P.E. required to stamp Welding Inspection results 1

[mapelCE]

I couldn't find a past thread on this so here is my question. Can you legally require a Professional Engineer to stamp a welding inspection report. I ran accross a specification that requires that the results of non destructive testing on a weld be stamped by a P.E. It seemed to me that since the testing agency is certified by AWS, and such certifications are not a requirement of being a P.E., that requiring a P.E. to assume liability for the adequacy of weld testing was outside the scope of professional engineering. Design the weld, fine, but take responsbility for the proper testing of the weld. I haven't run into this before but is seemed like a stetch to require it. I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.

 

[dhengr]

MapelCE:
A P.E. certainly might sign off on those kinds of reports and activities, if he had experience in the area of welding and ND testing, and had some inspectors working under him. And, there are many P.E’s who probably shouldn’t be overseeing that kind of work, since they have enough trouble designing welds; and no experience in ND testing, the welding process, procedures, etc. Most companies which do this kind of testing work will have their own engineers who would manage, review and sign off on this work, and they would likely be working as your sub contractor.

 

[Ron]

I have signed and sealed hundreds of welding inspection reports as a P.E. in responsible charge of the inspection process. I was also an AWS CWI and an ASNT Level III, but signed and sealed as a P.E.

 

[focuseng]

A PE can only LEGALLY stamp something they have direct oversight for. If they didn't then it is illegal...
Contractually you can require a PE be responsible for oversight of this. Which then becomes a legal document. If the engineer who would provide a stamp did not oversee the work then they cannot legally be forced to stamp anything. Contractually if you require an engineer to do the work and there is a contract where they agree to do the work then they are obligated to do the work under contractual law.

An engineer is expected to only work within his/her area of expertise. If that area includes weld testing then there is no reason why you can't hire them and hold them to a contract (of which I believe there are).

Now, if you can't find an engineer who is qualified to do the work required by contract then you may be onto something for which shouldn't be asked for.

Maybe I misunderstand your question?

MAP

 

[mapelCE]

Thank you three for the responses. All three were very helpful. My company specializes in construction engineering, and this issue came up with some full pen splices that were done on beams that the contractor was using for falsework. The splices were done years ago, they have the documentation and the inspection reports, but since it really is a CWI function, only the CWI witnessed the testing. The owner put an unusual clause in the this project specials that requires a P.E. to stamp the inspection reports for welds in temporary steel. It was the first time any of us had ever seen this particual request. Bottom line from what I'm hearing from everyone is that we're most likely going to need to get the splices retested and witnessed by a P.E. who has the needed experieince and can stamp the results. I can design the work, but I'm certainly not qualified to know if a CWI is or is not testing correctly.
Thank you for the feedback.

 

[woodman88]

What type of stamp? Would a typical shop drawing review stamp work, if signed by the EOR or a PE?

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

 

[JLNJ]

We have run into a fwe cases where the CBO requires the EOR to seal an INDEPENDENT special inspector's report. It was in Colorado most recently.

This didn't make any sense to us because our EOR had nothing to do with the Special Inspections other than to review the report. I think we lost the argument with the CBO and came up with some sort of a disclaimer to add to the seal.

 

[focuseng]

WOW. I can see a shop drawing review stamp like Garth mentioned but an actual SEAL?