WPS · PQR/WPQR · welder quals
Procedures & welder qualification
Whether a procedure or a welder covers this joint is usually answered from memory, or from a spreadsheet that stopped being maintained two projects ago.
How it works
- 01
Write the procedure against a code edition
The WPS is drafted under a specific edition of ASME IX, ISO 15614-1 or AWS D1.1, and stays bound to it. When the code is revised, what changed is visible instead of assumed.
- 02
Qualify it and let the ranges be computed
From the PQR/WPQR test values the qualified ranges are calculated — thickness, diameter, position, material group, heat input — rather than transcribed by hand.
- 03
Qualify welders, carry the designation
Each welder's qualification is held as a live record with its designation string, its validity window and its continuity evidence — not a PDF in a drawer.
- 04
Answer "does this cover it?" as a lookup
For any joint, the procedures and welders that cover its variables are the ones the engine returns. The judgement stops being a conversation.
What it covers
Code-aware ranges
The engine computes qualified ranges from the essential variables. It doesn't generate a PDF and hope.
WPS ↔ PQR/WPQR link
Every procedure carries the qualification record that supports it, bound to the code edition it was tested under.
Welder qualification
Designation strings built from the qualified variables, with validity and six-month continuity tracked as rules.
Multi-regime reconciliation
The same weld presented against more than one code at once — where a variable qualified under one falls short under another is flagged, not hidden.
NDT extent, derived
The examination extent the code requires is derived from the class and joint, not decided per job.
Revision awareness
When a governing standard changes edition, the records bound to it surface for review.
Why the range calculation matters
Most welding software produces documents. A WPS comes out as a PDF, a welder card comes out as a PDF, and whether the two are compatible with the joint in front of you stays a human judgement made under time pressure.
The essential variables of a code are rules with arithmetic in them. Thickness ranges, diameter ranges, position coverage, material grouping, heat input limits — all of it is computable from the qualification record. Once it is computed, the question “does this welder cover this joint” stops being a conversation and becomes a lookup.
That is the difference between a document generator and an engine, and it is the part that is hard to copy. The execution — recording the weld itself as it happens on the floor — lives in Weld execution & tracking, which writes to the joint this module qualifies.