Taking extra quality measures at the front end of projects are proving to be beneficial for two Graycor Industrial sites where welders achieved impressively low reject rates.

In West Olive, Michigan, the Consumers Energy Campbell project—led by Graycor Industrial’s John Gowland, project director (retired), Mike Miner, project manager, and Tim Walleske, superintendent—successfully completed more than 85 linear feet of complete joint penetration (CJP) welds with ZERO rejects.

“This accomplishment is even more impressive considering the team was required to pass with 100 percent UT [ultrasonic testing] inspection,” says Lori Kuiper, Graycor’s welding engineer.

Graycor Industrial’s team at the American Electric Power (AEP) Unit 1 SCR Project in Rockport, Indiana—led by Jerry Matheis, senior project manager, and Jerry Wade, superintendent—similarly achieved more than 181 linear feet of CJP welds with just a single linear-foot reject using UT inspection, equating to a percentage rate of 0.5.

Mike McPherson and Trampest Martin, Graycor’s quality control representatives on the Consumers and AEP projects, respectively, attribute their teams’ successes to cross-functional teamwork, training and education, and craft management.

For the teamwork effort at AEP, “We gave all the information available to our welders and foremen with the use of weld plans and other documents we provided,” says Trampest. At the Consumers project, the quality representative reviewed drawings with the superintendent and general foreman investing time identifying and logging the welds and their locations long before work began on the baghouse installation at the J.H. Campbell Complex.

For both job sites, project management stressed upfront training for general foremen, foremen and welders focused on the criteria for CJP welding: proper fit-up, preheat, acceptable weld profile criteria, quality expectations and methods of NDE for examination and acceptance.

Providing craft management with comprehensive welding planning tools allowed field supervision to understand the importance of various welds and how to position welders accordingly. When arriving at the job sites, quality representatives also employed a strict evaluation process to examine welders, which further facilitated grouping the welders by skill level and placement.

McPherson adds one other factor contributed to his team’s success: Craftsmen. “The welders took pride in their work and mentioned they appreciated that we took time to explain what our expectations were ahead of time,” he says.

All facets of both projects—supervision, craftspeople and quality personnel—pulled together to achieve this welding success!