Improving Global Quality of Life

7 Needs and challenges in legal codes, rules and standardisation
To reduce these problems, Conformity Assessment (CA) provisions are being required by specifiers and/
or law, and cover a combination of:
Third party inspection.
Quality systems.
Design verification.
Regulatory requirements.
Good sound engineering and economic practice.
Examples of current CA systems are the:
European Directives covering 11 modules including type approvals etc.
ASME VIII quality systems covering assurance, third party inspection, declaration of conformity
(MDR).
Quality Mark Systems for mass produced products.
Regulatory requirements such as verification and registration of designs and registration of hazardous
plant via commissioning inspection. They may include compliance with referenced standards and
identification of competent inspection bodies and inspectors.
ISO work on global supporting Standards.
A minimum level of CA is needed to cover the general safety and interests of each country, its industry,
workers and public. Additional CA may be necessary for particular cases to suit the interests of the owner
where consequences of failure are high. The level of CA increases and applies to the whole life cycle of
welded equipment, from original concept to disposal, especially at commissioning and in-service inspection
for conformity.
The success of CA primarily depends on the competency of the parties concerned and the particular people
involved. This raises the biggest need and challenge: how to have sufficient confidence in the reliability of
the people or bodies responsible for CA. To help in this respect, each country has its various systems of
recognition of bodies and personnel for high hazard equipment e.g. State regulatory authorities, ASME,
EU Directives for notified bodies, global systems for Non-destructive Testing Personnel and Testing
laboratories, and of course IIW with its various qualification and certification systems for personnel and
welding companies. International systems facilitate equity and help reduce barriers to trade.
What is needed is an authoritative guide preferably from IIW on the principles, practices and examples of
optimum CA at least for the purchase of important welded structures, including reference and relevance of
key standards such as ISO 3834 Quality requirements for fusion welding of metallic materials and ISO 14731
Welding coordination – Tasks and responsibilities. Also needed is advice on how the CA bridges the gap
between law and standards; some laws specify CA required while others reference standards or are silent.
Where legislation is to address CA, industry should make major contribution to law development and
revision making full use of the above guide which should promote fair trade and help “caveat emptor” –
buyer beware.
7.4.4 Material standards and grouping
Weldments today can use materials from many counties to a variety of standards. There a need for each
standard to give guidance, directly or by reference, on properties, material grouping and effects of welding,
forming, heat treatments, etc to guide designers and users.
Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies
Improving Global Quality of Life
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