Posted By Brian Murray My understanding has always been that to be a welder you have to attend a course for certification. I have come across a situation where employees are being trained to weld in-house by another qaulified welder. Is this legal and does anyone know of any training guidelines to follow? Brian

Posted By Bob Thompson CMIOSH as with everything there are people who can weld, and there are welders. it all boils down to competency, there are formal qualifications for welding city and guilds , and the like but not all welders will undertake these, there are also coded welders. In order to be coded you don't necessarily have to hold formal qualifications you are just required to pass a practical weld test following a set criteria for that particular qualification. if this is successful then you are coded, it does not mean that you are particularly knowledgeable or good, you just meet the required standard to work on anything requiring that particular qualification. However there is more to welding than just joining pieces of metal, when I did my 5 year apprenticeship we learned as much about safety with regard to the different toxins which can be generated by subjecting different materials to heat as we did about the science of joining metals and metallurgy as for competency I am coced to ASME1x, Isqr1, Bsen 287/88 but would not consider myself to be competent as I have not picked up a welder for some time and am out of practice. Hope this helps Bob

Posted By Richie In the very dim & distant past I was trained as a welder. I needed to pass tests against the BS standards - 4871 and 4872 as I recall. Without these I would not have obtained work. I also needed to obtain qualification to be listed on the LLoyds register to undertake some welding jobs, Once again, I recall this as the ASME9 Pipe, ASME9 plate and ASME9 (restricted). I think the SME portion of ASME stands for Structural and Mechanical Engineers. All of the above standards required test welds which were destructively tested to ensure good root penetration and porosity avoidance. *HEALTH WARNING* All these standards have probably been superseded long ago. The previous advice was good - go to the insurers. Welding tests have historically been led by the insurance industry. A bit historic I know, but hopefully of some use. Richie

Posted By boilerman As noted above, welding can be a critical activity. I'm not an IOSH member but find these discussions very useful and informative. I've never contributed before because i had no need to. I am a metallurgist and specialise in welding. I'm sufficiently passionate about this topic to contibute to this. Tbne comments made by Bob above are very pertinent. There are many standards relating to welding and it really depends on what is being welded as to what is required in terms of documetation/qualfications etc. Many of the design standards for components (I'm thinking typically here of pressurised pipework, lifting equipment etc) specify what is required in the way of procedures and qualifications for the actual joint in order to determine mechanical properties and welders in order to determine skill levels. Many welders use bad practice for the materials they weld. They may be good welders but do not understand the implications of the effect of welding on the base material. I recommend also that a specialist organisation is consulted for the requirments of the components being welded. Also bear in mind that if a qualified welder is required, retesting in accordance with the standard is required every two years typically. This can be extended provided the welder has been continuously employed in the process during this period and is typically signed off by a responsible person in the employing organisation. http://www.twi.co.uk/j32...qb_fact008rev3-0902.html Hope this helps.