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SAIW’s first graduation dinner, 2016
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
Welding Inspection graduates:
Princess Kilani and Eliza Dlamini receive their IIW Welding technologist Diplomas from IIW President, Morris Maroga.
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.
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
AFRICAN FUSION
March 2016
8