WELDING PROCEDURE

INTRODUCTION

This welding procedure covers the gas and arc welding of butt, fillets and
socket welds in carbon and low – alloy steel piping used in the compression,
pumping, and transmission of crude petroleum, petroleum products, and fuel
gases and, where applicable. The welding may be done by a shielded metal
arc welding, sub – merged arc welding, gas metal arc welding, oxyacetylene
welding, metal arc welding or by a combination of these processes using a
manual, semiautomatic, or automatic techniques. Welds may be produced by
position or roll welding or by a combination of position and roll welding.
This procedure also covers the acceptance standards to be applied to the
production welds inspected by radiographic inspection. For field production
metal arc welding is most commonly used method.

EQUIPMENT

Welding equipment shall be of a size and type suitable for the work and
shall be maintained in a condition that ensures acceptable welds, continuity
of operations and safety of personnel. Arc welding equipment shall be
operated with in amperage and voltage ranges give in the qualified welding
procedure. Equipments that do not meet these requirements shall be
replaced.

PROCEDURE QUALIFICATION

Before production welding is started, a detailed procedure specification shall

be established and qualified to demonstrate that with suitable mechanical
properties (such as strength, ductility, and hardness) and sound ness can be
made by the procedure. The quality of weld shall be determined by the
destructive or non-destructive testing.

The process, pipe and fitting material, diameters and wall thickness, filler
metal and number of beads, electrical characteristics, flame characteristics,
position, direction of weld, time between passes, type and removal of lineup
clamp, cleaning / grinding, pre and post heat treatment, shielding flux and
speed of travel should be specified before starting the welding. All the
information should be filled properly in the given format of process
specification, and signed by concerned in charge.
DESIGN, PREPARATION AND WELDING OF JOINTS

For preparing a weld joint the surface to be welded shall be smooth, uniform
and free from laminations, tears, scale, slag, grease, paint and other
deleterious material that might adversely effect the welding or cause any
accident. The joint design and spacing between the ends shall be in
accordance with the procedure specification used, generally single V –
groove is used. Minor changes in the angle of bevel or the land of the
welding groove are not essential variable. Alignment of the abutting ends
shall minimize the offset between surfaces. Alignment shall be checked by
the right angle or visual or by holding threads on both ends and measuring
the difference between the two. Difference in diameters or ovality shall be
equally distributed around the circumference of the pipe.

For smaller diameter pipe, line up clamp shall be used for butt welds in
accordance with the procedure specification. It should be removed only after
tack weld of pipe from all around. Bevel ends shall be reasonably smooth
and uniform. Welding shall not be done when the quality of the complete
weld would be impaired by the prevailing weather conditions, including but
not limited to airborne moisture, blowing sands, or high winds. Windshields
may be used when it is practical. The company shall decide whether weather
conditions are suitable for welding or not.

Scale and slag shall be removed from each bead and groove. Power tools
shall be used when called for in the procedure specification, otherwise
cleaning may be done with either hand or power tools. When automatic or
semiautomatic welding is used, surface porosity clusters, bead starts and
high points shall be removed by grinding before weld metal is deposited
over them. The number of filler and finish beads shall be such that the
completed weld has a substantially uniform cross section around the entire
circumference of the pipe. At no point shall the crown surface be below the
outside surface of pipe, nor should it be raised above the parent metal by the
decided specification.

TESTING OF JOINTS

If testing of welds are required then it can be done during or after the
completion of welding. For production welding any non-destructive test like
visual inspection, radiography, die penetrating or ultrasonic test, can be done
for proving the quality of weld. On site most commonly used method is
radiography. The quality level usually required for radiography is 2% unless
a higher or a lower quality is agreed upon between the contractor and the
client. X – ray energy affects image quality, lower the energy of the source
utilized the higher the achievable radiographic contrast. Radiographic film
produced by the use of this procedure shall have the density. Clarity, and the
contrast required. Images produced by the other systems shall have the
requisite sensitivity to define clearly the essential hole or wire diameter of
the proper penetrameter. Radiographer shall report all unacceptable
discontinuities observed in the images. Images shall be clearly identified so
that the proper weld and any discontinuities in it can be quickly and
accurately located, and then after it can be repaired. After repair of the
discontinuities the quality of weld is checked again through the same
procedure.

Same procedure shall be followed for the whole production and a proper
record shall be maintained, including the proper marked radiography film
shall be kept with the other records.
 PROCEDURE SPECIFICATION NO.____________________

For_______________________________________ Welding of ______________________________________

Process____________________________________________________________________________________

Material___________________________________________________________________________________

Diameter and Wall thickness___________________________________________________________________

Joint Design________________________________________________________________________________

Filler metal and no. Of beads___________________________________________________________________

Electrical Characteristics______________________________________________________________________

Position___________________________________________________________________________________

Direction of welding_________________________________________________________________________

No. of welders______________________________________________________________________________

Time lapse between passes____________________________________________________________________

Cleaning and / or grinding_____________________________________________________________________

Speed of travel______________________________________________________________________________

Tested___________________________________ Welder_____________________________________
Approved_________________________________ Welding supervisor___________________________
Adopted__________________________________ Chief engineer_______________________________