Certifying your Welding Machines

by Ron-Son’s Torch

Have you ever been asked by your customer if your welding machines are certified? Do you know why your customer is asking? And why it’s important to him? This short article is going to answer those questions.

From time to time, our customers get asked, “Are your welding machines certified?”

Their customer has to know if the welding machines will match the welding procedures – or more simply put, if the settings of the welding meters deliver the requested power. They don’t want any guessing (no matter how intelligent the guess is!) on the welding procedure. A certified welding machine eliminates the guessing.

certifiedwelder_2

Can you imagine the chaos that would exist if everyone had his own version of a measuring tape? We avoid chaos by agreeing to use one standard for inches/feet or meters/centimeters. All measuring tools are built to that one standard. A certified welding machine is being measured to one standard.

A certified welding machine assists both parties: the customer and/or contractor. It enables new welding procedures to be made, knowing the settings on the welding machines will be correct. It can also help in training new welders on existing welding procedures; they aren’t guessing what the settings need to be on the welding machine. Those who are ISO 9000 are already aware of the need of certifying their welding machines on a scheduled time.

What is calibrating and certifying?

Calibrating the welding machine is checking the accuracy of the meters. Certifying is the “paper trail”. The instruments that are used to measure the accuracy of your welding machine’s meters must be certified. Those instruments will have paper work leading to National Institute of Standards for Canada.

Maybe the word calibrating can be misleading. It seems to imply the meters were adjusted – when that may not be the case. Rather, it is obtaining the readings on the meters from your machine and comparing them against a true value (i.e. certified instruments). It is considered acceptable if the meters are +/- 10% of the true readings.

We have provided an example of Calibration Certificate of an actual welding machine that we did and you can see the difference is very small. So if the difference is very small, it may not be feasible to adjust the meters (i.e. replacing the meter).

We have provided an example of Calibration Certificate of an actual welding machine that we did and you can see the difference is very small. So if the difference is very small, it may not be feasible to adjust the meters (i.e. replacing the meter).

(Volts 52.6 -52.0 =.6;
.6/52.6 = 1.14% difference)
(amps 105 – 105 = 0; exact).

As you can see this machine’s meters were very close.
Here’s that machine’s original certificate

oldcertcopy_1

How do we certify and calibrate the welding meters?

loadbank_1

Here at Ron-Son’s, we use a Miller Load Bank (see below). This machine is annually certified to create the paper trail to National Institute of Standards for Canada. It is the Load Bank that will be considered the true readings.

The load bank creates a resistive load as versus a dynamic load. (A dynamic load would be you doing some welding – and the readings jumping all over the place). The resistive load is held at a constant level. With the Load Bank, the technician can take the voltage and amp readings. He will take 4 readings starting low and working up to a higher load. This will give a full range of settings on your welding machine.

A Few Brands That We Are Proud To Carry

  • miller
  • victor
  • esab
  • avesta
  • hypertherm
  • hobart
  • walter
  • weldmark