Welding and NDT Reports for Saudi Aramco Contractors

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 14:38:51 +1000

This blog post will show Saudi Aramco contractors how to generate welding and NDT reports in Saudi Aramco format and they can effectively use WeldTrace to fulfil all the requirements of SAEP-1160.

SAEP-1160 is a Saudi Aramco Engineering Procedure (SAEP) for Tracking And Reporting of Welding, NDT And Pressure Testing For Capital Projects. This document establishes minimum requirements and responsibilities for the tracking and reporting of production welding, welder performance, NDE tracking and pressure test verification associated with construction activities at Saudi Aramco facilities.

Full Traceability

Clause 6.1 of this procedure requires: Contractor to make sure that data management and tracking systems shall have all relevant information to ensure material traceability of each components/item and weld joint. It shall link with the field material control record and shall have the capability to validate the input.

WeldTrace offers full material traceability. Firstly, it has a repository for storing information about materials like heat number, material type, dimensions, quantity on hand, location, supplier as well as uploading the mill test certificate. (Read more about in this knowledge base article).

You can then select a weld and add the heat numbers of the materials welded as well as the batch numbers of the welding consumables. Once heat numbers are selected, the weld will associate with the heat numbers and you may generate turnover packs, MDR or project data book with all the details, including the mill test certificates of these materials for selected drawings or equipment (Read more about in this knowledge base article).

Track Welders

This procedure also requires tracking of welders and their performance: "The contractor's data management and tracking system shall maintain Welder/Welding Operator Registration and Track list of all project approved welders. Note : Data management system shall manage and report the welder qualification expiry and renewal at 6 months interval linked to show evidence of continuity with supporting by the applicable NDE method records)"

With WeldTrace, managing WPS, welders, their WPQs/WQTRs is very easy. Only the qualified WPS, qualified and current welders will be available to be selected in projects. Once welders are assigned and welds are completed, welders’ continuity logs will be automatically updated.

Warning emails will be sent at the end of five months of inactivity (i.e. if a welder had not welded to a process for five months).

Reporting of Defects

"The contractor's database shall report weld rejection rate by both joint and linear basis separately for Welder/Welding Operator and Project weekly / cumulative."

The weekly welder repair rate report gives a breakdown of joints welded by welder for the week and cumulative figures both for number of joints and on linear basis in the Saudi Aramco format SATR-W-2013. (Read more about in this knowledge base article).

If a weld is found to have a defect, WeldTrace provides an interface where one of the welders used for the joint can be picked and the length of defect can be assigned. Reports are available to calculate the rejection rate.

Welder Performance Reports

"Contractor shall track Welder Classification based on welder performance criteria and shall be categorized as A, B, C, D based the criteria defined in applicable procedure."

Welder classification report in WeldTrace will classify welders from A to D based on their performance. If % Reject Inches (linear i.e. number of inches rejected/number of inches RT) is less than or equal to 0.2 and % Reject Joint (count i.e. number of joints rejected/number of joints RT) is less than or equal to 5, then the welder is classified as A. There are similar values for the classifications B, C & D. This report is available to be viewed, generated as a PDF file as well as in Excel format.

Weld Status Reports

Apart from these specific requirements, there are some other reports that Saudi Aramco requires their contractors to submit on a weekly basis. Weekly and Cumulative Weld Status Report SATR-W-2019 and Weld Summary, Welder Performance and Non-Destructive (NDT) Tracking System Report SATR-W-2008 are a couple of such reports. Copies of these files that are generated from WeldTrace are available for download in this page in our help centre: Aramco Reports.

If you have specific queries on how to manage the welding data for Saudi Aramco projects, please get in touch with us.