The last decades brought significant improvements in the field of welding fabrication, in terms of standards and education of qualified personnel. However, the current trends of the welding industry to optimize production by reducing fabrication and maintenance costs of the products, continuously require the implementation of new approaches in the training of welding specialists. Since an increasing number of industrial fields (such as chemical, petrochemical, power generation, process industry) have the risk management system already implemented, and the vast majority of industrial equipment contain welded parts, there is a real necessity to train welding specialists in the field of quality management and risk management.The project aims to benefit from the significant amount of information available regarding the successful implementation of Risk Management in the mentioned industrial fields, based on the API 581 recommended practice in America, the RIMAP project in Europe and the ISO 31000 and ISO/IEC 31010 standards. Furthermore, by having the EWF as partner in the consortium, the project will benefit from its vast experience in organizing training courses in welding and disseminating results though the member network. The main goal of the project is to broaden to area of expertise of welding personnel, so that besides the fundamentals of welding technology and fabrication they get an insight towards welding management, i.e. risk management in welding fabrication, evaluation of risks, inspection, implementation of the risk matrix (according to API 581, RIMAP, ISO 31000), as well as: quality management (ISO 9001), welding management (ISO 3834), environmental management (ISO 14001), health and safety management (BSI 8800), legislative and normative context, insurance aspects.The specific objectives of the project are the establishment of a strategic partnership in order to share the above mentioned multidisciplinary knowledge between the partners of the project and realization of a comprehensive and harmonized course support for welding personnel based on the document 640-07 issued by EWF. This training will have a benefic impact by reducing the differences between national qualifications in the field of welding fabrication thus contributing to the improvement of mobility of welding professionals in Europe and sustaining the competitiveness of Eastern European countries on the market. The mentioned goals are going to be reached by organizing 2 pilot training courses containing the mentioned subjects in 2 of the consortium countries, 1 in each country. These 2 countries will benefit from the expertise transferred from the other partners in order to improve the national qualification process of welding personnel as well as to align it to the European and global requirements. Following this, the other project partner countries will also organize the developed training course, extending the project's sustainability.The project consortium has the recognized experience to develop common guidelines that will be further adjusted to training actions in the field of welding qualification, starting from the basic document IAB-041/EWF-450.
The last decades brought significant improvements in the field of welding fabrication, in terms of standards and education of qualified personnel. However, the current trends of the welding industry to optimize production by reducing fabrication and maintenance costs of the products, continuously require the implementation of new approaches in the training of welding specialists. The need for trained welding specialists with extended knowledge towards risk management in welding fabrication exists since the vast majority of industrial equipment contain welded parts and welding fabrication poses many risks regarding the peoples' health, the quality of the product as well as environmental issues. The RMWF project aimed to produce an attractive education and training programme in the partner countries for qualified personnel in welding fabrication. The main goal was to broaden to area of expertise of welding personnel, so that besides the fundamentals of welding technology and fabrication they get an insight towards risk management in welding fabrication, based on latest European / international standards. The project consortium was composed by partners with complementary skills: ISIM Timisoara (Romania) – national R&D institute in the field of welding and material testing that acts as project coordinator, University of Miskolc (Hungary) - state university with long traditions and great development potentials, TVE Engineering (Hungary) - private SME experienced in risk management with main activity related to reliability and assessment of engineering structures, Quality Management Software AS (Norway) - SME with experience in implementation of e-learning technologies within higher education and VET sector and the European Federation for Welding, Joining and Cutting - international non-profit association aiming at the collaboration in the study and solution of welding-related problems encountered within its fields of competence and in the removal of technical barriers. By having the EWF as partner in the consortium, the project has benefited from its vast experience developing International Qualifications in welding and related technologies, and disseminating results though the member network. The specific objective of the project was establishment of a strategic partnership in order to share the above mentioned multidisciplinary knowledge between the partners of the project and realization of a comprehensive and harmonized course support for welding personnel. All partner brought their own contribution for the project management and for a proper implementation of the project activities. Thus, in the project frame educational materials were developed based on updated EWF 640-18 Guideline and two pilot training course on Risk Management in Welding Fabrication, were joint organized in Romania and Hungary. These courses had a beneficial impact by reducing the differences between national qualifications in the field of risk management in welding fabrication thus contributing to the improvement of mobility of welding professionals in Europe and sustaining the competitiveness of Eastern European countries on the market. As a result of the project activities, actions and events all partners have benefited from the expertise transferred between partners in order to improve the national qualification process of European Welding Fabrication Risk Managers to meet the current European and international requirements. To assure the project visibility, the consortium agreed on keeping the project website www.rmwf.eu as the project main dissemination channel. Thus, after the EU funding ends, the project website will be updated with the latest information regarding organisation of RMWF courses in different European country, news about the integration process of the updated guideline and course material into the EWF network and related to the acceptance of this new qualification at European level by the EWF.