African Fusion talks to SAIW’s Renier Mostert, ISO 3834 Company Certification manager, about the ongoing success of the SAIW’s ISO 3834 Welding Fabricators Certification scheme; and its extended role in driving up weld quality and safety standards in the power, petrochemical and, more recently, mining industries of Southern Africa.
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ISO 3834 certification was first introduced into South Africa in 2008, with DB Thermal becoming the first company to be certified according to the SAIW’s ISO 3834 Welding Fabricators Certification Scheme in that year. “As the local representative of the IIW, the SAIW is the custodian of weld quality for the Southern African region, and ISO 3834 is the ideal scheme to help companies to implement proper weld quality management systems into their operations,” says Renier Mostert, manager for ISO 3834 Company Certification at the SAIW.
“The scheme has since gone from strength to strength, and we now have 288 South Africa companies certified according to our scheme. ISO 3834 certification has become a requirement for fabrication contractors bidding on contracts in the power industry and in the chemical and petrochemical industries. SAIW Certification also recently certified a company in Lesotho under our ISO 17021 certification as Lesotho falls outside our IIW scope of certification.,” he adds.
“For centuries, welding was left to skilled welders, with no one on a higher management level taking the necessary responsibility required by construction codes to ensure the welding was performed to the proper safety and quality requirements.
“After non-destructive testing (NDT) following welding was completed, welding defects were often found and located, which would then require repair work, which typically costs three to five times more than the initial cost of manufacture. ISO 3834: Quality Requirements for fusion welding of metallic materials specifies the quality requirements for how welding should be done in workshops and for onsite field installations and maintenance.
“This ensures that quality is built into a fabricated product from the beginning and throughout construction. It helps welders to produce quality welds, preventing defects and poor-quality welds from arising in the first place,” Mostert informs African Fusion.
“ISO 3834 Certification tells customers and users of fabricated equipment that the manufacturer has agreed to comply with all the requirements necessary to ensure the product or component won’t fail during service because of insufficient built-in quality. This quality comes from every stage and every welding related process involved in the manufacturing phase, which is far better than trying to inspect quality into the component during the inspection phase after the manufacturing has been completed,” he explains.
Statutory requirements and the PER
From a legal standpoint in South Africa, ‘SANS 347: Categorization and conformity assessment criteria for all pressure equipment’ specifies the safety-related quality requirements for all pressure vessels manufactured and used in the country. “This document is coupled to another document known as Pressure Equipment Regulations (PER), which governs the legal requirements for pressure vessels under South Africa’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.
“The PER specifies the legal requirements for all pressure equipment, piping and assemblies that are specified to contain pressure greater than 0.5 bar gauge. This is a relatively low-pressure threshold, which means the statutory code applies to the majority of pressure vessels, tanks, containers, cannisters and accumulators that are manufactured in or imported into South Africa.
“Most relevantly for South African fabricators, the PER refers to SANS 347, which specifies that all the pressure equipment covered by the PER is fabricated according to the quality requirements of ISO 3834-2 or its local equivalent SANS ISO 3834-2. Simply put, this means that anyone manufacturing pressure equipment to contain more than 0.5 bar pressure, with some exclusions, must comply with the ISO 3834-2 quality requirements for welding,” notes Renier Mostert.
ISO 3834-3 for less critical equipment
For equipment not covered by the PER, such as, steel support structures and machines, there is still an advantage for fabricators to adopt ISO 3834 certification. “Part 3 of ISO 3834 (ISO 3834-3) defines the standard quality requirements for welding and covers manufacturers of steel structures, non-critical piping, and mining equipment, for example.
“During service, most welded components are subjected to environments and in-service processes that can cause them to fail, potentially with dangerous consequences, including the loss of human life. While the welds on a conveyor support structure, for example, may not seem safety critical – and we can often not see a defect in a weld caused by poor manufacturing quality – any risk of a failure should be investigated and identified, because harm or loss of life can easily occur.
“Also though, if you look at the current state of the power generation industry infrastructure, which is under severe pressure, even a failure of non-critical structures or components can have an impact on loadshedding, and therefore the economy. The implementation of an ISO 3834 system for the manufacturing of these welded components will lower the risk of in-service failures,” argues Renier Mostert.
There are also cost advantages for the adoption of ISO 3834-3 for fabricators of non-critical equipment, from reduced rework, lower risks of failure and/or lawsuits, he suggests. “Like any other quality system, it will cost some money for the initial implementation and certification, as well as the ongoing maintenance of SAIW ISO 3834 Certification. However, if implemented correctly and managed the way it should be during production or manufacturing of any welded component, certification is sure to deliver a cost advantage in the medium to long term.
“And if the system prevents just one major mistake during a project with a tight budget, the ISO 3834 system will already have paid for itself from savings on rework costs or delivery delay penalties,” he says.
ISO 3834 and mining
As a safety critical activity in South Africa, the safety of the welded equipment on mines is also vital. “Mining houses should be doubling down on efforts to raise safety standards,” Mostert continues. “In terms of current mining health and safety regulations, if there is a safety incident in a mine owing to a weld defect, for example, the mine can be held liable.
“They therefore should be insisting that contractors implement ISO 3834 for all welded structures: Part 3 at least, and Part 2 for anything critical. Many have started to realise this and are now asking their contactors to comply with the standard.
“This is a welcome and overdue development in the South African mining industry. Welding fabricators and associated suppliers are now becoming certified to ISO 3834 for the welding that they do on products for use on the mines, which will better ensure the quality and safety of these products in service.
ISO 3834 also applies to the quality of welding done during maintenance work in industry, and with the high-maintenance needs of significant amounts of mining and other plant infrastructure in South Africa, the implementation of a welding quality control system such as ISO 3834 can assist in stabilising safety and equipment reliability, ultimately contributing towards economic recovery.
“In principle, all fabricators dependent on welding should be adopting, at the very least, the principles of ISO 3834. These basic principles will be of much more value in terms of the actual quality than most of the checks that a very large part of the construction and manufacturing industry are currently relying on to ‘inspect’ the quality of welding,” concludes Renier Mostert of the SAIW.