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In Process Quality Assurance – IPQA is an NDE methodology that directly interrogates the welding process as it is occurring and identifies process conditions that could lead to potential weld defects. The method is forward looking and anticipates the occurrence of defects as opposed to traditional NDE which tries to find defects after they have already occurred. In Arctic conditions, it is especially critical to assure first time weld quality and to avoid costly rework and to preclude the possibility of field failures.

The basic technology involves sensing, data collection, feature extractions, fault classification, and correlation to specific defect types. Then once this correlation is made, the in-process sensing can identify process conditions which stray outside of nominal baseline parameters and therefore could cause defects. This affords the opportunity for either full closed loop process control or alternatively process intervention to avoid the occurrence of defects.

Specific examples of how this technology can be applied will be discussed within the context of GTAW, GMAW, and other processes such as hot wire GTA, or HW-GTAW. IPQA will be discussed within the context of applications for pipelines, offshore structures, and shipbuilding and other heavy fabrication applications. Variants of IPQA for purely manual welding such as shipbuilding will also be discussed, which touch on other aspects of weld monitoring and control such as productivity and welding habits of individual welders, which also has applications for welder training.