Create a non-destructive testing request in WeldTrace

Create a NDE Request

Selecting Welds Manually for Testing

The welds listed for selection will be based on the project configuration for NDE ("Completed welds only" or "All welds"). In either case only those welds that are not in any other test pack will be listed for selection;
Create NDE request manually
  1. Search and filter welds by drawing number or weld number or tag number;
  2. The NDE settings for the project and the range of the NDE settings for the tags (associated with the welds that are listed) as minimum - maximum % will be displayed here;
  3. You need to select the welds by clicking on the checkbox or you can search and select all the welds;
  4. Only the test types configured for the project will be available for selection. You will have to select the test type by checking the boxes;
  5. "Pen" means Penalty;
  6. Welder IDs of the welders who welded this joint will be shown as a drop down list if the Pen box is checked. Only one welder can be issued with a penalty per joint;
  7. Failed welds that match the WPS and at least one welder of those who welded the joint will be shown as a drop down list. Only one failed weld may be selected as the “tracer for” the selected weld – see the Progressive Sampling report for the relationship between failed welds and tracers;
  8. The penalty checkbox will not be shown for welds that are in the planned and allocated stages. You will not be able to pick a failed weld if penalty is not allocated first;
  9. You can click on this button to view the selected welds only;
  10. Enter your test request reference, testing agency, date and other instructions or comments;
  11. Click on the save button to create the test pack;
Notes:
1: The failed welds shown in the “Tracer for” column will be those that failed an NDE test and not visual inspection; 
2: A failed weld may be chosen more than once in the “Tracer for” column or in other words, a failed weld may have more than one tracer, but a tracer can only have one failed weld as a precedent;
3: The penalty and “Tracer for” fields for a repair weld will be disabled;

Once you save, the test request will be created and listed in the Test Packs screen. It will be given a serial number and displayed as TP-n. You may click on the printer button to generate a PDF file of the test pack.

Automatic Selection of Welds for NDE

A project must be configured to the "Automatic" method for selection of welds for NDE for the procedure explained below to work. This can be changed to the manual method at any time and back again to automatic.
Project configuration for automatic selection of welds for NDE
  1. Selection of welds for NDE is set to "Automatic";
There are four steps in this process of selecting welds for testing - 1. Select the test type, joint type, etc; 2 - Select the tags, drawings or other criteria; 3 - Assign the percentage of welds to pick at random; 4 - Review and make changes if necessary.

Step 1 - Select the test type, joint type and category

Before welds are selected automatically for NDE, you need to filter the welds based on certain criteria. In this step you will have to select the NDE test types, joint type, and the category of welds.
Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 1
Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 1
Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 1
Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 1
  1. Test type - only those test types that are selected in the project configuration will appear here. You may select one or more test types;
  2. Joint type - you may select one or more joint types;
  3. Category - the categories (shop, field, field-fit) of welds that have been used in the project will appear here. You may select one or more;
  4. Click next to go to the next step;

Step 2 - Select other criteria to refine the lot to pick the welds

In this step you can further refine the welds based on tag, drawing or other criteria.
Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 2
Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 2
Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 2
  1. The step number is shown here. You can move back to step 1 by clicking on this bar;
  2. There are four more filter options to further filter the lot of welds by tag, drawing, line number, line class, WPS or welder ID. You may use one or more options. All these filters are optional;
  3. If you select the tag # to filter, you will find all the tag numbers listed here. You may select one or more tags;
  4. The selected data will appear here with an "X" next to them to remove them from selection;
  5. Due to the limited amount of space, you will find the count of the number of entries picked with a "+" sign in front. Click on this number to reveal the data as shown here. You may click on the "X" to remove an entry;
  6. The data shown in the second and subsequent filters will be based on the selection in the previous filter. For example, if you select the tag T-1 in the first filter, and "Drawings" for the second filter, only the drawings in the tag T-1 will appear in the second filter;
  7. Click next to move to the next step;

Step 3 - Assign percentage to test

Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 3
  1. In the third step you will see one column of data for each test type selected;
  2. The number in this line is the percentage setting for the test type in the project;
  3. The minimum and maximum values shown here are for the percentage setting for the test type set for the tags in this lot of welds. This is shown as a range;
  4. You need to enter a percentage value for the welds to be picked at random from the matching welds;
  5. The number of welds that match the filters set in the previous two steps is shown here. This will form the lot size from where the welds will be picked at random based on the percentage that you set;
  6. The number of welds that will be picked at random from the lot for this test type;
  7. in the test pack for each test type will be displayed here. If there are higher and lower percentage values for different test types, the number of welds in the lot sampled will be for the higher figure. Some of the welds will have more than one test type selected;
  8. Click on the load button to load the welds selected;

Step 4 - Review selection

Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 4
Automatic selection of welds for NDE - step 4
  1. The criteria selected to filter the welds will be shown here;
  2. You will see the test types selected and the percentage values entered in the previous step here;
  3. You will see the NDE test types here and the welds that were picked at random with a check box next to the weld number and for the test type. You may edit the selection and change the test types, add penalty and tracer weld details;
  4. If there are 2 or more test types, welds selected automatically will have multiple tests selected for some welds, depending on NDE% value you enter for each test type;
  5. The number of welds selected in total in that pack will be shown here. You can select a maximum of 1000 welds per pack;
  6. Enter the test request reference and other details as you would in the manual selection of welds for NDE;
  7. Click on the save button to generate the test pack;

View the Test Pack

Test pack view
  1. The test pack created through the automatic selection of welds for NDE will show the method used here;
You may initially configure a project for manual selection of welds for NDE and then edit the configuration and select the "automatic selection of welds" option.
You can switch between the two methods at any time

You may use the automatic selection method when a certain percentage of welds of a particular type need to be sampled and tested.
This method will prevent any preferential selection of welds based on their appearance or the past performance of the welders.
This system will make the process of selection of welds transparent for your client.
Read the next article: Test Request Details

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