By Joolz Malek

As a welding inspector, sometimes you have too much work to do in a day. You struggle to finish your task but somehow you’d miss a thing or two unintentionally. Whatever it is, try not to make these 5 awful mistakes:

1. You didn’t verify the welding material.
One of the most important duties of a welding inspector prior to welding is to verify the correct welding material. This seems to be an easy task, but when there is a lot of different material involved, the verifying process becomes quite difficult.
This is why sometimes it is easier to let the welder verify the material for you.
That is until he comes back to you with the wrong material welded together.

2. You allow the welder to work without verifying his qualification.
Once a welder passes a WQT, their employer or the third party involved will certify their ability, limitations or extent to weld, accordingly. In other words, a qualified welder is the one who meets the WPS requirement.
Therefore, allowing a welder to weld without proper qualification is just against the specification.
Don’t do it.

3. Proceeding with welding without checking the preheat temperature.
Preheating the base metal before welding is mandatory when specified in the WPS. Preheating actually slow down the cooling rate in the weld area thus avoiding the cracking of the weld metal or heat affected zone.
Don’t miss checking the preheat and you will save the weld from cracking.

4. You didn’t verify welding consumables.
Sometimes it is acceptable for the welder to use the same consumable to weld another item as long as the same WPS is issued. However, if a different WPS is assigned then you’ll have a problem.
Verify the welding consumable before allowing the welder to start welding.
This will save you from headaches.

5. Accepting the completed weld without properly accessing it.
You realized that you miss one or two defects while accessing a lot of weld. You thought that you could get away with it, that is until the NDT guy found an obvious visual defect when it should have been traced earlier by you. Unlucky..
If this happens, pray that the NDT inspector won’t tell your boss, but if he does, you’ll be in trouble.
Best thing to do is to avoid the unnecessary, never accept a weld without properly accessing it ever again.