Welding quality control and monitoring system
A quality assurance system includes an internet/wide area network interface configured to provide bidirectional communication with user terminals; a wireless interface configured to provide bidirectional communication with mobile user terminals; and a quality assurance database cooperatively coupled with a database manager. The data base manager is configured to populate the quality assurance database with identifications of individual ones of a plurality of construction project welders, weld inspectors and a plurality of weld data logs individual ones of which are associated with a specific welding operation of a construction project. Each weld data log is configured to store information that is at least descriptive of a welder, material used during the specific welding operation, specifics of a completed weld including at least weld location, weld type and weld dimensions, and information descriptive of a weld examination. Information entry into at least one weld data log is made by a weld inspector using a report from one of the mobile user terminals.
1. A method to provide quality assurance information for a construction project, comprising:
populating a quality assurance database with identifications of individual ones of a plurality of construction project welders and weld inspectors; and
further populating the quality assurance data base with a plurality of weld data logs individual ones of which are associated with a specific welding operation of the construction project, each weld data log being configured to store information that is at least descriptive of a welder, material used during the specific welding operation, specifics of a completed weld including at least weld location, weld type and weld dimensions, and information descriptive of a weld examination, where
information entry into at least one weld data log is made by a weld inspector using a mobile terminal that is capable of wireless communication with the quality assurance database.
2. The method of claim 1 , where each weld data log is further configured to store information descriptive of a time that the welding operation was started and a time that the welding operation was completed.
3. The method of claim 1 , where each weld data log is further configured to store information descriptive of a weld repair, if any.
4. The method of claim 1 , where the information descriptive of a weld examination comprises information derived from at least one type of non-destructive examination.
5. The method of claim 4 , where the type of non-destructive examination is comprised of one of visual examination, ultrasonic examination, magnetic particle examination and radiographic examination.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising periodically generating at least one type of report based at least on the plurality of weld data logs.
7. The method of claim 1 , where the individual ones of the specific welding operations are uniquely identified using a bar code.
8. The method of claim 1 , where the wireless communication comprises use of internet protocol (IP).
9. The method of claim 1 , performed as a result of the execution of computer program instructions stored in at least one computer-readable memory.
10. A quality assurance system, comprising:
an internet/wide area network interface configured to provide bidirectional communication with user terminals;
a wireless interface configured to provide bidirectional communication with mobile user terminals; and
a quality assurance database cooperatively coupled with a database manager configured to populate the quality assurance database with identifications of individual ones of a plurality of construction project welders, weld inspectors and a plurality of weld data logs individual ones of which are associated with a specific welding operation of a construction project, each weld data log being configured to store information that is at least descriptive of a welder, material used during the specific welding operation, specifics of a completed weld including at least weld location, weld type and weld dimensions, and information descriptive of a weld examination, where information entry into at least one weld data log is made by a weld inspector using a report from one of the mobile user terminals.
11. The quality assurance system of claim 10 , where each weld data log is further configured to store information descriptive of a time that the welding operation was started and a time that the welding operation was completed.
12. The quality assurance system of claim 10 , where each weld data log is further configured to store information descriptive of a weld repair, if any.
13. The quality assurance system of claim 10 , where the information descriptive of a weld examination comprises information derived from at least one type of non-destructive examination.
14. The quality assurance system of claim 13 , where the type of non-destructive examination is comprised of one of visual examination, ultrasonic examination, magnetic particle examination and radiographic examination.
15. The quality assurance system of claim 10 , where said data base manager is further configured to periodically generate at least one type of report based at least on the plurality of weld data logs.
16. The quality assurance system of claim 10 , further comprising an interface for receiving bar codes, where individual ones of the specific welding operations are uniquely identified using a bar code.
17. The quality assurance system of claim 10 , where said data base manager is configured for operation as a result of the execution of computer program instructions stored in at least one computer-readable memory.
18. The quality assurance system of claim 10 , where said internet/wide area network interface is comprised of a web server configured for operation with web browsers implemented in said user terminals.
19. A computer-readable memory that stores a program of computer-executable instructions, where execution of the instructions results in operations that comprise:
populating a quality assurance database with identifications of individual ones of a plurality of construction project welders and weld inspectors;
further populating the quality assurance data base with a plurality of weld data logs individual ones of which are associated with a specific welding operation of the construction project, each weld data log being configured to store information that is at least descriptive of a welder, material used during the specific welding operation, specifics of a completed weld including at least a unique weld identifier, weld location, weld type and weld dimensions, and information descriptive of a weld examination; and
periodically generating at least one type of report based at least on the plurality of weld data logs, where information entry into at least one weld data log is made by a weld inspector using a mobile terminal that is capable of wireless communication with the quality assurance database.
20. The memory of claim 19 , where each weld data log is further configured to store information that comprises at least one of:
information descriptive of a time that the welding operation was started and a time that the welding operation was completed; and
information descriptive of a weld repair, if any.
21. The memory of claim 19 , where the information descriptive of a weld examination comprises information derived from at least one type of non-destructive examination.
22. The memory of claim 21 , where the type of non-destructive examination is comprised of one of visual examination, ultrasonic examination, magnetic particle examination and radiographic examination.
23. The memory of claim 19 , where the wireless communication comprises use of internet protocol (IP).
24. The memory of claim 19 , further comprising an operation of querying the database to generate an acceptance packet for a particular component, the acceptance packet comprising information related to individual ones of the welds made for the particular component.
25. The memory of claim 19 , where a weld data log establishes at least one hold point in a process flow.