Hi
Paul,
Quick question. Can a CWI write a welding procedure just being a CWI? Or does the company he works for engineering department have to give him the power to?
Quick question. Can a CWI write a welding procedure just being a CWI? Or does the company he works for engineering department have to give him the power to?
Unknown
Whomever
you are,
Becoming
a Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) does not, in-and-of-itself, qualify you as
the one who writes Weld Procedures (WPS).
Codes and standards will require that we use “Sound Engineering
Judgement” and AWS QC1 - Specification
for AWS Certification of Welding Inspectors states “…the CWI shall: 11.2.1
Undertake and perform assignments only when qualified by training, experience,
and capability.”
A
designation as CWI (or CAWI & SCWI for that matter) does not qualify you
for anything outside the scope of visual inspection of welds/welding. CWI’s come in all shapes and sizes. Some are Welders considering a career change,
some are Engineers, Purchasing Agents, Lawyers, Supervisors or NDE Techs
(nondestructive evaluation). The list is
pretty much endless. All of those
backgrounds can make great CWI’s, but none of those backgrounds make the
individual an expert in the field of Code Compliance.
Back
in 1993 I was a 3rd shift Welder who dreamed of bigger things. My employer gave me the opportunity to take
the AWS Seminar and CWI Exam. Shortly
after passing the Quality Mgr recruited me to his department for a short-term
project of reviewing the companies ASME & AWS WPS’s, PQR’s and Welder
Qualification. Everything I knew about
the subject I had just recently learned in a 1 week seminar. I was nowhere near ready.
After
about a week of banging my head, falling asleep reading and making zero
progress, that Quality Mgr suggested I enlist the help of others, and that’s
what I did. I found that all throughout
our company we had resident experts
on some portion of the subject matter.
Long
story short, I mottled through with the help of just about every department in
the company and came up with my first Weld Quality Program. As difficult and frustrating as it was, it
was an experience that changed me as a Welder and now, rookie QC inspector (6
months earlier I couldn’t spell QC).
So,
none of that actually answers your question… or does it? Who has, or gives, the power is not the real
question here. Who has the responsibility?
is. The responsibility lies with your
Company, and as I found out early in my career, nothing less than the whole
company is what it takes.
Good
Luck,
PWC
3 comments:
Paul, I have a code question for you. According to D1.1, 2010 edition, what is the maximum layer width for the SMAW process? Table 3.7 has this value shaded and a shaded area indicates non-applicability. Does this simply mean there is no value so layer width is whatever we want or does this mean that there is no value given and no weaving of the SMAW process. Thanks.
"A designation as CWI (or CAWI & SCWI for that matter) does not qualify you for anything outside the scope of visual inspection of welds/welding."
Check out AWS B5.1 Table 1. The table indicates the inspectors capabilities based on the qualification levels. SCWI's have the capability to develop Welding Procedures. AWI's and CWI's do not.
Great information posted here. keep sharing good blogs.
We manufacture and supply MIG Welding Machines in Patiala.
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