Weld Inspection Records and Nonconformance Reports

If it is not written down, it did not happen. Years after a job, a failure, a lawsuit or a simple change to the structure may send someone back to your paperwork. By then, your memory will not count, and the weld may be under paint or concrete. A senior inspector treats records as part of the product, plans them before the work begins, and knows how to take a problem from first finding to a closed report.

Record requirements come from the governing code, the contract and your employer's quality system, and they vary. What follows is how the work is commonly done. Your project's documents set the actual rules.

What You Will Be Able to Do

• Read an inspection plan and explain hold, witness and review points.
• Trace a finished weld back to its people, procedure, filler and steel.
• Write report entries that a stranger can understand and trust.
• Raise a nonconformance report and follow it to closure.
• Separate a fix from a corrective action.

Plan the Inspection First

An inspection and test plan (ITP) lists each step of the job, who checks it, what document applies, and what record comes out. It is agreed before the work starts. Each step carries a level of involvement.

A hold point is a hard stop. Think of a root pass that will be buried, or a joint fit-up that cannot be seen once welding starts. If a crew welds past a hold point, the work has not been inspected as agreed. The result can be a nonconformance, and possibly removal of the work.

Read the ITP at the start and work out what notice you need to give and get. A hold point nobody knows about is how jobs end up in arguments.

What Records to Keep

A mill test report is the steel maker's record of the chemistry and strength of a specific heat, which is one batch of steel. The heat number is stamped or marked on the steel, so that you can tie the plate to its paper.

Traceability

Traceability means you can follow a weld back to everything that went into it. Not every job needs full traceability. Pressure, nuclear and other critical work often does. The contract tells you how far it has to go.

Worked Example: Following One Weld

A made-up record chain for weld W-214 on spool 7 looks like this:

If a bad lot of filler turns up, you can search for lot 4471 and find every weld that used it. If you only know that "some E7018 was used in March," you may have to test all of them. Good records turn a disaster into a short list.

Writing Report Entries That Stand Up

Write for a stranger who was not there and may read this in ten years.

Follow these rules:

• State facts and measurements, not opinions. Give size, type and location.
• Use a location anyone can find. Name the weld ID and a measured distance from a fixed point.
• Cite the code, edition and clause or table. Without those, "accepted" means little.
• Date and sign it the same day. Your memory fades, and later edits look bad.
• Use photos with a scale and an ID in the frame. A photo with no context proves nothing.
• Blame nobody in a report. State what you found. Cause comes later, and it needs evidence.

Correct errors openly. On paper, draw one line through the mistake so that it can still be read, then initial and date it. Electronic systems should keep the change history. Never use correction fluid, overwrite an entry, or quietly replace a page.

Nonconformance Reports

A nonconformance is anything that fails to meet a requirement. That can be a weld, but it can also be a missed hold point, an unqualified welder, the wrong filler, or a lapsed calibration. A nonconformance report (NCR) is the formal record of the problem and how it was resolved.

Not every rejected weld needs an NCR. Normal in-process repairs under an approved procedure may be handled on the inspection report. Your quality system says where the line is. An NCR is usually needed when the problem goes beyond routine repair: the work cannot meet the requirement, a procedure was bypassed, or an engineering decision is needed.

What an NCR Contains

1. A unique number and the date.
2. What was found, with measurements and location.
3. The requirement that was not met, with the document and clause.
4. Who found it, and who has been told.
5. The status of the work, including any hold placed on it.
6. The proposed disposition.
7. Who approved the disposition.
8. How it was verified.
9. Corrective action, if one is needed.
10. Closure signature and date.

Dispositions

A disposition is the decision about what happens to the nonconforming item.

"Use as is" is the one to watch. The item stays out of the requirement, so it needs an engineering reason on file. It is never the inspector's decision, and nobody should use it just to save the schedule.

Worked Example: Following an NCR to Closure

A made-up case: on a cyclically loaded support, a welder used 1/8 inch E7018 from a lot that has no certificate on file, on six welds.

Finding. The inspector checks the filler log and finds lot 5120 is not on the approved list. The six welds pass visual inspection.

NCR. NCR-044 records the six weld IDs, the lot, and the requirement for certified filler. The work is tagged and held.

Disposition. The purchasing group finds the certificate, and it shows the right classification. The engineer accepts the welds in writing. The disposition is use as is, with the certificate attached.

Verification. The inspector checks the certificate against the lot number on the rod can and the weld log.

Corrective action. Filler is now checked in at the store, and no lot is issued without a certificate on file.

Closure. The quality manager signs and dates NCR-044.

Notice that the welds looked fine and still needed the process. Proof was missing, not quality, and the job needed proof.

Fixes and Corrective Actions

These are two different things.

• A correction fixes this problem. You grind out the undercut and reweld it.
• A corrective action stops it from happening again. You find out why it happened and change something.

If you close every NCR with a correction, the same report will come back next month. Ask "why" until you reach a cause you can actually change. Undercut on one welder's work might lead you to too much amperage, then to a machine meter reading low, then to a lapsed calibration schedule. The corrective action is to fix the schedule, not to retrain the welder.

Track your findings over time. A simple count by type, welder, station and filler lot will show you what no single report can.

Keeping Records Safe

• Keep them as long as the contract says. Retention periods vary by code, contract and owner.
• Back up electronic records. Make sure the system controls who can change them.
• Control your stamp or login. Do not share them.
• Turn records over complete. Handover packages are often a condition of payment.

Pressure, Honesty and Your Name

Sooner or later, someone will ask you to sign something you did not see. It may be friendly: "It was fine, I watched it myself, just sign." Do not do it. Record only what you saw or verified, and say how you verified it.

Your signature is the reason anyone trusts the record. Falsifying a record can end your career, and on safety-critical work it can bring legal consequences. If someone pressures you, write down what happened and take it to your quality manager. Keep the discussion on the requirement rather than the person.

Common Mistakes

• Writing up the day after. Details get lost, and it looks bad under review.
• Vague locations. Nobody can find "the bad spot on the beam."
• Skipping a hold point because the crew was ready. The work may have to come out.
• Treating use as is as a shortcut. It needs an engineering decision in writing.
• Closing an NCR with no corrective action. The problem comes back.
• Signing for what you did not verify. Your name is what the record rests on.

Check Your Understanding

A crew finishes a root pass and starts filling while you are at another job. The ITP shows a hold point at the root. What is the problem, and what do you do?

The hold point was bypassed, so the root was not inspected as agreed. Stop further work on that joint, document it, and raise a nonconformance. Removing the weld may be required, or another way of proving it may be agreed.

Your report entry reads "minor undercut, fixed." What is wrong with it?

It has no location, depth, length, requirement or repair reference. A stranger could not tell what was found or how it was resolved.

An NCR's disposition is use as is, and a foreman signed it. Is that enough?

No. Use as is leaves the item outside the requirement, so it needs a documented decision from the engineer or owner.

You grind out and reweld a third crack from the same welder this month and close each NCR. What is missing?

A corrective action. Each report fixed one weld but did not find out why it keeps happening. Look at the cause and record what has changed.

Key Takeaways

• Plan inspection with an ITP, and treat a hold point as a hard stop.
• Traceability ties each weld to its people, procedure, filler and steel.
• Report facts, measurements, location and the requirement.
• An NCR records the finding, requirement, disposition, verification and closure.
• Use as is needs an engineer's or owner's decision in writing.
• A correction fixes one problem, and a corrective action stops it coming back.