Compulsory question no: 6

You are required to a site visit on which your welding inspectors have been
involved. The work concerns the inspection of a welded structure to a specified
application standard and is now completed and ready for final approval. What
question do you ask, what documents do you review and what inspection do you
require before submitting your inspection report to the authorities concern?

The SWI should make enquiry to the assigned inspector which can give him the insights
in the past while product was being manufactured.

Then the following enquiry shall be clarified:

1. What was repair rate during production?

2. Whether any concession or wavier were given, if yes why?
3. How were the weather condition?
4. Whether there was any safety issues, fatalities, major accident/incidents etc.
5. Whether there was any labor problem?

Further the SWI start reviewing and verifying the appropriate documents and he should
make sure that he attaches of those as a minimum requirement. Such as:
1. Quality control plan, ensure all the stages are completed and signed off.
2 Inspection check list, ensure all the stages are completed and signed off.
3. Verify material certificates such as mill test certificates etc.
4. Verify the following procedures:
a. Welding (WPS,WPQR)
b. NDT
c. PWHT
d. Hardness
e. PMI
f. Hydro testing
g. Coating
5. Qualification level and validity of the welders and NDT personals
6. Inspection reports of following discipline and ensure that they cover all appropriate
joints and structure 1)Visual 2)NDT 3)Dimensional Control etc.
7. Calibration Certificates of equipment and instruments such as pressure gauges,
welding machine etc.
8. Hardness test reports.
9. PMI reports.
10. PWHT/Chart reports.
11. Hydro test or Pneumatic test reports.
12. As built drawings are completed.
13. Weld map are available for traceability.
14. Name plate rubbing details are available when aooicable.
15. The concession request site query etc.(if any)
16. Permit to work/degas certificate.
17. Painting/Coating inspection reports.

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As part of his own he may obliged to conduct a visual inspection of completed parts, and
as a matter of quality assurance he may view some radiographs at random and may
even conduct a radiographic audit.

1. You are an SWI who has taken over from an SWI who has been on site for a few
months. It becomes obvious that there is a complete lack of moral amongst your
inspectors but they do not approach you to discuss any grievance. What would
be your approach to the situation?
Answer:
Low morale can be identified by the following symptoms:
a. High rate of absenteeism.
b. Sluggish response to the system.
c. Casual approach towards the work.
d. Negligence (poor record keeping, not inspecting the wels etc).
e. Complaint from the Client/TPA (Third Party Agency)

Low morale may be result in the following.

a. Lack of control over production activities from quality point of view.
b. Highes rejection rate by client/TPA.
c. Substandard work out put.
d. Delay in work schedule.
e. Lack of credibility to the organization.

Observing all above, it is imperative that lifting the low morale is stitch in time, this can be
done as follows:
1. Arrange the meeting of all your sub coordinates staff fordiscussion on the subject
matter.
2. From their response you can form a collective opinion for the low morale.
3. Further to this you may have private discussion with each individual which can
help you to zero in on his problem. This problem is then sorted out as general
problem and individual problems.
As regards to the personal problems you can assure the team that you will do everything
possible in your capacity to rectify it. It should be brought to the attention of the emplyees
in gentle but firm manner that their indivdual problem must not affect the morale.
Nevertheless, on compassionate grounds you will try to seek company’s help for his
personal problem also. Further to this they should be noticed that he effect of high
morale willreflect in good salary rise, better facilities etc. How ever if low morale
continues then the management will be obliged warning letters, demotions and in worst
case termination also.

2. You are an SWI responsible for a team of welding inspectors who have been on-
site for two months. A welding inspector who has been in site for only one week
informs you that the contractor has approach him with an offer of money in
return for “turning a blind eye” when certain welding work is being performed.
Discuss your course of action.
Answer:
This problem has serious legal implications and must be approach cautiously.
Ask the inspector for a brief written report of the approach.
Identify the items that might be involved.
Inform SWI’s superior and hold a meeting involving the inspector in question, SWI and
the SWI’s in charge.
Assign yourself to the items in question and be especially vigilant for detective work.
Transfer inspector to other wor location on the project.
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3. You are the SWI on a pipeline project. The radiographic interpreter informs you
that he believes that the same weld has been radiographed with different
numbers on a number of occasions and the radiographs have been submitted.
What action do you take?
Answer:
Conduct the radiographic audit in the batches and if similar looking radiographs
are found then they should be verified at job against the weld. If many such
suspected radiographs are found then a full audit of all radiograph should be
performed.

The out come of this investigation could be of two types:

1. Rare case duplication
2. Occurence of duplicate in many cases.
In former case it most likely to be a human error; hence the matter can be resolved by
making NDT supervisor aware of facts.
However in the later case it is an international action performed to help somebody’s
interest, which is obviously a set back to the quality. Hence depending upon the
extremity of fraudulence following proposal can be made to the higher authority as
discilinary measures:
1. Warning letter
2. Cut payment
3. Termination of NDT service contract
4. Debarring NDT contract.
A meeting of all inspectors to be conducted and they should be issued a strong warning
letter to improve the level of their performance to avoid such incident in the future.

4. You are the SWI working on behalf of a client on a project to build an offshore
platform. You discover that one of the welding inspector, supplied from a
different agency, who has been on site for one week, does not hold a valid
welding inspector approval. State the action that you would take.
Answer:
Remove inspector, notify agency and suggest re-certification of the inspector.
Notify the supervisor.
Identify all the work approved by the non-valid inspector.
Stop further work on those item and repeat certification procedures with valid inspector.

5. You visit a fabrication company as an SWI on behalf of a client and you discover in
a welders electrode quiver a number of incorrect electrodes among the correct ones
which are very different ti those spcified for the item being welded. The welder states
that he only uses the correct electrodes. State your course of action.
Answer:
Stop all welding work and check for other incorrect electrodes
Investigate the procedures for issue of electrodes.
If procedure is inadequate, stop allwelding and notify client.
If procedure is inadequate, identify all welds made by welder in question.
Ask for replacement of that welder.
Consult welding engineer to determine corrective action.
Replace all welds made by that welder.

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Brief and describe about Residual stress

Metal contact during solidification and subsequent cooling, but if contraction is prevented or inhibited
residual stress will develop.

Most metal product contain residual stress, often up to the yield point. Pipe product for example are
highly stressed. The tendency to develop residual stress increas when the heating and cooling are
localized. So welding with high localized heating and the precence of liquid and solid metal in contact can
be expected to induce very high levels of residual stresses. Residual stress can be difficult to measure
with any real accuracy, but a rough guide is that when the metal exceed 2”cube(14 cm cube) then the
total residual stress is about yield point in magnitude. Normal weld develop residual stress:

1. Along the weld – longitudinal stresses

2. Accross the weld – Transverse residual stress
3. Through the weld – Short transverse stress

Brief and describe why use transition joint, two causes problem and sketch.

It can be of two types: 1) Different base Metal, 2) Different thickness.

If different base metal.

1. Proper selection of electrode to avoid dilution of the weld metal

2. Proper selection of current range and polarity type of current
3. Back purging required if any
4. Cleanliness
5. Pre-heat, PWHT
6. Welding process

If different thickness

1. The thicker member should be gradually tapered off to match the thickness of thiner member
such that said taper will not exceed 1:4
2. The completed weld should be blendedin such a way that it will follow the gradual transition
3. Proper heat treatment should be chosen taking consideration of thickness of thicker member.
On steel, the HAZ of the weld tends to be more brittle i.e it has lower notch toughness, than the
actual weld. The HAZ area is therefore more prone to cracking especially when hydrogen is
induced, although it must be noted that the tensile strength of the HAZ is normally high in
comparison with the weld and parent material. Unfortunately if a fusion welding process is being
used then the HAZ cannot be eliminated.

Sketch:

Inside transition joint Outside transition joint

Brief and describe about:

1 Tensile test: is used to measure tensile strength. Tensile unit (N/mm2) and (Ductility as E %).
2 Transverse tensile test: To measure the transverse tensile under static load.
Reduced section assesses the tensile strength of the joint.
Radius reduced section assesses the tensile strength of the weld metal.

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3 All weld metal tensile test: To measure the tensile strength of
1. Electrode or filler wire/ flux combination
2. Quality of weld metal as deposited.
STRA – Short Transverse Reduced Area to assess lamelar tearing.
4 Fracture test: is used to assess root fusion in fillet weld.
5 Nick break test: is used to assess root penetration and fusion welds to permit examination of the
fracture surface.
6 Bend test: is used to check weld soundness of the weld metal, weld junction and HAZ
7 Macro examination test: is used to check the internal level of quality in the weld.
8 Hardness test: is used to check the level of hardness accross the weld.
9 Toughness test: is used to check the resistance to impact loading.
a. Charpy V notch (unit= joules)
b. Izod (Ftlbs)
c. CTOD (mm)

The different betwen “LAMINATION” and “LAMELAR TEARING”

LAMINATION is a product defect due to impurities such as sulphides and silicates or oxy/gas
entrapped wich occured during the steel making process.(Rolled out casting defect)

LAMELAR TEARING is a stepped like crack which occured in the plate or HAZ of steel with poor
through thickness ductility during welding of joints where high contractional stresses are passed
in the through thickness direction of one of the plate in the joint. It is usually associated with
restrained joints on corner, tee or fillet weld joining thick plate.