The Southern African Institute of Weld-ing (SAIW) has undertaken about 40 testing and evaluation jobs at its R12-million metallurgical testing laboratory, based at its head office, in City West, Johannesburg, since it opened in late April.

SAIW technical services manager and laboratory manager Sean Blake says the labor-atory is reasonably busy and has a steady stream of future jobs.

Bearing in mind that the laboratory started with a reasonably small staff complement of two staff members, Blake and SAIW metallurgist Confidence Lekoane, and two part-time staff members, the SAIW will employ a third full-time staff member as soon as possible, notes Blake.

The laboratory, which was officially launched in July, will assist in improving the quality of welding in South Africa.

The material-testing services offered by the laboratory include mechanical testing, chemical testing, failure analysis, research and development, welding consumables evaluation, weld procedure qualification, postweld heat treatment and positive material evaluation.

Blake points out that the overall quality of welds in South Africa is not at a suitable level. “While there are companies that provide high-quality welding, there are also many companies that struggle to achieve this.”

The aim of the laboratory is to assist the welding industry in understaning how high- quality welding is achieved and how to apply the results of the testing to achieve high-quality welds.

The bulk of the laboratory’s work, thus far, comprises the evaluation and testing of welds and the testing of welds per- formed during the SAIW’s weld procedure and welder qualification training programmes.

The laboratory has also undertaken four failure analysis jobs for members of the welding industry. The analysis entailed evaluating the quality of the weld, identifying the reasons for failure and making recommendations to prevent failures in future, says Blake.

The metallurgical testing laboratory will also be used for the in-house testing of welds, when the SAIW tests weld procedures and welders for qualification purposes and demonstrates the testing of materials as part of the SAIW’s teaching curriculum.

The SAIW will also offer the service to other qualification organisations and manufacturers for the testing of their welds.

Having always offered the weld testing and evaluation service to the industry, but having previously outsourced the service to third-party laboratories, the establishment of the metallurgical testing lab has enabled the SAIW to offer in-house testing by welding specialists rather than by testing specialists.

This leads to quicker, more accurate and better-quality results, as well as a better under- standing of the challenge at hand, instead of having to rely on information from a third party, which still requires interpretation.