Manufacturing 3. Competent shop floor and engineering staff (the welding supervisor/engineer). All these components are of great importance and a welding company cannot claim to be certified to CSA W47.1 unless all three are shown to be in place. A great weld results from more than just the skill of the welder. Although this is an important element, the welder must also know what they are welding and how to weld it. This is where the welding procedure comes into play. Training, supervisory and engineering personnel must also control the entire welding operation. There is risk of a poor quality weld if any one of these elements is missing. An additional method to ensure high quality and safe welds is the concept of an independent third party to confirm that those welding companies that choose to become certified do, in fact, meet the key requirements of the certification standard. This is where the CWB comes in. When the first CSA W47.1 standard was introduced in 1947, the industry agreed that a single body should be
formed to administer the standard. The objective was to create a level playing field by ensuring consistent application of the stated requirements. This would in turn help guarantee that welded structures were of high quality and safe. In response, the CWB was formed as a non-government, not-for-profit, industry funded organization, acting as an independent certification body for the welding industry. Its primary mandate, however, is the protection of public safety. Since its creation, the CWB has expanded its role within industry, managing multiple CSA welding standards for fabricators, inspectors and welding consumables. Today, there are over 6,500 companies certified by the CWB in over 20 countries around the world. To prove competence in the practical application of welding, individual welders must undergo regular testing. This is normally done every two years and welders are examined on each welding process, welding position and joint configuration for which they wish to be qualified. All testing is witnessed by the
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22 | November/December 2014
CWB and documents of certification are issued. For welders to know what they are welding and how to weld it, a procedure must be created by the company. This lists all the variables that may impact the final quality of the weld. The material grade, the filler metal, the welding parameters, the required preheat and many other variables must be defined in what is essentially a recipe for making the weld. These procedures are created by the welding supervisor and/or engineer and then independently reviewed by the CWB for compliance to applicable standards. Certification is not a one-time event. All organizations that are certified to CSA W47.1 must continually comply with the requirements of certification, ensuring that new welders are proven to be competent and that new welding procedures are developed for new projects that they undertake. In addition, the CWB continually monitors the activities of certified companies providing on-site audits of the welding operation at least every six months. As a not-for-profit certification body, costs to industry are kept low, with the typical Canadian fabricator’s certification fees set at less than $2,500 annually. Certification brings many benefits to both the welding industry, and the specifiers, owners and end users. The welding industry has realized cost savings as they leverage certification to manage quality issues and reduce rework and client complaints. For the end user, specifying certification can help reduce risk of poor quality or failure. For some product types, certification is mandatory under regulatory requirements or product safety standards. Buildings, bridges, cranes, platforms, railings and stairways are some of the product types where certification is mandatory for the welded fabricator. Where certification is not mandatory, many owners choose to require certification by their suppliers or subcontractors as an extra assurance for quality and risk reduction. J. Craig Martin is with the Canadian Welding Bureau. Email: craig.martin@cwbgroup.org
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