Why qualify a welding procedure?
Welded products include construction products, pressure equipment, railway equipment and the like. Companies that make them must meet the requirements of standards such as EN 1090 and AD 2000-Merkblatt. Part of this is verifying the quality of making a certain type of welded or brazed joint, which the company proves with the approval (certificate) of the welding procedure.
For which joining processes do you qualify procedures?
- manual metal arc welding with a covered electrode,
- gas-shielded arc welding TIG and MIG/MAG,
- submerged arc welding,
- flame welding,
- flame brazing,
- plasma welding,
- electron beam welding,
- laser welding,
- joining pipelines by pressing (press system: copper, stainless and galvanised steel),
- joining thermoplastics.
We have been certifying for more than 60 years. International welding engineers and technologists of the Institute help the client to choose the most suitable procedure.
How does welding procedure qualification work?
- Choosing the procedure and application. with the help of our experts the client chooses the most suitable certification procedure and fills in the order application; if you wish, we arrange an informative visit.
- Order. within 7 days of receiving the order we send the welding programme and the contact of the person who will supervise the welding of the test piece.
- Welding supervision. we review the preliminary welding procedure specification (pWPS or WPS), the certificates of the filler material, base material and gas, the welders’ certificates, the traceability of materials and more. The client welds the test piece under our supervision.
- Tests. we test the test pieces in our own accredited laboratory in Ljubljana or Maribor.
- Report and correcting non-conformities. we inform you of the findings; you correct non-conformities within an agreed deadline of no more than 3 months.
- Approval. if the requirements of the standard are met, we issue the approval of the welding procedure (certificate) on the basis of the report on testing the test pieces. The deadline for issuing the certificate is set by the certification scheme.
What are level 1 and level 2 in EN ISO 15614-1?
The standard EN ISO 15614-1:2017+A1:2020 divides the verification of the welding procedure into two levels. Level 1 is based on ASME BPVC Section IX, level 2 on the previous edition of EN ISO 15614-1. Unless specifically required, level 2 is taken for certification. All existing WPQRs issued under the previous edition of the standard remain valid.
Can a welder obtain a certificate on the basis of the procedure?
Yes. A welder or welding operator who welded the test piece for procedure qualification to EN ISO 15614-1 or 15614-2 or for a pre-production test to EN ISO 15613 can also obtain a welder or welding operator certificate after positive tests. It can be issued no later than 6 months after welding the test piece. See Welder certification.
How do you qualify cutting procedures (CPQR)?
The procedure defines the way of verifying and confirming the suitability of the cut surfaces in thermal cutting and the evaluation of the results. The starting standard is EN 1090-2:2018, whose annex D defines the tests on cut surfaces. On the test pieces we measure the surface roughness Rz, the hardness HV 10 and the perpendicularity or angularity tolerance u. The measurements are classified into classes under EN ISO 9013:2017. The required class depends on the client’s execution class (EXC1 to EXC4) and is given in EN 1090-2:2018.