There’s a lot involved with landing a new contract. For a standard widget, a potential customer can simply present a drawing to the fabricator to determine whether they have the means and expertise to properly produce it. For large jobs where producing a test part isn’t feasible, the rule of thumb is to typically seek out reviews and talk to other customers. There are instances, however, when the part or project is so unique that it’s difficult to fully vet the contractor.
In these cases, fabricators that have attained certification as an American Welding Society (AWS) certified welding fabricator (CWF) are able to quickly convey that they have the facility, personnel, equipment, procedures and know-how to be trusted. The certification was developed for companies that wouldn’t necessarily benefit from acquiring other industry certifications, such as ISO 9001, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Petroleum Institute (API) or American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) registration, but still need to prove that they can produce welded components that comply with AWS welding codes and standards.
Beyond proving compliance to AWS standards, the CWF certification lets potential customers know that there is an established quality management system (QMS) in place. But therein lies the catch. To achieve CWF certification, a fabricator has to actually have a QMS, which can take a long time and a lot of experience to develop. Part of the CWF application process involves submitting a manual that fully documents a company’s QMS, which is then followed up with an on-site audit.
Therefore, to establish a QMS to then achieve CWF certification, every company should want a guy like Daryl Peterson to guide them through the process. To say the least, the QMS is a make-or-break component of achieving CWF certification.
QC guru
Peterson, the quality control manager at Central Maintenance & Welding (CMW), has been in the quality control and inspection business for more than 35 years, starting out as an “airplane doctor,” as he describes it, doing nondestructive testing in the Air Force. During the 35 years that followed, he’s done it all – as far as the world of quality control is concerned: QC for military and commercial planes, pressure vessels, petrochemical power plants, pulp and paper mills, automotive, tractor/trailer and heavy equipment. He’s also served as inspector on a slew of high-profile construction projects, including the New Bay Bridge in California, which was completed in 2013.
“I got my first certification as a certified associate welding inspector from the American Welding Society all the way back in 1994,” he says. “And then, two years later, I became a certified welding inspector (CWI). Funny enough, that all happened before I taught myself to weld using Hobart textbooks and videos.”
Since then, Peterson has added a dozen or so additional certifications to his title, including Level III certification from the American Society of Nondestructive Testing; certification for tank inspection, repair, alteration and construction from the API; certification as a coatings inspector from the Society for Protective Coatings; as well as Senior CWI from AWS, a certification that places additional focus on management, nondestructive testing and quality systems.
After a lifetime of accumulating a laundry list of certifications and accreditations, it’s no surprise that Peterson would do the same for his employer by adding CWF certification to its already impressive resume. Prior to achieving its CWF certification, Peterson’s company had long held an ASME “S” stamp to fabricate boilers and associated piping as well as the ASME “U” stamp to fabricate pressure vessels. Additionally, CMW worked to attain the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors “R” stamp to perform code repairs. These accreditations are incredibly important for CMW’s staple work for power plants and for the chemical, pulp and paper, and food and beverage industries, but not so much for work in the structural steel sector, as just one example.
“Many of the contracts that we review ask what type of quality system CMW utilizes,” Peterson says. “It’s been our experience that the ASME quality system is not well-understood outside of the pressure industry, so we decided to pursue CWF certification. The process wasn’t a huge stretch for us since we operate under most of the requirements under our ASME program, so the majority of items were already in place and needed little or no tweaking. Other elements such as calibration of welding machines were more of an undertaking.”
In November 2021, CMW achieved its CWF certification and has earned several major contracts from it. As just one example, the company will be fabricating major architectural elements for the new Howard Franklin Bridge, which connects Tampa, Fla., with St. Petersburg.
“With the CWF certification, we’ve been able to pursue contract work in the structural world, which is primarily plate and beam construction,” Peterson says. “We’ve been contracted to perform some FDOT subcontract work on aesthetic weldments, which wasn’t a real possibility prior to the certification.”
Future fabrication
CMW, the company fortunate enough to have Peterson on its payroll, is an industrial contractor located in western central Florida where the phosphate industry is booming. With a mining region that covers about 1.3 million acres, CMW could easily stay busy focusing on its roots as a maintenance provider for the industry. Over the years, however, the company has consistently sought to expand its customer base and core competencies.
Established in 1966 and located in Lithia, Fla., the family-owned company is still involved in phosphate plant maintenance, but has added plant turnaround, construction and fabrication services to its portfolio. To continue its goals of expansion, CMW is making a name for itself in the world of structural fabrication.
“It was a natural decision to pursue the AWS CWF certification to demonstrate that CMW is also a player in the structural world,” Peterson says. “The process consisted of digesting the requirements detailed in AWS B5.17, the Specification for Qualification of Welding Fabricators, which specifies the minimum requirements for the Welding Quality Program for Welding Fabricators. The quality system requirements are similar to ISO 9001 2015 edition in that it focuses on a process approach and risk analysis. While it contains many of the same type of elements, it’s focused on welding, coatings and bolting as the main processes and provides specific provisions for controls of each.”
CMW’s bread-and-butter work for the phosphate industry had its own rigorous standards to adhere to. The work the industry does is quite involved: it mines phosphorus, produces its own sulfuric acid to convert phosphorus into phosphoric acid and then ultimately uses the phosphoric acid to make fertilizer. The entire process requires an inordinate number of boilers, pressure vessels, storage tanks and steam piping – all of which must be made from stainless steel, and all of which CMW is able to produce, maintain and repair.
“Our company really started out specializing in the corrosion-resistant metals that are required by the industry,” Peterson says. “And that requires a quality system, which we completed in 1990. Once we had that in place, it opened new markets to us, such as power and chemical plants, pulp and paper, food and beverage.”
CMW routinely fabricates and repairs or erects boilers, acid converters, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, storage tanks, pressure process piping and beyond. When fabrication companies are performing that type of work, they must work with an authorized inspection agency that’s endorsed by the National Board. The whole process is highly related to the welding CMW provides – WPSs, PQRs and welder certifications are all covered in a section of the code that Peterson says is “2 in. thick.” By working with a third-party authorized inspector, much of the customer’s risk is mitigated.
Certified steppingstone
Reducing customer risk is at the heart of a QMS and, therefore, the CWF certification. And that’s why the process of achieving a CWF is fairly involved. Because CMW already had many of its ducks in a row, so to speak, getting an on-site auditor scheduled during the Covid pandemic ended up being one of the company’s biggest hurdles. The main elements of the process, however, weren’t a huge uphill battle.
Since the majority of CMW’s business is focused on the pressure vessel industry, the company was able to use its ASME quality program as the basis for its AWS CWF application. Additional requirements included risk management components as well as the calibration of welding machine process control gauges.
The audit involved a thorough review, including CMW’s project review documentation, WPSs and PQRs, welder qualification and certifications, filler metal controls, welding and nondestructive inspector certifications, subcontractor approvals and nonconformance handling requirements. Equipment calibration records were also inspected, including welding machine amp, volt and gas flow meters.
“It doesn’t hurt that I was a lead auditor for ISO,” Peterson explains, “but I would still recommend that other fabricating companies do the work to achieve CWF certification. It opens so many doors in terms of new work opportunities, but it can also serve as a great steppingstone for a company that wants to become AISC-certified. When you achieve AISC, there is reciprocity with AWS. When you get your AISC audits, you can send those results to AWS to maintain your CWF certification without having to be re-audited.”
He adds another CWF benefit to the pot: being added to approved supplier or vendor lists with state and local governments. He uses the bridge contract with the Florida DOT as an example.
“Stainless steel has always been our thing, so adding cosmetic structural work to our resume is a great opportunity,” he says. “All of that stainless steel is going to be American-sourced, which is kind of cool. And our field units are union, so that’s a big deal, too.”
