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It may be possible for individual engineers to develop software,but long-term support is difficult at best, and in most cases impossible.

Software houses with no depth of welding expertise or engineers with no depth of software development skills both find it difficult to develop expert welding systems. Standards are particularly important, as many aspects of fabrication are specified via national and international standards, such as ASME IX, AWS D1.1, EN 287/288 AND ISO 9000. In the welding industry, this includes metallurgy, engineering,production, quality control and standards. The problem with building expertise into software is it is necessary to have a deep understanding of both software development and the technology being computerized. But, to date, most have had limited, if any, expertise in welding. In welding, such systems have been used for managing welding procedures and welder performance qualification. Such applications have required the user to know certain parameters, with little or no help from the software.

IntroductionĬomputers have always been good at storing, sorting and searching through large amounts of data, making them suitable for pure database applications. Computers can integrate management of procedures and qualifications with production weld information and quality control (QC) data, and so the benefits abound. Most fabricators now have local or wide area networks so sharing information between key personnel is easier than ever before. They can easily develop procedures and qualifications through on-screen editing, get advance warning of expirations and produce a professional-looking document in the end. Engineers now readily access vital information - no more searching through piles of paper. Welding engineers have managed welding procedures and welder performance qualifications using computers for some years now. M Bernasek is CEO of C-spec, Pleasant Hill, Calif. (Vol.79, No.1, pp 43-45).Ī D Brightmore is Manager, Software Development, TWI, Cambridge, UK. Paper presented at the 8 th International Conference for Computerization of Welding Information sponsored by AWS, Detroit, Michigan - September 1999 and published in the January 2000 issue of the AWS Welding Journal. Using 'expert' software packages, computers can make life easier for the welding engineer