Focus on Standards

ISO 15614-1 Second edition 2017-06 – Part 2 in our series

Specification and qualification of welding procedures for metallic materials – Welding procedure test – Part 1: Arc and gas welding of steels and arc welding of nickel and nickel alloys

The new version of the standard was published during June 2017 as ISO 15614-1:2017 and is in process of being adopted by the SABS as SANS 15614-1:2017.

The 2017 version differs significantly from the previous version in format, with some major changes in technical content. In the last Fusion (Feb 2018) we presented some of the most significant differences between the 2017 and the previous version of the standard, explaining the rationale behind the changes and providing some practical guidance on how they are to be dealt with. This
article (Part 2 in our series) focuses on Clause 8, Range of Qualification, of the standard and highlights some of the major differences between the current and previous version of the standard.

Clause 8 Range of Qualification

8.2 Related to the manufacturer

The main difference relates to the wording of the clause and now states that welding is valid by a manufacturer in workshops or sites when the manufacturer who performed the welding procedure test retains complete responsibility for all welding carried out on it.

8.3 Related to the parent material

8.3.1 Parent material grouping

8.3.1.1 General

Whereas the previous version referred to CR ISO 15608, the current version refers to ISO/TR 15608. Also, the following documents are listed: ISO/TR 20172, ISO/TR 20173 and ISO/TR 20174. When the parent material to be tested is listed in these documents, the group number assigned is to be used instead of ISO/TR 15608.

8.3.1.2 Steels

The range of qualification, now listed in Table 5 (Table 3 for previous edition) is much more comprehensive.

8.3.1.3 Nickel Alloys

The range of qualification, now listed in Table 6 (Table 4 for previous edition) is much more comprehensive.

8.3.1.4 Dissimilar joints between steels and nickel alloys

The levels of dissimilar combinations are much more comprehensive than in the previous edition as well as introducing combinations of qualification for nickel alloys to Group 8 and 11 steels.

8.3.2 Material thickness

8.3.2.2 Range of qualification for butt joints, T-joints, branch connections and fillet welds

The main difference is the separate treatment of range of qualified thickness according levels 1 and 2. Also for butt welds the deposited weld thickness (s) is introduced and treated separately from the material thickness (t). Ranges of approval for the thickness of the test piece have changed with respect to the previous version of the standard. The current qualification range for butt welds is listed in Table 7 – it was listed in Table 5 for the previous version.

For fillet welds, range of qualification is only listed for level 2 in Table 8 (previous version Table 6), as for level 1 “Any butt weld or fillet weld tests qualify all fillet sizes and material thickness”.

8.3.3 Diameter of pipes and branch connections

A significant change in diameter qualified, for level 2, is found in Table 9 (Table 7 of previous edition). It states “Range is ≥ 0.5D for all diameters”. For level 1 the diameter is not an essential variable.