The certified resistance welding technician (CRWT) credential can be a significant benefit to a company because it gives the organization something many lack: documented, standardized resistance welding knowledge at the technician level. For a company performing spot, projection, seam or other resistance welding, the value goes beyond having another certification on an employee’s résumé.
1. Reduces dependence on tribal knowledge
Many resistance welding operations depend heavily on one experienced operator, maintenance person or engineer who “knows the machine.” When that person retires, transfers or leaves, much of that knowledge can disappear.
A CRWT provides a more standardized understanding of force, current, time, equipment, electrodes, materials, weld quality, testing and troubleshooting. That knowledge can then be transferred to operators and maintenance personnel.
2. Improves troubleshooting
When a qualified weld suddenly stops producing acceptable results, changing the weld schedule shouldn’t be the first response. A trained technician is better prepared to ask: What changed? The investigation can then be organized into the three major areas:
- Welder: mechanical system, power supply, weld control function, cooling system
- Process: force, current, time, electrodes, tooling, setup, sequencing, production conditions
- Materials: thickness, chemistry, coatings, surface condition, hardness, lot-to-lot variation
That systematic approach can dramatically reduce the “turn the knobs until it works” method of troubleshooting.
3. Helps protect qualified weld schedules
This is particularly important in aerospace, automotive, defense, medical, appliance and other controlled manufacturing environments. If a previously qualified schedule stops producing acceptable welds, immediately modifying the schedule can mask the real problem. The cause might actually be deteriorated electrodes, inadequate cooling, excessive arm deflection, a loose secondary connection, incorrect force, tooling wear, material variation or another equipment or process condition. A CRWT-trained employee is more likely to understand the importance of finding and correcting the cause before unnecessarily changing a qualified process.
4. Reduces scrap, rework and downtime
Resistance welding problems can become expensive very quickly because a machine may continue making hundreds or thousands of welds before someone recognizes that the process has drifted.
Better process understanding can lead to earlier recognition of:
- Electrode wear
- Cooling problems
- Force problems
- Current delivery problems
- Excessive expulsion
- Electrode sticking
- Inconsistent nugget formation
- Projection collapse problems
- Poor mechanical alignment
- Changes in material or coatings
Finding these problems earlier means fewer questionable parts and less time spent sorting through production.
5. Creates a bridge
Resistance welding crosses several disciplines, including engineering, maintenance and production. A weld problem may involve electrical, mechanical, metallurgical, pneumatic, hydraulic and cooling system factors simultaneously.
The CRWT can become the person who helps connect those departments. Instead of production saying, “the welder isn’t working” while maintenance says, “the machine checks out,” someone with resistance welding knowledge can help define exactly what needs to be measured and verified.
6. Strengthens process control
A good resistance welding operation should be based on measurable conditions rather than machine settings alone. For example, “50 percent heat” or “45-psi air pressure” does not necessarily provide the actual welding current or electrode force being delivered at the workpiece. A knowledgeable technician understands the importance of verifying actual process outputs such as electrode force, secondary current, weld time, cooling water performance and electrode condition.
7. Delivers process confidence, ownership
The financial argument may be the strongest. Consider a company running a resistance welding production line. One unexplained weld quality problem might result in several hours of downtime, hundreds of suspect assemblies, destructive testing, engineering involvement, maintenance labor, sorting, rework and possibly customer containment.
Preventing or shortening one significant resistance welding problem could potentially offset much of the company’s investment in utilizing a CRWT. There is also a less obvious benefit: process confidence.
When a customer or auditor asks, “Who in your organization understands and is responsible for the resistance welding process?” being able to identify personnel with recognized resistance welding training and certification provides considerably more confidence than saying that the process is primarily understood through experience.
The CRWT certification is not simply an employee certification. It is an investment in process ownership. It provides the company with someone who understands how the resistance welding process works, how to recognize when it is changing, how to troubleshoot it systematically and how to help prevent welding problems from becoming production problems.
For a metalworking company that performs resistance welding every day, that capability can translate directly into better weld quality, less downtime, reduced scrap, stronger troubleshooting, improved training and greater control of the manufacturing process.
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