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Have you ever seen a welding procedure specification with established amperage ranging from 200
to 550 amps? Or voltage ranging from 21 to 29 volts? Or some other variable with a huge window?
This is all too common, but extremely dangerous. Why? Because changes to essential variables
beyond that which is reasonable will affect the physical and mechanical properties of a weld. There
are three main reasons that contribute to the problem extreme ranges for essential variables, these
are:
Amperage and voltage are essential variables we are all very aware of, but there are many more than
we need to consider when making changes to a welding procedure specification which has been
qualified by testing, or even prequalified.
To understand why this is a problem it is first necessary to understand welding procedure
qualification. A welder procedure that requires qualification must undergo a series of tests to
determine if it is suitable for producing quality welds.When the test is made the values for essential
variables, such as wire feed speed/amperage, voltage, travel speed, shielding gas mixture, shielding
gas flow, polarity, etc.are all recorded in the procedure qualification record (PQR).If that procedure
passes the tests then the procedure is qualified.Now, if you take that PQR and write a welding
procedure specification (WPS) that uses completely different values for the essential variables, what
assurance do you have that the newly written WPS will produce sound welds? Maybe none!
This is why AWS D1.1 and other welding codes specify what changes to essential
variables would require a requalification of the welding procedure.
A change in the vertical progression (from uphill to downhill or vice versa) requires
requalification of a welding procedure.
If you have a copy of AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code – Steel simply turn to Table 4.5 and you
will see a listing of the changes to PQR essential variables that require WPS requalification.There
are some that are intuitive, but there are several that even experienced welding engineers may
miss.Take a look at the list below and keep it handy any time you think about revising a welding
procedure.
This list is for the GMAW welding process. Some of these variables will not apply to other
processes such as SMAW, SAW, GTAW and FCAW.
What is discouraging is that you can have a perfectly written welding procedure that is simply not
followed in production. To understand why this happens read 11 Reasons Why Welders Don’t
Follow Welding Procedures. Spoiler alert: it is usually NOT the welder’s fault. Do you supervise,
manage or have any kind of responsibility over welding operations?If so, make sure you understand
these reasons.
References: Qualification of Welding Procedures, Welders and Welding Operators per AWS D1.1
AWS D1.1/D1.1M:2015 Structural Welding Code