African Fusion March 2016

SAIW’s first graduation dinner, 2016

Welding Inspection graduates:

SAIW’s first graduation dinner for 2016 was held in the Crown Reef Room at Gold Reef City in Johannesburg on March 12, at which 124 graduates on SAIW courses received diplomas. African Fusion reports and summarises the motivational talk by Gert Joubert (right), chairperson of SAIW Certification’s governing board.

A t the top of the list of graduates that completed SAIW courses during 2015 are those on SAIW’s IIWwelding co-ordination programmes. SAIW offers IIW Welding Practitioner, Welding Specialist, Welding Technolo- gist and IIWWelding Engineer qualifica- tions and five IIWwelding technologists, including two women, along with two welding specialists graduated at the March dinner. These qualifications are required by schemes such as ISO 3834 and EN 15085 for people responsible for managing welding processes within fabrication environments. They require specialist knowledge of welding engineering and the control of welding processes – and when things gowrong, these specialists have the knowledge to rectify issues and resolve problems. In addition, 49 Level 2 Inspectors, 17 of which also received standard level IIW Inspector certificates, while 68 people graduated as Level 1 Inspectors, five of them with distinction. ArcelorMittal’s Gert Joubert targeted his address for the evening at spouses and those less familiar with the daily re- sponsibilities of weld Inspection person- nel. “Theweldingworld is about building

structures, pressure vessels, boilers and pipelines. To build these structures we needgoodengineers todesignstructures that don’t fall down. They establish the integrity and the safety of the design. Then you need fabricators to build the structure, construction or vessel – the boilermakers and welders – and the in- spectors to ensure that the work has no flaws and that it is done according to the design, at the requiredquality and to the relevantconstructioncodes,”heexplains. Joubert recalls seeing a student welding inspectors carrying an ASME code with yellow post-it notes sticking out from every second page. “He was about to write an open book exam on this code. It’s not easy, but inspectors need to learn these standards so that they know exactly what the require- ments are,” he points out. Describing the processes involved in producing a simple weld, he says that a boilermaker prepares the joint. “A butt joint, for example, is two pieces of metal that are aligned side by side, typically with a V-preparation on thicker sections. When the V is filled with metal, we call the joint a butt joint. “The weld fabrication inspector first comes into play to inspect the joint

design. After the boilermaker has tacked the joint together, the inspector will check the dimensions – the V-angles, root gaps, and so on. “This is tomake sure that thewelder has the best possible chance of making a goodweld,” Joubert tells us. “Because if he or she cannot produce a goodweld, we could have an in-service failure, and on products such as pressure vessels or boilers, this could be disastrous. So the inspectors job is extremely important!” he exclaims. “Oncethejointisinspected,theweld- erwill strike thearc andbegin toweld the root run,” Joubert continues. “Andmagic happens. As soon as the arc is struck, plasma is created,which is an intensehot channel of conductivegas that carries the arccurrenttotheworkpiece.IwishIcould makemyself small enough to seewhat is happening here: how the metal droplets are melted and transferred across from the consumable and into the joint; and how the welder manipulates the place- ment of these droplets. “Welders are calledartisans because

Princess Kilani and Eliza Dlamini receive their IIW Welding technologist Diplomas from IIW President, Morris Maroga.

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March 2016

AFRICAN FUSION