Missing B31.1 Welding Documentation

[rn01]

A B31.1 power piping project was suspended for several years due to financial issues and is now being re-started. The documentation that identified the specific welders that performed each field weld on B31.1 non-boiler external piping appears to be missing. If the documentation can not be located, can a more stringent inspection program be used to demonstrate that the quality of the existing field welds are B31.1 code compliant?

 

[metengr]

Since this is an administrative problem you need to discuss this with the owner of the project. Frankly, if I was the owner, I would probably have an RT and surface NDT performed of the existing welds (and as a last resort, a check of the weld metal using an alloy analyzer). My rationale is that since the project was suspended and some welder certification records were indeed lost or misplaced, there is no reason to suspect fraudulent activity.

Like any other administrative nonconformance, if the NDT of the welds is clean, the welds should be accepted (again, this is my view as the owner). Others may not be as reasonable, but I would at least present the argument as an administrative nonconformance versus a technical nonconformance (as in the wrong weld metal or incorrect or a lack of a WPS, etc).

 

[davefitz]

Most of the recently canceled power projects were gas fired combined cycle plants, with final steam conditions of 2000 psig/1050F and 500 psig/1050F RH.

Nearly all have used P91 main steam lines, which means there is more to the weld quality than just checking for voids and slag inclusions- there also are issues of proper preheat and low hydrogen procedures, PWHT (tempering) of welds, and proper N+T of hot bent elbows. So there would need to be hardness traverses, boat sample analyses , and some means of determineing if proper cold springing was applied.

On the bright side, even the sites with retained documentation have as many problems as the wiped sites.