African Fusion June 2015

AFRICAN FUSION

June 2015

SAIW bulletin board

elivering themotivational address,

TZ Joubert, chairman of the SAIW

Inspectors Committee and SAPREF

inspection manager talked about the

functional responsibilities of inspec-

tion personnel and the need to “remain

aligned”.

“Unfortunately in industry, we fre-

quently come across cases where our

inspectors and QC personnel are not

aligned with the Pressure Equipment

Regulations (PER), health and safety

standards (OHS Act) nor with the com-

pany’s own quality system standards.

“Training from SAIW is a first step in

making sure that we remain compliant

within our inspection function, whether

those are weld inspection functions;

welding supervisor functions, welding

engineering or welding technologist

functions. All of you have now been

trained to fulfil one or more of these

functions within a company’s quality

system,” Joubert points out.

“But we regularly come across

inspectors who ‘take the law into their

own hands,” he continues, “by allowing

pressure tests that are not code compli-

ant, for example, or by not attending

seminars to keep abreast with the latest

Pressure Equipment Regulations – part

of the current SAIW requirements for

ongoing registration.

“Becausewe represent the industry,

the regulator, AIAs or manufacturers,

we have responsibilities. We all have an

obligation to maintain and to comply

TZ Joubert, chairman of the SAIW Inspectors

Committee and SAPREF inspection manager.

Welsh Philip Moller Wienand receiving Inspector Level

1 and Level 2 diplomas along with the IIW Standard

Level Welding Inspector certificate from SAIW

president Morris Maroga.

At SAIW’s first graduation dinner for 2015, over 130 students celebrated successfully completing SAIW courses.

At SAIW’s first graduation dinner for 2015, over 130 students

celebrated successfully completing SAIWcourses, ranging from

IIW Welding Specialist and Welding Technologist courses to

Inspection Level 1 and/or Level 2 qualifications.

Inspection, certification and remai

ng aligned

with health and safety standards and

your license to practice depends on this

compliance,” he asserts.

Citing his experiences as a young in-

spector, Joubert urges the young gradu-

ates to respect the experience of their

supervisors. “But alignment cannot only

rely on supervision. Mostly, it depends

on you being disciplined individuals.

Make sure you have read the PER, the

applicable welding or repair codes and

the health and safety standards. Unless

you have the code next to you, you are

not following the aligned path. Lets

uphold the legal requirements. We owe

it to our clients and customers, who pay

for our services. Let’s remain aligned,”

Joubert urges.

Startingwith thewelding co-ordina-

tion programme, Sean Blake, the new

SAIWexecutive director, began to award

the certificates. “We are going to begin

with our IIW welding coordination pro-

gramme,” begins Blake. SAIW offers IIW

WeldingPractitioner, Welding Specialist,

Welding Technologist and IIW Welding

Engineer qualifications. “Tonight we

are awarding diplomas in two of these

categories, Welding Specialist and

Welding Technologist. “This the group

of peoplewill be responsible formanag-

ingwelding processeswithin fabrication

environments according to schemes

such as ISO3834. 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 that

are creating problems,” Blake informs.

In total 12 Welding Specialists re-

ceived diplomas, with a further four

graduates receiving IIW Welding Tech-

nologist qualifications.