NCPWBulletin

July 2000 The Newsletter of the National Certified Pipe Welding Bureau

WHAT A MEETING
The Bureau Technical Committee met in Tucson AZ with 127 participants. It was a great meeting, which began with a dinner reception and ended with the Board meeting. As the pictures show, everyone had an enjoyable time.

The technical committee members meet annually to exchange information and resolve technical issues surrounding welding and welder certification. At this meeting, the committee discussed the mismatch limit between two ends of a pipe that are specified in the Bureaus current Welding Procedures Specification (WPS). The mismatch limit of 1/16 appears in all WPSs typical details, which are in compliance with the requirement of B31.1. A task force will examine how to expand the internal mismatch beyond 1/16, but to specify B31.1s 1/16 mismatch limits where applicable. This revision makes the WPSs more flexible in terms of meeting the other codes requirements.

In the 2000 addenda to Section IX of ASME, the weld deposit thickness is being reduced from 3/4 to 1/2 inch which qualifies welders for unlimited weld deposit.The addenda, which will be published this year, will provide an opportunity to reduce the cost of qualifying welders. In order to take advantage of this reduction, options such as switching from NPS 6 XXS to Schedule 160, increasing the thickness of root process qualification, and purchasing custom-made pipe less than 2-7/8 OD and 5/8 thick were presented at the meeting. These ideas will be further explored at the next technical committee meeting. s

National Certified Pipe Welding Bureau

1385 Piccard Drive Rockville, MD 20850-4340 (301) 869-5800

CHAIRMANS CORNER
I am pleased that we have made great strides in resolving both technical and procedural issues surrounding the joint UA/NCPWB welder certification program. Our representatives on the Tripartite Committee (TPC) have responded to our chapters need for a less confusing welder qualification record that combines both UA and NCPWB procedures; thus, the Joint Procedures Qualification (JPQT) records were created.We constantly educate and, from time to time, intervene to resolve misunderstandings about the joint program or the code requirements. Our joint program is getting noticed. When we entered into the agreement with the UA to have a joint program, the main objective was, as it still is, to develop a uniform welder certification program that will make the unionized mechanical contractors more competitive. The operative word is the word unionized. Therefore, so long as this criterion is met, it does not matter whose welder the Bureau contractor member is witnessing in a test event. Under the Tripartite Agreement, the Bureau is responsible for providing contractors to witness testing of welders.There are still a number of issues on the TPC list that have to be resolved, but the one issue that should not be on the list is that of Bureau members witnessing tests for welders who are or will be employed by non-Bureau members. Our goal is to increase the pool of welders that will benefit everyone. I would like to hear from our membership through our national office about their concerns on this issue. I am elected and trusted by the membership to look after our interests. And I promise you that I, as the chairman of your board, will do my best to safeguard our interests. I ask that each of you do your part and participate to the fullest extend possible in this program. Everyone will win. In support of our joint program with the UA, this year I will be presenting to the MCAA Board our request to have chapters in areas where there are no MCAA chapters. This will give us greater visibility and will eliminate the problem of providing Bureau contractors to witness the joint program in those areas. For the remainder of this year the TPC will explore the possibility of developing a joint procedure for straight MIG; discuss concerns about 5-year re-qualification, and review the process for safeguarding the issuance of JPQTs being given directly to welders. s

Robert W. Waddy NCPWB Chairman

MCAAs President-elect Speaks at Technical Committee Meeting

At the recent NCPWB Technical Committee meeting, MCAAs president-elect, Smitty Belcher, spoke about MCAAs Vision 2000 and many MCAAs programs that are in concert with the MCAA strategic objectives. Programs sited included the Institute for Project Management, the annual mid-year education conference, the Safety Excellence Initiative, and the National Education and Career Development Initiatives. Belcher commended NCPWB for the excellent working relationship that it has developed and nurtured with the UA. He congratulated the Bureau for its many achievements over the last several years and its continued membership growth. He stated that the spirit of cooperation has resulted in great opportunities for the industry. Programs that have been developed by the Bureau continue to provide the industry with much needed uniformity. He assured

Smitty Belcher members of his support of the NCPWB and its activities during his tenure as president-elect and as president of MCAA. Belcher ended his remarks by stating that by working together, we can help make the industry better in this century than it has been in the past. s

July 2000

New Chapter Formed in Michigan

The board approved the establishment of a new chapter in Lansing, MI.The chapter will be known as Mid-Michigan Chapter with designation number 43.The chapters executive director is Michael West who has over twenty-seven years of experience in association management. Mike was the executive vice-president for an association management firm before being hired at Lansing MCA. He is the former executive vice-president of the Michigan Society of Association Executives and was a co-founder of the Mid-Michigan Society of Association Executives. He currently manages the day-to-day operations of the Mid-Michigan Mechanical Contractors Association. s

From left: NCPWB Executive Director Dariush Nikpourfard and Chairman Bob Waddy present chapter certificate to Bill Carpenter, Vice President and Mike West, Executive Director of Mid-Michigan Chapter

Election of Board Members

Jim Sekely of Eichleay Corporation, Rick Taylor of Murphy Company, and Russell I. Mullican of M & M Welding and Fabrication have been reelected to the Board of Trustees for another term. s

Record of Welder Qualification Tests

Please help the national office to effectively maintain welders test records by forwarding the test papers as soon as you receive them.We have, in the recent past, received records dating back to 1997 and a handful dating back a year. In some cases the records were duplicates. Lets make your chapter records accurate.Your effort will be greatly appreciated. s

Sekely

Taylor

Mullican

F U T U R E M E E T I N G S
2000
Oct. 15-17 Board meeting Colorado Springs, CO

UA Welder Database
At the recent Technical Committee meeting a UA representative demonstrated the UAs Web-based certification document package delivery system. With the UA electronic database, a welder record can be scanned and retrieved for future processing.This eliminates keying information into the computer. Currently the joint UA/NCPWB welding procedures can be viewed on the UAs Web-based system.A private Web site is under development by the UA for use by the NCPWB chapters.This site will allow the chapters access to welder certification records.The access to the UA database will first be tested through the national office. Once the program is fully functional, chapter members will be trained on the system. s

Welcome New Members

The following organizations have been approved by the Board as new members of the Bureau. We welcome their membership into the Bureau. Chicago Ram Mechanical Services, Inc. Taft Contracting Company, Inc. West Elsdon Electric Co., Inc. Cincinnati Automation & Mechanical Service Detroit Benchmark Mechanical, Inc. Heart of America Mechanical Systems New England Siemens Building Technologies Western Pennsylvania Simmons Mechanical Contractors

2001
Mar. 25-28 Technical Committee Amelia Island Plantation, FL Board meeting Hollywood, FL

Oct. 14-16

2002
TBA Technical Committee Savannah, GA

NCPWBulletin
is published periodically by the National Certified Pipe Welding Bureau at its national office. 1385 Piccard Drive Rockville, MD 20850-4340 (301) 869-5800 Dariush Nikpourfard, Editor

NCPWBulletin

A MESSAGE FROM THE CONSULTANT There are many things that an NCPWB contractor must consider when selecting the Welding Procedure Specification (WPS)
Walter Sperko NCPWB Technical Consultant There are many things that an NCPWB contractor must consider when selecting the Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) that he will use in construction. Following is a step-by-step sequence of what the contractor must consider to select the correct WPS as well as some background on why. 1 Find the P-number The first step is to determine the P-number or numbers of the base materials to be welded.That is easily done by determining the ASME material specification, type or grade to be welded from the bill of materials, drawings, specifications or other contract documents. Once the specification, type and/or grade has been determined, the P-number can be found by looking up that specification, type and/or grade in Section IX,Table QW/QB-422. Finding any specification, type or grade and determining its P-number is very simple since QW/QB-422 is sorted by specification number. Once the Pnumber of the base materials has been determined, that number has to be the same as the first part of the WPS number, i.e., the X in the WPS number X-Y-Z. For example, it has been found that the materials to be welded are assigned P-8.The appropriate WPS must, therefore, be of the form 8-X-X, where X is some number. Suitable WPSs might be 8-32-1 and 8-57-1. 2 More than one P-number to be welded together There are several things that can complicate this otherwise simple process.When more than one P-number is to be welded on a job, the contractor has to determine if only materials of matching P-number will be welded, or if welds must be made between materials of different P-numbers. If only matching P-number materials will be welded, the WPS selection process described above is adequate. If welds must be made between materials of different P-numbers, then the WPS selected must include both P-numbers in the first part of the WPS number, i.e., the X: X in the WPS number X: X-Y-Z. For example, P-8 and P-1 metals are to be welded on a job. There are support lugs that are P-8 that must be welded to P1 piping, so the WPS has to be suitable for welding P-8 to P-1 materials.Therefore, the form of the WPS number to attach the P-8 lug to the P-1 piping must be 8:1-X-X,where X is some number.Examples of suitable WPSs are 8:1-2-1 or 8:1-5-1. 3 What is an S-number? A complicating factor may be that some material is identified as ASTM or some other specification rather than as ASME material. In this case, first look up the material specification in QW/QB-422 and see if it is listed by the ASTM or other specification. If it is, it will be assigned an S-number rather than a P-number.Within the WPSs issued by NCPWB, any material assigned an S-number may be handled as though it has the matching P-number (e.g., a material assigned to S-1 may be considered the same as if it had been assigned to P-1). It should be noted that this may not be the case when using WPSs outside the NCPWB system. If the material specification is ASTM, and QW/QB-422 does not list the ASTM materials, but it does list the equivalent ASME materials, the ASTM materials should be considered to have the same P-number as the ASME material.That is,ASTM A106 Grade B will not be found in QW/QB-422, but ASME SA106 Grade B will be found, and it is assigned to P-1. Since ASME SA106 Grade B is assigned P-1,ASTM A106 Grade B may also be considered to be assigned to P-1.This is possible because most ASME materials are identical with ASTM materials; it is usually safe to pretend that the ASTM material is ASME for purposes of determining the P-number. 4 Sometimes there is no P-number The third complicating factor may be that the material specification is not shown in QW/QB 422. In this case, the applicable construction code (e.g., B31.3,API-650, etc.) may assign the P-number in its tables of permissible materials, although this in not supposed to happen.The other possibility is that the material is unlisted, and NCPWB has no WPSs for unlisted materials.

July 2000

An Example The drawing shows that the materials to be welded are ASME SA213, Grade T91 pipe,ASME SA-234, Grade WP91 fittings and ASME SA-182, Grade F91 forgings and ASME SA-240,Type 310HCb plates and API 5LX Grade 42 pipe. Looking these up in QW/QB-422 reveals that the Grade 91 pipe is P-5B, that the fittings and forgings are P-5B, that the API 5L pipe is S-1, and that the plate is P-8. The P-5B materials must be welded to themselves using WPSs of the form 5B-X-X. The P-5B materials must be welded to the S-1 materials using a WPS of the form 5B:1-X-X. The P-5B materials must be welded to the P-8 materials using a WPS of the form 8:5B-X-X. The S-1 materials must be welded to the S-1 materials using a WPS of the form 1-X-X. The P-8 materials must be welded to the P-8 materials using a WPS of the form 8-X-X. The P-8 materials must be welded to the S-1 materials using a WPS of the form 8:1-X-X. Review (possible break point) To summarize, the first number of the WPS corresponds to the P-number or numbers of the base materials to be welded.The P-numbers for any ASME material specification, type or grade can be found by looking up that specification, type and/or grade in Section IX,Table QW/QB-422. Once the Pnumber of the base materials has been determined, that number has to be the same as the first number of the WPS number, i.e., the X in the WPS number X-Y-Z. 5 Selection of the Welding Process The second number of the WPS identifies the welding process.The welding process number assignments are: The assignment of these numbers was largely arbitrary. Obviously, in order to pick the correct WPS it is necessary to know what welding process the welders will be using.The contractor must generally do this.The following is a review of what needs to be considered when selecting a welding process. 6 Commercial Carbon Steel Typically, for commercial quality work on carbon steel (P-1) pipe where backing rings may not be used, the appropriate welding process is SMAW using either E6010 or E6011 electrodes (welding process #1).These electrodes have a strong, penetrating arc that makes it easier to achieve good penetration of the root than with any other classification of electrodes. Use of these electrodes is not recommended when radiography under B31.1 is specified unless the welders are very good.When spot radiography (5 or 10%) is specified under B31.3, these electrodes are more likely to produce acceptable welds since the spot radiography acceptance cri-

Process No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Actual Welding Process (as opposed to the fake welding process) SMAW (aka Stick) using EXX10 or EXX11 electrode

SMAW using any other type of electrode. GTAW (aka TIG or Heliarc) without a consumable insert GTAW with a consumable insert GMAW-S (aka MIG) using short circuiting transfer (suitable for all-position welding) GMAW using spray transfer (suitable for flat position welding only) FCAW (aka flux cored welding) SAW (aka subarc welding) OFW (aka gas welding)

teria of B31.3 are more liberal than those of B31.1 or B31.3 where 100% radiography is required E6010 electrodes may be used to make an entire weld when welding plain old carbon steel pipe, but the more common choice is to use E7018 (process #2) to complete the weld after making the first pass using E6010.The appropriate WPS for either of these choices is 1-12-1. When welding using backing rings is permitted, use of any SMAW classification electrode is acceptableeither process #1 or process #2 is appropriate.When using backing rings, there should be a minimum 3/16 gap between the parts being joined to ensure that the backing ring is welded to the pipe all the way around so that it doesnt come loose in service. 7 Root Passes Where use of backing rings is prohibited for P-1 metals, an alternate choice is GTAW without a consumable insert (process #3) for welding the root pass and, if necessary, a second pass. Except where GTAW is the only process available (such as in welding aluminum or titanium), it should never be used for more than two passes because it is the slowest and most expensive process that can be used. The use of GTAW with consumable inserts (process #4) is normally dictated by the design engineer in his specifications.When so specified, the contractor has little choice in the selection of the welding process. Where the environment can be controlled, GMAW-S (or MIG welding, process #5) may be used. Because GMAW requires use of a shielding gas, the welding operation must be protected from the wind since wind will blow away the shielding gas causing porosity. GMAW is best used in a shop environment.

NCPWBulletin

When welding the root passes of alloy steels (P-3 through P-5), stainless steel (P-8) and nickel alloys (P-41 through P45), GTAW (process #3) or GMAW-S (process #5) are the only choices. For radiographic quality work, GTAW is recommended. For higher productivity work where good welding is required, but Code and contract documents do not require radiographic or ultrasonic examination, GMAW-S is a very good way to weld root passes. 8 Fill Passes For fill passes, SMAW, Process #2, can be used anywhere. Where there is enough welding to justify setting up the necessary equipment, such as where there are a lot of heavywall welds (over 3/4 inch thick) in a small area, the use of FCAW (process #7) is cost effective. Since FCAW can be used in all positions, it is cost-effective in both shop and field environments where welds cannot be rotated so that welding can be done in the flat position.Where welding can be done in the flat position, GMAW using spray transfer (process #6) or SAW (process #8) are preferred because they are the fastest and least costly ways to weld. 9 More than One Welding Processes in a Single Production Joint What if I want to use welding process #5 to weld the root pass and welding process #2 to weld the fill passes? The appropriate WPS to select will be WPS of the format X-52Y where X is the appropriate P-number for the metals being welded, and Y is some number that will be discussed next.What if there is no WPS of the X-52-Y format. The second choice is to select two WPSs, one of the formats X-5-Y and a second of the format X-2-Y. Follow the first WPS for the root pass and the second WPS for the fill passes.Another possibility is to select a WPSs of the for-

mat X-57-Y and X-32-Y and use only the 5 portion of the first WPS for the root pass and the 2 portion of the second WPS for the fill passes. It is permissible by code to use any process of a multi-process WPS individually or in combination with other processes, provided one does not exceed the base metal thickness range shown on the WPS and provided one does not exceed the maximum weld deposit thickness permitted for the process that is being used.These limitations are given on every WPS. 10 The Last Number The last number in the WPS numbering system (I.e., the 4 in WPS 8-3-4) doesnt mean anything.The last number is only a concern if there are other WPS that have the same first two numbers, such as 8-3-1, 8-3-2, 8-3-3 and 8-3-4.The last number means that there are four variations of ways that P-8 metals can be welded using GTAW. In these cases, one variation is for heavy-section stainless, one is for light section stainless and two are for automatic welding of stainless. The most common variation of WPSs is that one version will be for welds that will be left as-weldedand the other version will be for welds that will be given postweld heat treatment. The simplest way to determine the differences between variations is to read the titles as found in the index to the WPSs; the title usually points out the unique characteristics of each WPS.When the titles do not point out the obvious differences, it gets uglyone has to read the WPSs and figure it out or call the national office. Summary Selection of the correct WPS is not very difficult. One only needs to know the specifications, types and grades of materials to be welded and the welding processes to be used.The rest is easy! s

Patching New Weld III Program Update

As most of you who use the New Weld III program know, any welders test dates that have been entered into the computer since beginning the year 2000 revert back to 1999, thereby making your welders inactive. Since the program was developed by a third party without any documentation, as well as lack of cooperation by the developer, we had no choice but to attempt to fix the problem ourselves. For some time this was a process of trial and error; however, it appears that the problem is finally resolved; much thanks to Rick Taylor, a member of the Board of Trustees, who is to be recognized for his effort correcting the program. The revised program has been tested by two chapters, and it has performed without any problem.Those of you who are using the program will get a call from Rick to fix your database soon. New Weld III and NDB Integration In early 1999 we embarked on a new project to develop a database which would combine the two existing databases into one that can be accessed via Internet.The reason that the Bureau initiated the project was twofold: to avert the potential Y2K problem, and most importantly, to eliminate a great deal of paper work, thus streamlining record keeping. On the first count, we were unsuccessful because of unforeseen problems. However, as you read this article, the Y2K problem of the New Weld III program has been corrected. Once the new database is developed, the national office will accept records in electronic format. The records will be completed by chapters at the same time that they are processing the WPQT or JPQT for their member contractors. So far the Bureau has conducted a survey of its chapters and has ascertained the type of electronic databases being used by each chapter so that every chapters current data can be transferred into the new program. Once developed, the success of the new program depends on the full participation of every Bureau members. s

July 2000