TIG Welding Certification Tests - Tips For Passing the Weld Test

What do Boilermakers, Pipefitters, and Aerospace welders have in common?

Passing a TIG welding certification test is usually required in order to be considered a qualified welder or to even be hired for the job in the first place.

For boilermakers and pipefitters a pipe or tube welding test is usually required and can be anywhere from 3/8" to 12 inches in diameter and depending on the job, the material welded is usually carbon steel or stainless steel, or carbon steel welded with ER309 filler metal. (occasionally other alloys are welded but carbon and stainless make up the bulk of welding tests given)

Aerospace welders on the other hand might be required to weld practically any metal:

• carbon steel / low alloy steel - 4130, 4140, 4340, 8630


• stainless steel - 321, 347, 13-8, 15-7, 17-7, a286


• nickel alloys - hastelloy x, inconel 718


• aluminum - A355,356,357 castings, 6061, 2219


• magnesium - az31b,


• titanium - 6AL4V, CP


• cobalt - L605, haynes 188


• refractory alloys like columbium

Aerospace tig welding certifications tests are generally straightforward groove welds or fillet welds unless the special application provision of the American Welding Society D17.1 is used. Sometimes a simple groove or fillet weld test does not accurately represent the scope of welding performed.

In that case there is a provision for the welder to be certified using a scrap part, live part, or mock up test that represents the weld done in production. It is a more limited certification but it helps to certify a welder on tasks that adequately test the skill set required to do the job.

For Boilermakers and pipefitters, a tig welding certification test on tube or pipe pretty much represents the same joint done in the field.

Tips for passing any tig welding test:

• purge...give lots of attention to getting a perfect purge by making sure ends are taped neatly and securely with a vent hole at the top for gas to escape.


• Clean the metal...Whether welding a pipe joint or sheet metal butt weld, if you don't clean the metal right, you will probably fail. Metals like aluminum and titanium are prone to porosity and filing the edge removes crud that will cause porosity...Some test inspectors will fail you on the spot just for not cleaning the metal.


• For aerospace tig welding tests, make sure to file the sheared edge of the metal


• Degrease with acetone or other approved solvent...give the rod a wipe too.


• Follow instructions...Whether written or from you test supervisor, pay attention, read, and follow instructions.

Subsurface Utility Engineering - What Is It?

Since the mid 1980's, highway engineers in the United States have experienced difficulty in gathering accurate underground electric public service information. In fact, several states have hired engineering consultants to determine the validity of the subsurface information that has been gathered and is required for planning throughout an entire highway project. This involves identification of the precise horizontal location of all the underground utilities, which includes underground septic tank systems and wells. Basically, this type of engineering practice is called Subsurface Utility Engineering (S.U.E.).

Definition

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), S.U.E. is a practical engineering process that manages the risks related to the gathering of precise information, mapping, and characterizing of subsurface utilities at an early stage of project development. This process uses conventional methods of research, site surveys, and applied sciences such as geophysical surveys and excavating done by non-destructive vacuum systems to obtain the most exact information possible.

Scope of S.U.E. Practices

In developing Federal Land Highway projects, Subsurface Utility Engineering performs several tasks that constitute the first part of the engineering process.

• Owner Identification- It is necessary to identify electric public service owners who are affected by a highway project. This is followed by having one-on-one meetings with these owners to inform them about the particular project.


• Owner Management- It is fundamental to provide pertinent information to utility owners during the planning phase. Such information should be reviewed, examined and plotted on a composite drawing or demonstrated in a three-dimensional view of the underground electric public service before being shown to the affected owners.


• Identify Underground Features- It is advantageous to use the latest surface geophysical techniques to assign or trace certain underground utility features.


• Inspect and Draft Information- It is important to conduct field inspections to determine ground surface utility systems. All the data gathered should be plotted on the client's plan sheets.


• Resolve Incongruities- It is essential to resolve any discrepancies if all the collected information consisting of existing records, ground surveys, geophysical techniques, and underground surveys do not agree.


• Develop a Conflict Matrix- This involves analyzing and comparing all the conflicting information to the proposed development plans.


• Meet to Plan a Resolution- It is fundamental to meet with the utility companies to address all the identified conflicts and formulate possible solutions.


• Provide a Detailed Overview- It is critical to depict the enhanced information using three-dimensional views of the underground utilities and present it to the client. Discussing and explaining designs to the client will hopefully ensure that they understand the project and can provide any suggestions to resolve any conflicts.

To sum up, the scope of Subsurface Utility Engineering is to: locate and assess above-ground and subsurface utilities; utilize geophysical techniques; depict all information in computer-aided drafting; analyze and resolve any conflicting information; meet with the utility companies to solve the conflicts; and meet with the project owner to present all vital information before initiating the project.

Quality Levels of the S.U.E. Process

There are four quality levels (QL) of information utilized by subsurface utility engineering. They are considered by the degree of risk or the information needed to design the highway project. Basically, highway plans require accurate utility information to avoid erroneous plotting or omission errors before the client finalizes the project. The quality levels range from A to D with A as the highest and D as the lowest rating level. QL-A is only necessary if there are conflicts that need to be resolved in the utility's path. Lower levels are applicable if few or no conflict is being encountered.

To describe it another way: QL-D is the primary information gathered from existing records or during a verbal interview; QL-C is the information collected from the above-ground inspection; QL-B is the information gathered using surface geophysical techniques; and QL-A is the highest level of available information collected through the use of various utility engineering services.

Subsurface Utility Engineering is not a form of technology but a process being followed to gather comprehensive information. It is an engineering practice that aims to furnish accurate, reliable, and quality levels of information, creating a final draft before proceeding with a project. The new applied science that is involved in this branch of engineering is the use of surface geophysical techniques and non-destructive techniques using vacuum truck systems to help in the process. S.U.E. is indeed a very helpful process that greatly aids in the construction of our nation's highways!

Using the Correct Type of Safety Glove at Work

There are so many types of safety gloves nowadays, that it can be difficult to determine which glove will suit your workplace most ideally. If you're working in a manual labour environment, perhaps with heavy lifting, or perhaps with using heavy machinery or constantly having an electrical tool in your hands, then there's a different glove for every situation. Maybe you're working in a less physical environment, where you need to handle fragile items or items which might be poisonous or dangerous - then again, there's a glove for the situation depending on what needs doing, and each type of glove is designed specifically for that requirement - there's no such thing as a standard glove when it comes to work.

Starting with the more physical side of work, the heavy machinery, the electrical tools; there are gloves which can be used depending on the situation.

If you're forever using heavy machinery where your hands are being bashed around all day, suffering from heavy vibrations such as using a powerful drill, then you could do with a pair of gloves not only for safety and grip, but to protect against the vibration too - If you didn't know already, Anti-Vibration Gloves exist, which not only give great grip and protection, but remove a lot of the vibration going from the tool and through into your hands. Long term use of heavy machinery and tools can cause problems with your bones later in life, therefore it's definitely a good idea to use whatever protection you can find.

Perhaps your work environment involves regularly cutting items where there's a risk of injuring yourself with a blade if you were to have an accident. Cut Resistant gloves are perfect to avoid injury. However, when using a knife of whatever size, it's often not your hands which might end up the victim to an accident - your arms are vulnerable too. Alongside Cut Resistant Gloves, you can also use Cut Resistant Kevlar Sleeves for extra protection too.

For heavy lifting or generally handling awkward or heavy items, there's of course gloves to not only give protection for your hands, but also to give superb grip to ensure you don't drop an item and injure yourself. You always want to best grip possible - if you were to slip with a heavy item, there's a potential to drop it on your feet, or fall and injure your back. Therefore you can use General Handling Gloves, Ironclad Gloves for more protection from sharper objects, or Rigger Gloves for the heaviest of items.

Towards the less physical side of work, perhaps you work in an environment where you need to ensure you don't touch the items with your hands, or need to protect your skin from poisonous or harmful substances.
If you work in a situation where your skin mustn't touch an item - perhaps you work in handling antiques or old goods which are frail and would crumble if they gain contact with moist skin - or perhaps you're handling a poisonous or harmful substance, something like lead sheeting, where you simply need to avoid contact of the item with your skin. Whatever the situation may be, you can use simple Disposable Gloves as a cheap and easy way to get around the problem. You can find Disposable Gloves from hardware stores but also from places like chemists. Cotton Gloves are an alternative to Disposable Gloves if you need a bit more padding and comfort.

However if you work in a situation where you're handling chemical items where your skin really needs to not make contact with the item, then you'll need something more specific. You can find a range of Chemical Resistant Gloves from a lot of hardware or construction stores. These not only provide comfort and protection, but are completely safe to come in contact with chemicals of almost any sort - you wouldn't be able to do your job without them.

Hopefully this will come in useful! If you're working in a manual labour environment or simply need protection from harmful items, there's a whole host of gloves to choose from - and hopefully after having read this far, you'll be more aware as to which glove is suitable for what.