the additional weld test assembly does not fulfill the relevant requirements, the provisional preliminary welding procedure specification (pWPS) cannot be regarded as satisfying the requirements of this standard unless it is changed.

In destructive tests, if any test specimen does not satisfy the requirements because of imperfection of weld, 2 additional test specimens can be taken either from the same weld test assembly if possible or from a new weld test assembly, and the same tests can be performed. If any of the additional test specimens does not fulfill the relevant requirements, the provisional preliminary welding procedures specifications (pWPS) cannot be regarded as satisfying the requirements of this standard.

(2) Method of approval of welding procedures In order to approve a provisional preliminary welding procedure specification (pWPS) as a WPS and make a welding procedure approval record (WPAR, or PQR as per the ASME and AWS), other methods than the welding procedure qualification test described in the previous article are also allowed. They are as follows:

(a) Approval by use of tested (approved) welding consumables Approved welding consumables mean the welding consumables or their combinations tested and approved by an independent inspector or inspection agency (a third party body). Provided the welding heat input is maintained within a limited range, approval of the welding procedures that use such approved welding consumables is allowed for materials whose heat-affected zone is not deteriorated considerably. But this approval method is allowed only for arc welding and gas welding.

(b) Approval by past previous welding experiences This method allows welding procedures to be approved by referring to the past previous welding experiences. The manufacturer may obtain approval of a provisional preliminary welding procedure specification (pWPS) by referring to the past previous welding experience on condition that it can be proved by an independent document with an appropriate ground that the same kinds of joint and material were satisfactorily welded in the past. In this case, only those welding procedure specifications should be used that can be associated with consistent acceptable quality test data obtained for a certain period and proven reliable from such past results.

(c) Approval by use of standard welding procedures This is a method of approval of welding procedures using the standard welding procedures. The provisional preliminary welding procedure specifications (pWPS) prepared by the manufacturer are approved if the range of all the matters to be verified are within the range permitted by the standard welding procedures. The standard welding procedure must be issued in the form of WPS or WPAR based on the same proceeding as that for the approval of the welding procedure qualification test. The inspector or inspection agency responsible for the first approval of the standard welding procedure must issue or revise this standard Furthermore, application of the standard welding procedure is allowed only under the conditions that the user is satisfied with.

(d) Approval by pre-production welding test prior to manufacturing This welding test has the same functions as the welding procedure qualification test but the test assembly is prepared in conditions more similar to actual fabrication welding. The standard test assembly shown on the next page does not have to be used. The test assembly must be so prepared that the joint in actual fabrication is simulated. Furthermore, the welding test must be conducted prior to fabrication welding in the same conditions as used in actual fabrication welding. The inspections and tests of the test assembly must be done within the range of the requirements.

This welding test may require special tests additionally or some other substitute tests depending on the kind of the joint, which must be agreed to by the inspector or inspection agency.

(3) Contents of welding procedure qualification test (a) Shape and dimensions of test assembly piece Fig. 4.4 shows the shape and dimensions of the test plate piece for butt welding (full penetration).
Conduct groove preparation and groove alignment per provisional welding procedure specification pW PS)

W here,

a = 3t : minimum value 150mm b = 6t : minimum value 350mm

Fig. 4.4 Test plate for full penetration butt welding joint