Developing Weld Procedure Specifications For A Blueprint Of Successful Welds In Your Company

By Author: coding4welders
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Standardization of procedures is a very important part of maintaining integrity of production for companies that are strictly adhering to a welding code during their projects. It is important to have a written document of procedures to help the team of labors work uniformly across the project for all areas requiring the similar grade of welding.

Writing a welding procedure specification requires a correct set of data matched by the coding standards and a bit of experience in the filed to ensure that the specifications are truly enforceable without damaging the technical quality of the product. Here is an overview on the process of writing and developing a weld procedure for your company.
Firm basics

A welding procedure specification should consider putting in details right from the very foundation of the process. The general way of looking at it is to assume that the company will have separate team of welders working at different times on different or same arts of the project. While it is assumed that every welder is completely certified in all the techniques necessary for welding in the project, they can ...
... still refer to the WPS at any given time and can find every foundational information listed in the document.

Elaborate details

As much as possible a WPS document should be elaborate in the amount of details present in it. This should include all kinds of choices regarding the appropriate grade of welding that is applicable for the project. For instance, details such as the:

• Which welding process to use for different parts of the project

• Which base metal and which filler metal to be used for the project

• Which shielding gas is to be used and details about the flow rate and gas nozzle size.

Mentioning the welding variables

The WPS should clearly mention the welding variables and categorize each of the variables in to the two major categories – essential and non-essential. The essential variables are those welding elements, which might have a deeper effect on the overall mechanical properties and structure of the final weld. The non-essential components do not have a direct influence on the mechanical properties of the weld.

Major types of WPS

The WPS can be divided in to several different types. However, the two major categories include the post tested and pre tested types. The post-tested type of WPS requires the documentation of the WPS first and then each variable under the document is properly tested in repeat procedures until the right code and simulation is achieved. The pre-tested variety included only those components that have already been tested before they have been added to the WPS document.

In conclusion, a welding procedure specification document is highly adaptable and often changes according to the company’s priorities. However, the above-mentioned elements have to be a part of the document for it to attest to the welding code according to which the production has to be standardized. Every company has different in-hose team working on the development of the WPS or they bring in innate professionals from outside for this very important document to make sure that the production quality and welding is not compromised at any cost.