17.1 History of Welding Codes
David Colameco, M.Ed.
Development of welding codes
Unfortunately, many of the rules and regulations that are in place today were developed after serious injuries and fatalities occurred. This is true not only for welding and fabrication activities but also for things such as child daycare, healthcare, food preparation, drinking water standards, and transportation, to name a few. If a structure or weldment can lead to people or property being injured/damaged or killed/destroyed, there is a very high likelihood that rules and regulations exist to prevent and lessen the severity of fabrication failures.
Societies such as the American Welding Society (AWS) and the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) are groups of experts from industry, government, and individuals with interest in the society. Both AWS and ASME develop welding codes based on a consensus of experts. These societies hold regular meetings and have a process for maintaining and developing codes, including ways for welders and others to ask questions and provide feedback on codes and standards.
What is a welding code or standard? Welding codes and welding standards are generally a document or set of documents that present requirements and suggestions for welding. This includes requirements for base materials and consumables used in welding, the joint design, qualification of welding procedures, and qualification of welders and welding operators, for example. These welding codes and standards then become enforceable by law, contract, or both. To protect people from injury and death, local, state, and federal laws dictate that certain structures be built to the requirements of a code or standard. In other cases, the customer who is paying for a fabrication will put the code or standard into the contract. These customers have their own needs, such as obtaining insurance to operate and use the fabrication being contracted once it is completed or after a repair is performed.
Welding codes are also written by other groups such as the Washington Association of Building Officials (WABO) for construction, the American Petroleum Institute (API) for oil pipelines, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for mostly commercial vessels, and the US Government with NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) welding codes for the US Navy.
The fabrications that welders create throughout Washington State and the world support our way of life and allow our economies to function. These welding codes are written and maintained because welders, industry, and the public all have an interest in safe buildings, bridges, ships, and other fabricated objects encountered in day-to-day life. People expect to enter and leave buildings without injury, travel over bridges that don’t fail, sail on ships that don’t explode or sink, and in general, go about their lives around town and the country without being injured or killed by a fabrication.
Basics of Welding Codes
Welding codes are genera