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Report of the RAILSAFE European Seminar |
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Introduction by Bob Sawdon, Balfour Beatty Rail Technologiea Bob identified the origins of the RAILSAFE project: an idea, some five years ago, in DG 4.2 (a drafting group working under WG4 of SC1 of CEN TC 256) to create a database of track welders. This led to the creation of the Leonardo de Vinci project RAILSAFE. An aim is to give passports to welders that are recognised and allow rail welders to work in different countries. Introduction to the RAILSAFE project by Hans van den Brug, RAILSAFE Project Co-ordinator The purpose was the 'Development of a Harmonised System for Education, Qualification and Certification of Railway Track Welders'. RAILSAFE was a three year project and was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007. It is currently restricted to aluminothermic welding. There are seven partners in the project which concentrates on cutting, welding, grinding and safety. Its objectives are:
The expected results of the project are seen as:
At present items 1 to 5 are virtually complete. Hans van den Brug identified the purpose of the seminar as being to present and discuss the results and to hear the views of those present in order to move towards consensus on a harmonised training and certification system. He outlined the process used within the project to produce the results and highlighted the educational structure developed to meet industry requirements. He concluded that feedback in the workshops identified general support for the development of a harmonised structure. Introduction to EN 14730-2 Railway applications Track - Aluminothermic Welding of Rails - Qualification of aluminothermic welders, approval of contractors and acceptance of welds, by Dr J Keichel, Elektrothermit and Mr M Rominger, SNCF Mr Marc Rominger opened the presentation by explaining the work of CEN/TC256 WG4 which is responsible for EN 14730-2: 2006. Dr Jorg Keichel took over to explain about the aspects of those parts of EN 14730-2 which correspond with the RAILSAFE project. Marc indicated clauses from the standard and argued that this structure was adequate without the need for a separate structure. In his conclusions he presented a statement from WG4 members which highlighted the objections to RAILSAFE.These were:
WG4 also had specific comments on the RAILSAFE project. These being:
In the discussion, Mr van den Hurk asked about the criteria for contractors. This was answered in that it was covered adequately elsewhere in the standard. Mr van den Hurk then said he wanted common welder qualification processes in the different countries since he had contracts in other countries than the Netherlands. This led to an extensive discussion but the response was that the processes suppliers were responsible for the processes and the Rail Authority was responsible for the training and qualification requirements. However, it was recognised by Dr Keichel that in fact 80% of the training is common for the European countries and only 20% is country specific. This of course is the basis for harmonisation. Ir van den Brug then responded to the points raised by WG4. His points were:
Presentation and detailed discussion of a Guideline for education, qualification and certification, by Tim Jessop, TWI Ltd Eur Ing Jessop opened his presentation by explaining that failures occurred in welded constructions but that most of these happened despite knowledge being available that, had it been applied, the failures would not have happened. The outcome of this is that there are a growing number of standards aimed at transferring knowledge to ensure that good practice is adopted. In welding, there is a solid framework of such standards. Harmonisation is different but depends on the willingness of people to seek harmonisation. He referred to ISO 14731 Welding Co-ordination which dealt with welding coordination and referenced the harmonised IIW qualifications as a means of satisfying the technical knowledge requirements in the standard. He said the aim of the RAILSAFE project was to produce a similar harmonised system that satisfied certain of the requirements of EN 14730-2. He then went on to explain about the Guideline which presents the 'Minimum requirements for the education, training, examination, qualification and certification of railway track welding personnel'. He identified the purpose of the Guideline as being:
Eur Ing Jessop then defined the structure and its main items. These items were: access conditions (prior knowledge required), instruction programme (theoretical and practical for an individual ATW process), examinations and tests, award of diplomas, award of certificates for specific processes, renewal of certificates and transition arrangements. He then summarised the theoretical training requirements (minimum 40 hours) and the practical training in one ATW process (minimum 73 hours) and explained how the examinations and test would be carried out. He asked delegates to feed any detailed comments on the curriculum relating to the emphasis given or if anything was missing.
System for the implementation of the Education, Qualification and Certification System, by Professor Luisa Quintino, European Welding Federation Professor Quintino introduced the 'Rules for implementation of RAILSAFE Guidelines for education, examination, qualification and certification of European railway track welding personnel' and invited feedback on the draft proposals to help in the creation of a unified scheme. She explained that the first part of the document dealt with RAILSAFE Authorised National Bodies (RANB), the second with RANB assessment, surveillance and reporting procedures, the third with the standard requirements for Authorised Training Bodies (ATB) and, finally, the fourth, examinations. Additional subjects: Database of qualified and certified welders; and welding Procedures, by Mr Italo Fernandes, European Welding Federation and Mr Jõao Henriques, Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade Mr Henriques opened this session by presenting the Guideline for Elaboration of Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) and relating the requirements to EN 14730-1/2. He described the proposed WPS form but recognised that it may not be practical for the welder to have it at the point of welding. This also applied to the process manuals. The part of the project dealing with welders database was presented by Mr Fernandes. He had based it on EWF software but he anticipated that it would be run by the Railway Authorities at national level and not by EWF or another body at the European level. In time, it could develop into a European system if that was the wish of the rail industry. The benefits of this approach would be that the RAs would be using a common software program and the data recorded would be the same and the interrogation systems would be similar. The system would allow training schools to input data which would reduce the requirement for a central body to have to add new information. Importance of the guideline to a railway contractor by Mr Nick van den Hurk. Volker Rail Mr van den Hurk said his company carried out about 35% of the Netherlands business and had a joint venture with Corus (Grantrail). They also had business in a number of other European countries. They employ approximately 120 Thermit welders. Because of their varied interests, they have considerable interest in a common approach that avoids duplication of training. He also noted that skill levels of welders varied but you needed competent people to do the welding. Often the value of track welders is undervalued. What Mr van den Hurk desires is:
He welcomed the RAILSAFE project emphasising that:
General Discussion Comments from Mr Philpott, Grant Rail, expressed concerns that the system must not be complicated . He said it should be simple and cost effective. It should be less bureaucratic than existing systems but he was not sure whether this would be achieved.
Mr Hervey queried how the project would look into the lack of support for the RAILSAFE project by the process suppliers. Ir van den Brug said this would be pursued by the project team and further discussions with WG4 would be sought. Mr van den Hurk commented that he did not feel there was such a great difference between WG4 and the RAILSAFE project and encouraged the proposed contact to be pursued.
The use of the database to record weld failure performance by welders was raised since this was a problem for some companies using contract welders. The project team has discussed this previously but left this out as it was not part of the scope of the current project. Including welder performance would cause significant software development to preserve personal data and for this reason it was not included in the project at this stage. It was noted that contractors recorded this data already and this helped to weed out poor welders. The need for exchange of this sort of information was seen by some as important.
Dr D N Shackleton
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