Acceptance criteria
The published limits that decide whether an indication in a weld is accepted or rejected — the line between a feature you record and a defect you repair.
Acceptance criteria come from a standard (for fusion-welded steel, most often ISO 5817, in levels B, C or D) selected by the execution class or the contract. They turn an inspector’s observation into a decision: this porosity is within limits, that undercut is not. Recording an indication is not the same as dispositioning it — the criteria are what make the disposition defensible.
Why it matters
An indication logged without the criteria it was judged against cannot be re-checked by whoever receives the report. The acceptance level has to travel with the result, not live in a separate instruction nobody opens.