1 Welding Quality
Management System (QMS )
4.1 Welding Quality Management System (QMS )
1. Poor design for welding may create serious and costly difficulties in the
workshop, on site, or in service.
ii. Then, the Total Quality Control (TQC) was developed, in which all
the employees participated to improve not only production quality
but also all the aspects of Quality, Costs, Delivery, Safety, and
Morale (QCDSM).
(1) Modern Quality Control techniques In Japan
As of 2005, over 50,000 companies acquired the certification. All over the
world, over 776, 000 companies were certified as per the ISO 9000. The ISO
Technical Committee of TC176 has developed 26 standards one after another
starting from ISO 8402, a vocabulary standard, to ISO 10017, one of the
supporting techniques, as ISO 9000 series. And at the end of 2000, it made a
review to regroup the standards and led to the 2000 year revision of ISO
9000 series family. Namely, ISO 8402 (vocabulary) and ISO 9000-1 (basic)
were revised and unified into the new ISO 9000. ISO 9001, ISO 9002, and ISO
9003 for certification were revised and unified into the new ISO 9001. ISO
9004-1 was revised into the new ISO 9004. In Japan, the new ISO 9000 series
family of the version of the year 2000 was taken into the JIS standard as JIS Q
9000 series family which was enacted in December 2000.
The characteristics of ISO 9000 series family issued in
December 2000 (ISO 9000 series family shall be referred
to as ISO 9000 hereafter, unless specifically mentioned)
are as follows.
(a) The old edition was rather suitable for big companies and
manufacturing companies. Revision was made so that the new
edition becomes widely applicable to all companies including those
of medium and small scale and those in the service sector.
(b) Though the standards for requirements were unified into ISO 9000,
it was allowed to exclude part of the scope of application and
requirements for quality management system.
(c) The term of quality assurance (QA) is now unused but it is
confirmed that QA is included in quality management (QM). QM
is explicitly described in ISO 9004 which was issued as guidelines
for the improvement of performance for companies.
(d) As regards ISO 9001, while the old edition was the requirements
for quality assurance system, the new edition describes customer
satisfaction and continuous improvement of effectiveness of
quality system in addition to quality assurance, thus widening its
scope of application. With respect to ISO 9004, it indicates a
model of quality management system that surpasses ISO 9000
and aims at continual improvement of both the effectiveness and
efficiency of the performance of an organization through
continual customer satisfaction and interest of stakeholders.
(e) This model of quality management system emphasizes functions
and responsibilities of top management and advises that the
following eight principles should be adopted.
The Eight Principles;
From the 1994 version onward, this quotation was deleted but the importance
of a “special process” continued to be recognized and the requirements for a
“special process” became even more explicit in the 2000 year version.
Namely, the requirements in Table 4.3 were stipulated in the 2000 year
version.
Table 4.3 Requirements for special process (JIS Q 9001:2000)
To comply with the requirements of Table 4.3 regarding
“special process (welding)” , ISO 3834 (Quality requirements
for welding – Fusion welding of metallic materials) was
established stipulating quality requirements for welded
structures (welded products as per JIS) that are fabricated
(constructed) mainly by welding.
Whether the design data are supplied by the purchaser or are made by the
manufacturer himself, the manufacturing department must conduct design
review to confirm the contents of the design, assess capability of fulfilling
the requirements and propose a solution if there is any problem. When the
design data are supplied by the purchaser, such design review is to be
conducted when confirming the contents of the contract.
Whether or not the welded construction has been inspected and tested and the
status of judgment (accepted or rejected) must be either marked on the weld
construction or on the routing card for identification to prevent a welded
construction yet to be inspected and tested or a nonconforming welded
construction from being transferred to the subsequent process.
(8) Nonconformance and corrective action
① Nonconformance control In order to prevent inadvertent
miss use or delivery of a nonconforming product, the product
that does not conform to the designated requirements must be
identified and controlled. When repairing or readjusting the
nonconforming product, appropriate repair specifications must
be ready for use and the repaired or readjusted product must
be re-inspected in accordance with the original requirements.
Regarding to this matter, ISO 3834 requires that “contract review” and
“design review” should be performed before finalizing the contract .
Workshop facilities must be sufficient to ensure necessary quality.
Facilities for transportation, fabrication, assembly, welding, related
equipment, etc. should be thoroughly checked. The skill and
qualifications of engineers and welders should also be confirmed. If
structures are produced by subcontractors or an affiliated company,
similar confirmations are required.
2nd step: Confirmation and qualification of welding
procedures
Repeated confirmation and discussion is necessary regarding
whether required or planned welding procedures are
applicable or not.
In case the additional weld test assembly does not fulfil the relevant
requirements, the provisional preliminary welding procedure
specification (pWPS) cannot be regarded as satisfying the
requirements of this standard unless it is changed.
If any of the additional test specimens does not fulfill the relevant
requirements, the provisional preliminary welding procedures
specifications (pWPS) cannot be regarded as satisfying the
requirements of this standard.
(2) Method of qualification of welding procedures
In order to approve a provisional preliminary welding procedure
specification (pWPS) as a WPS and make a welding procedure approval
record (WPAR, or PQR as per the ASME and AWS), other methods than
the welding procedure qualification test described in the previous
article are also allowed. They are as follows:
i. Welding process(es)
ii. type of joint and weld
iii. Parent material group(s) and sub-group(s)
iv. Parent Material Thickness (mm)
v. Throat Thickness (mm)
vi. Single run/Multi run
vii. Outside Pipe Diameter (mm)
viii. Filler Material Designation
ix. Filler Material Maker
x. Filler Material Size
Range of qualification;
Such factors that need a new test are called “essential variables” by
the code of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Examples of important alterations for which welding
procedure tests are required are often called as
“Essential Variables”. The handling of important
alterations is prescribed in ISO 15607 standards as
well.
4 Welding personnel
With regard to welding personnel, the qualification of
welders and welding operators, brazers and brazing
operators shall be considered.
9. Work instructions
With regard to work instructions , the issuing and use of
work instructions shall be considered.
10. Welding consumables
The following elements shall be considered with regard
to welding consumables; compatibility delivery
conditions any supplementary requirements in the
welding consumables purchasing specifications,
including the type of welding consumable inspection
document; the storage and handling of welding
consumables.
11. Materials
The following elements shall be considered with regard
to materials: any supplementary requirement in the
material purchasing specifications including the type of
inspection document for the material. b) the storage
and handling of parent material; Traceability.
12. Inspection and testing before welding