Standardized Welding Curriculum and Testing for Shipyards Available to Purchase

Shipyard training programs are varied in their methods and in the metrics they use to qualify welders, and welders are not always trained on each specific weld needed for today’s ship production (i.e., butt, fillet, lap, or a small precision one-pass weld) before going out into the field and performing them. As naval ship designs continue to incorporate a rising amount of thin steel, the demand for a standardized training program to address the requirements for welding this thinner material is increasingly apparent. In many programs, little attention is given to distortion control practices during fitting and welding processes on thin material. Working with shipyard instructors, a new program was implemented at Ingalls with the goal of training welders who are able to weld to design and capable of performing welding procedures needed for current modern lightweight ship production in order to reduce rework and downstream costs.