Welding Tips and Tricks

Just read an article about a welding inspector (Newport News Shipyard) that falsely certified welds.
How can a guy do such a thing? I was an IA (aviation maintenance inspector) for over 20 years. Never made a false maintenance logbook entry during that time. According to the article, he signed off on some welds without even checking them.
I just don't get it.

Very few of these things happen from direct focused malicious intent unless he was paid off by some third party or ordered by a higher-up to 'look away', but in other cases often times it's a combination of a bad/unsupportive work environment, extreme focus from higher-up on time/cost issues and perhaps add in some personal issues (ranging from stress, depression, burnout to family or monmey issues) that combine to get someone into a 'no longer cares' mindset.

If you are an inspector and your work is viewed by the rest of the guys on the floor as 'annoying' and 'unneeded', your manager is giving you a bad time for 'slowing the project' each time you find faults and fail welds and you get constant push-back from every direction on any such work then it can get quite tempting to simply approve things when you don't feel your work is appreciated or even wanted (or just to keep your job!)

Still does not make it OK in any way, shape or form, but IMHO the problem in these cases is often much wider than just the guy that got caught. The question needs to be asked how it was possible and why it could happen to stop a repeat of the same issue. And this can mean that a good hard look needs to be taken at the way a whole company operates from a safety and QC viewpoint and the possibly toxic work-environment that surrounds it.

This happens in all industries unfortunately. It's just that the outcome may vary from the 'annoying' range when some household appliance breaks prematurely because a QC inspection is faked to lethal when a train de-rails because QC testing of new control software was skipped and OK'ed..

Bye, Arno.

You make some valid points. I have never been a welding inspector, but in aviation there are a lot of pressures to hurry. Bosses want to keep the customer happy. Customers want the plane flying again. The FAA demands that it be done correctly.
The vast majority of things that I wrote up, were 'wear and tear' items found during inspection. Very seldom did I fault a mechanic for poor quality work. Most of those cases were due to training, instead of bad attitude. One thing I did to help, was have mechanics ride along on test flights. Of course, we had fairly quick cycle times. A matter of days between fixing and flying.
In the shipyard, it can be a long time between a weld being done, and putting to sea. Larger numbers of folks involved, might tend to dilute the sense of personal responsibility. Still, if the welds are actually bad, shouldn't the issue be with the person doing the welding? If too many of the welders are having problems, shouldn't the procedure be looked at?
I still don't get why this inspector made the choices that have him going to jail.

VA-Sawyer wrote:Just read an article about a welding inspector (Newport News Shipyard) that falsely certified welds.
How can a guy do such a thing? I was an IA (aviation maintenance inspector) for over 20 years. Never made a false maintenance logbook entry during that time. According to the article, he signed off on some welds without even checking them.
I just don't get it.

I'd be curious to read that article if you still have the link.

If the boat were a Navy vessel, almost every single structural weld is x-rayed at each pass, or at least on subs it is. The hull is roughly 2" thick steel that is welded inside and out, 1/16 wire on every pass, full penetration. X-ray between passes. Start inside, weld it out, move outside, then arc-gouge it and re-weld it externally. They have never had a weld fail using that method.

It would be a rare thing to pass a weld without verification, but I guess it does happen (at NNS). Whether it's laziness or "assumption" that the welds are good, who knows? Inspectors are humans too. They can have good and bad days, good and bad attitudes like all of us. Unfortunately, their work can save lives and needs to be treated with that level of commitment and discipline.

Most inspectors I've ever dealt with are decent people, interested in outcomes, not ball-breaking. The better a weld looks, the more respect you get when you pass an Inspection. The worse your welds look, the harder they look. Then often shrug when it passes. Point is: if you take the care to make a weld look good, you probably took the care to weld it properly. Its not a guarantee, but I'd wager more "good looking" welds pass tests than crappy looking welds do.

Sorry, I'm not smart enough to figure out how to put a link here. If you Google 'Newport News welding inspector' , I think it will pop up.
I think it was in the Daily Press.

If you find it, please post a link for others.

Here you go:
https://www.dailypress.com/military/dp- ... story.html

Thanks. Disappointing to see anyone falsify weld inspections. Given the "scope" of his shortcomings, I would jump to the conclusion it was extreme negligence.

Really happy they discovered these before anyone was hurt (Navy Dad ) I've got a son on Subs, so I am a bit vigilant about their safety.

My dad was an Air Force lifer. Maybe that is why I was so serious about aircraft maintenance. Naw, I'm pretty anal about most things that I work on. Thank your son for his service, and I hope he stays safe.

I'm an old, OLD fly boy. I just hated when things started flying past windows and I knew they were mine. Sometimes couldn't get to the ground fast enough if for nothing else, to kick some butt. Thank your son CJ and tell him to stay safe.

About 40 years ago, when I was getting my multi-engine rating, my instructor gave me a dual engine failure ( simulated of course). He then asked me what my intentions were. I said "glide this thing to an off airport landing, then kick the mechanic as hard as I could in his backside". He got a laugh out of that. He got a second laugh, when he realized that I had been doing work on the plane, in exchange for flying time.

According to the latest news, he pleaded guilty, sentence 5yrs maximum. Huh? That's barely a slap on the wrist. What a load of BS

VA-Sawyer wrote:Thank your son for his service, and I hope he stays safe.

BillE.Dee wrote: Thank your son CJ and tell him to stay safe.

Kind of both of you, but he's the one thanking this before him. He's a Nuke Submariner, so he's pretty safe down there. Navy has an excellent record on their nukes and today's subs are essentially unequalled. Serious folks aboard, serious discipline.