QC Start Up

1. Get all the paper (procedures, specs, etc.) you can find.
2. Check on ISO, Mil Spec (military specifications), customer specs, ASM, ASTM, SAE and anything else relevant.
3. Ask the folks on the shop floor how they do it.
3. Double check by actually watching them do it and taking notes. Many people do things out of habit and don't remember that it is an essential part of the process.
4. Consider integrating videos - the following is a few years old with 24,000 views. We paid for the video and filmed it at a customer's.
The purpose was to demonstrate how to successfully use one of our products - pretinned saw tips, that is carbide saw tips with braze alloy already on them.

I consider it successful because it has solved a great number of problems for many people. That success is due to Don Wallinger, the demonstrator, and his deep knowledge and well organized teaching style.

I also like laminated instructions with many clear pictures hung over work stations. I like pictures of good, bad, and marginal parts with instructions on how to make adjustments to improve quality on marginal parts. Check out SPC or SPQC ( Statistical Process Quality Control).

While you are doing this you might as well assess quality measurement devices throughout the process. Clear, simple gauges, with big faces and easy to understand values can be a huge help.

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

If you will build vessels to ASME VIII, you will need an ASME Quality Manual to obtain your Certificate(s) of Authorization. Review requirements in Mandatory Appendix 10.

This I know weldstan, I have this already. I was asking for a Quality Plan.

The ASME Manual is the basis for your Plan.

Each vessel you build will be unique but there will be some common elements. Start with the obvious milestones and build from there.
For example every vessel you build will involve the use of materials. Some may be carbon others stainless ...
Your quality plan should include review of materials. It may be MTR's alone or perhaps additional testing was performed. I'm not saying that review of materials is necessarily the first item but it's one example of an item that should be included in your ITP.
Every vessel you build will require some visual and dimensional inspections, hydro test, etc.
Your in house standards, the code, industry standards and any customer specifications will all play a part in determining which items you include in your ITP, as they're applicable.
Some of the ITP's I generate for vessels have 25 items while others have 125 items. Generate a plan that fits.

Let me ask this again in a different way...... I am quite aware of what goes in a quality plan. I am quite aware of what it takes to build vessels. I am quite aware of ASME requirements. I am quite aware of all QC aspects of building vessels. I am asking if anyone has a steel mfg. quality plan that I could look at to determine what type of format to use and as to how it is laid out......thanks!

See page 291. Have fun

Quite a bit of information here


What if the Hokey-Cokey is what it’s all about.