Qualified underwater wet welding

Welding in wet environments is increasingly accepted as a cost-effective alternative to hyperbaric dry welding, for instance for repair and maintenance work in harbours, dams and hydraulic power stations.

Hyperbaric dry welding involves setting up a habitat around the welding point and the actual welding process is performed in a dry hyperbaric atmosphere; in contrast, hyperbaric wet welding takes place under direct contact with the surrounding water. With the vast improvements that have been made over the past years to welding process management and welding fillers, it is now possible to produce wet welding work of exceptional quality.

These developments have enabled us to carry out reproducible, extremely low-pore welding deposits in water depths of 50 metres. The following text provides more detailed information on the particular features of manual arc welding using stick electrodes in wet environments. It focuses particularly on the qualifications that technical welding personnel require for welding at this depth.

Safeguarding the quality of welded connections

One of the effects of the evolution of the European market and the introduction of new common legislation and standards is that German companies are now required to produce specific documentation for many aspects of the work they carry out.

European standards have led to even more importance being attached to quality assurance systems in terms of product liability than previously typical in Germany. The basis for quality assurance in welding technology is defined in ISO standards 9000 to 9004 (EN 29000 to 29004), which have been adopted as European standard, and the European EN 729 standard "Quality Requirements for Fusion Welding".

One particularly important feature is that even the most elementary quality requirements specify the exclusive deployment of recognised welders qualified in accordance with the appropriate section of the DIN EN 287 standard. Given the skills required for the job, it is easy to appreciate that technical underwater welders need to be qualified in accordance with highly specialised qualification guidelines.

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