AS/NZS ISO 3834 explained: quality requirements for fusion welding

AS/NZS ISO 3834 is the standard that sets out what a fabrication business has to control in order to produce welds of a consistent, specified quality. It assesses the company, not the welder and not the product, and it comes in three levels of stringency so that the requirements match the risk of what is being made.

Why welding needs its own quality standard

Welding is what the quality world calls a special process: the final result and quality may not be capable of being verified by testing. You can measure a bolt. You can pressure test a vessel and learn something. You cannot inspect your way to confidence that every weld in a structure is sound, because most of the weld is inside the joint and destructive testing destroys the thing you were trying to accept.

The consequence is that welding quality has to be built in rather than inspected in. That means continuous control: the right consumable, dried and stored correctly, the right preheat, a qualified procedure being followed by a qualified welder, records that tie the weld to all of it. AS/NZS ISO 3834 exists to specify those controls.

This is also why a fabricator can hold ISO 9001 and still be judged unable to demonstrate welding capability. ISO 9001 asks whether you control your processes. It does not know what a hydrogen controlled electrode is, or that leaving one out of an oven overnight can crack a joint three weeks later.

The parts of the standard

The number that appears in your client’s specification is almost always Part 2, 3 or 4, because those are the three levels of requirement. Part 1 is how you argue for a level, and Part 5 is what you signed up to without noticing.

Choosing between Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

The three levels are cumulative in stringency rather than different in kind. Part 1 gives the criteria for selecting between them, and the factors are the ones you would expect: the criticality of the product, the consequence of failure, the range and complexity of what is being made, the materials involved, and how much of the quality is dependent on the welding.

In practice the level is usually decided for you, by a specification, by a client audit requirement, or by a construction category under AS/NZS 5131. Where you do have the argument to make, make it with Part 1 in hand, because a fabricator who arrives at a level with reasoning behind it is treated very differently from one who picked the highest number to be safe.

Certification is also available in packages that match a company’s actual scope, so a business does not have to certify capability it does not use.

People are the part that gets underestimated

The standard is titled around quality requirements, but the requirement that decides most assessments is the one about people. AS/NZS ISO 3834 requires that personnel with welding responsibilities are competent to discharge them, and it does that by pulling in ISO 14731, welding coordination tasks and responsibilities.

ISO 14731 introduces the responsible welding coordinator: a person or persons, nominated by the manufacturer, with an adequate level of welding technical knowledge for the range of products being made, competent to make decisions and to sign documents that affect product quality. This is the human aspect of welding control, and the coordinator is a genuine member of the quality team rather than a name on an organisation chart.

Two points that catch fabricators out.

First, the coordinator’s knowledge has to match the products. A coordinator whose background is thin plate structural work is not automatically adequate for thick section pressure work, and an assessor is entitled to test that. Assessment normally includes an oral examination of the nominated person to establish the depth of their technical knowledge and their ability to fill the role.

Second, welding coordination can be subcontracted, but the responsibility for maintaining compliance stays with the manufacturer. Bringing in a consultant does not transfer the obligation.

Qualification options for the responsible welding coordinator

ISO 14731 recommends the International Institute of Welding qualifications as typical requirements for the coordinator, and it does not prevent a fabricator from nominating somebody holding a different qualification. Options that are used in Australian industry:

• AS 1796 Certificate 10, the welding supervisor certificate
• AS 2214 welding supervisor qualification
• TAFE welding and fabrication inspector, or TAFE welding inspector
• a recognised welding inspector certification

Consultation with the client or the relevant authority may be needed to confirm that the nominated coordinator is accepted. Getting that agreement in writing before an audit is cheaper than arguing about it during one. AWI supervisor certification produces a certificate that can be verified by the auditor on the spot.

Alongside ISO 9001, or on its own

Certification to AS/NZS ISO 3834 can sit alongside an ISO 9001 certification or stand alone. The stand alone option suits companies where welding is the critical part of the manufacturing process and where an ISO 9001 certificate is not being asked for.

Where a company already holds ISO 9001, ISO 3834 fills the specific gap that a general quality management certificate leaves: demonstrated capability to control a special process.

What certification is actually worth

For the fabricator:

• independent verification of welding and fabrication capability and of staff competence
• improved client confidence, which in practice shows up as fewer external audits
• entry on published registers of certified fabricators
• access to work that names the standard as a condition of tendering, which is the commercial reason most companies start

For the client buying from a certified fabricator:

• professional independent assessment of suppliers, done once rather than by every buyer separately
• an in depth evaluation of fabrication capability rather than a self declaration
• consistent assessment and consistent presentation of the information, so suppliers can be compared

Steps to certification

1. Evaluate where you stand. A preliminary site visit establishes which level is appropriate, how much of a quality management system already exists, and how much documentation the manuals and procedures will need.
2. Implement the system and run it. The quality management system has to be in place and applied for a period of months, or across several projects, so that staff understand their own responsibilities and the system gets tuned by use. A system that exists only as a folder does not survive an audit.
3. Pre assessment. A gap audit establishes the full extent of the documentation and system, and includes an oral examination of the nominated welding coordinator.
4. Certification audit. AWI conducts the full assessment itself and makes the certification decision independently of the audit team. AWI does not prepare a company for assessment by somebody else. AWI is also not accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 for this scheme, so where a specification requires certification by an accredited body an AWI certificate does not meet that requirement. The fabricator certification page sets out the accreditation position and the competence AWI assessors hold.

The order matters. Applying formally before the system has been used is the most common way to turn a straightforward certification into an expensive one.

Fees are quoted on application, because the work is not the same in every business: the size of the company, the number of locations and any certification already held all change the audit. Ask us for a quote after the preliminary visit rather than before it.

One thing to settle at the enquiry rather than at the end. Where a specification requires certification by a body accredited to ISO/IEC 17065, an AWI certificate does not meet that requirement. Tell AWI what the specification says before you commission anything, and if an accredited body is what you need AWI will say so.

Related standards

• ISO 14731, welding coordination tasks and responsibilities. Called up by ISO 3834 and the source of the coordinator requirement. Not yet in this library.
• AS/NZS 5131, structural steelwork fabrication and erection. Construction categories CC1 to CC4 map onto the ISO 3834 levels.
• AS/NZS 1554, structural steel welding. The welding that the quality system controls.
• AS 1796 and AS 2214, certification of welders and welding supervisors. The personnel evidence an ISO 3834 audit asks for.
• ISO 15614, welding procedure qualification, and ISO 9606, welder qualification. Both appear in the Part 5 list of documents you conform to by claiming conformity.

Questions people actually ask about AS/NZS ISO 3834

Is ISO 3834 a certification for a company or for a person?

A company. It assesses whether a fabrication business controls its welding well enough to produce a specified and consistent quality. It requires competent people, including a nominated responsible welding coordinator, but the certificate belongs to the business. Certification of individuals is a different thing entirely, done under standards like AS 1796 and AS 2214.

Which part of ISO 3834 do I need, 2, 3 or 4?

Part 2 is comprehensive, Part 3 is standard and Part 4 is elementary. Part 1 gives the criteria for choosing, based on the criticality of the product, the consequence of failure, the complexity and range of what you make, and the materials involved. Most of the time the level is decided by your client’s specification or by a construction category, so read the contract before you read Part 1.

We already have ISO 9001. Is that not enough?

Often it is not, and that is the reason ISO 3834 exists. ISO 9001 confirms you have a quality management system. It does not confirm that the system controls welding, and welding is a process whose quality cannot be fully verified by inspecting the finished product. Where welding is significant to what you make, clients increasingly ask for both, or for ISO 3834 specifically.

Who can be our responsible welding coordinator?

Somebody with welding technical knowledge adequate for the range of products you make, nominated by your company, competent to make decisions and sign documents that affect product quality. ISO 14731 points to the International Institute of Welding qualifications as typical, and expressly allows other qualifications. In Australia an AS 1796 Certificate 10, an AS 2214 welding supervisor qualification or a welding inspector qualification are all used. Expect the nominated person to be examined orally on their technical knowledge.

Can we outsource welding coordination?

Yes. ISO 14731 allows welding coordination to be subcontracted. The responsibility for maintaining compliance stays with the manufacturer, so outsourcing changes who does the work and not who is accountable for it.

How long does it take to get certified?

Longer than the audit. The system has to be implemented and then actually used for a period of months or across several projects before formal application, because that is what turns documentation into practice. Companies that apply early usually pay for a second visit. Build the timeline backwards from the tender you need it for.

Getting a copy of the standard

AS/NZS ISO 3834 is published by Standards Australia and is not free. Part 1 and the part matching your intended level are the two to start with. Part 6 is worth having if you are implementing rather than assessing.