Spencer Erling, ‘Horses for Courses’ Standard Gets Thumbs Up

12 July 2009

Horses for Courses standard gets thumbs up…
major boost to Certification Scheme

Fitness for purpose describes the use of ISO 3834, whether we are building nuclear power stations or making wheel barrows.
– Spencer Erling
Richard Fowles, conference organiser, said he had no doubt that end users would be pushing harder in future to ensure that their welding suppliers were ISO 3834 certified.

One of the presenters, Spencer Erling, Southern African Institute of Steel Construction education director, said ISO 3834 was the ultimate in horses for courses standards. Fitness for purpose describes its use, he said. So, if we are building nuclear power stations we will set up and manage the process accordingly, or, at the other end of the scale, if we are making wheel barrows we will set up our welding according to this activity.

One of the main problems of ISO 9000 series standards is that it is more a quality management system and not a process management system. This, of course, is most pertinent to welding as it is a process – only a part of the whole production system.

We have to face the fact that welding, which is used for creating the joints for steel structures, needs to be of a high standard to ensure structural competence. It is high time we had a process management system, like ISO 3834, which allows us to hone in on the requirements of the welding specification of choice of the design engineer, which for steel structures in South Africa is the AWS D1.1.08 specification.

While there are top-end fabricators in South Africa who are ISO9000/1 registered and who do have excellent welding quality controls in place, the majority of fabricators need to be guided and certification by the SAIW according to ISO 3834 is the world-class way to go.

Because ISO 3834 is welding focused, those companies at the top-end of the fabrication scale who are ISO 9000 registered and have good welding procedures in place will also want ISO 3834 certification. This makes absolute sense, especially from a global perspective. Any professional fabricator will want to show their worth and, perhaps more importantly, increasingly, both here and abroad, professional end users are insisting on ISO 3834 certification proof from their suppliers.

ISO 3834 is ultimately about demonstrating welding fabrication competence against international standards and is for companies where fusion welding is the key feature of fabrication, added Richard Fowles. I think the bottomline is that fabricators must realise that quality cannot be inspected into a product, but has to be built in, through controlling the welding process from design to completion of the project.

More than 50 people attended the seminar and included delegates from companies like Fluor, PWP Consulting, Kents Engineering and contractors, BEMA Group and Praestar Administration Services.

Pic – IMG 1989 – Spencer Spencer Erling, a presenter at the recent ISO 3834 seminar organised by the SAIW.