A gang of welders sets up a mechanical system and begins welding a joint. The welder must make several passes to finish several welds. Visual inspection, which is only capable of detecting surface breaking indicators, is the main method utilized to verify each pass quality.
The welding apparatus is taken out once all weld passes are finished. Afterwards, the final weld joint will be inspected by an NDE team. The weld may need to be repaired if the NDE inspector(s) finds an issue with it. The welding team will then have to go back and remove the defect, sometimes several passes deep, reinstall their welding system, and perform a weld repair. This cycle of weld repair followed by NDE is repeated until the weld passes all inspections. How is the nondestructive examination (NDE) team qualified and certified to perform this task? Let’s talk about it.