"Put your finger on it"

Hi, Paul.
I was seeking advice from you regarding D1.1  I'm a welding instructor at a steel mill in Northwest Ind.
We were sent 12 yrs ago to Hobart welding school for train the trainer class and to certify in all positions,limited & unlimited thickness plates w/backing. All SMAW, 7018 rod. (Did not like Hobart's 7018 rod). We believed that we are Qualified to qualify welders to weld anything structural in our mill. Does this sound correct or our we missing something?
Also the big question is, does D1.1 say you have to certify to weld structural or just qualify through the testing procedure to weld structure? A new instructor is saying we have to certify I do not believe this is what D1.1 says.
Any advice would be helpfull, Thank you for time.
Thanks, Pat

Hi Pat,
Hobart is a great school and the Train the Trainer program was a great idea.
If your company accepted the Hobart documentation as your Welder Qualifications (common) and your company maintained a Welder Continuity Log (see: http://www.thefabricator.com/article/arcwelding/arc-welding-101-d1-1-welder-documentation) and as long as there is no reason to question your ability, your Welder Qualifications will continue to be current.
Although the AWS Certified Welding Educator (CWE) program would require you to maintain your Welder Qualifications, being a CWE is not a code requirement for those of us who train and qualify our Welders, so anyone your company deems competent to do so can train and qualify your Welders.
As far as qualifying Welders to weld anything structural in your mill… you would need to determine what governing documents covers the welding requirements of your mill (D1.1, D1.3, D14.1…) and insure your Welders are being qualified to those requirements.  Those Welders would need to be qualified to a (or many) test procedure(s) and the test procedures would need to encompass all of the essential variables listed in the code(s) being used.  (I know… it’s enough to make your head spin)
Bottom Line: When someone comes to me with a code requirement that I don’t believe to be accurate, my first response is to ask them to “Put your finger on it”.  Equally important, when someone asks about a code provision I would never give an answer until I had ALL the required information and I was able to “Put my finger on it” as well.

PWC