I want to take the CWI American Welding Inspector exam. Which exam organization is best?

In January this year, at the request of a customer, I went to Mody International to participate in the CWI training and examination. I just checked the results from the AWS official website and it has passed, but it will take a few days to get the certificate and specific results. I have some insights into the whole process, and I would like to share it with you. I hope it will be helpful to all welders who are willing to participate in this training. The entire article is based on one opinion: "Choose what is good and follow it." Those who hold different opinions can be laughed off. You can disagree with me, but please respect my right to speak.

I won’t explain too much about this certification itself: it is initiated by the American Welding Society AWS and authorized by Moody International and Shanghai Welding Society (these are the two authorized institutions that I know of so far. The Shanghai Welding Association is also available, but it is actually done together with Modi) for training and examinations. The training and examination are divided into three parts: A welding inspection technology (that is, welding and other related basic theories), B standards and C practical operations. If you reach 72% in all three courses, you can obtain the certificate. After obtaining the certificate, you have the right to interpret any standard under its jurisdiction, including but not limited to the following: D1.1 Carbon Steel Structure Welding Specification, D1.5 Bridge Welding Specification, D1.6 Stainless Steel Welding Specification, API 1104 Pipelines and Related Facilities Welding, D15.1 train body welding specifications, etc.

Overview of the people participating in the training: I have a total of 28 people in this session (this seems to be the maximum number of Modi's training at one time, because the capacity of the training classroom is limited), 13 of them are participating for the first time In terms of training and examination, 14 people took the make-up examination and 1 person was promoted to a higher level after holding the certificate for 9 years. There are people from various industries and regions, as close as I am working in Shanghai, as far away as Lanzhou; from pressure vessels, steel structures, offshore platforms, pipelines and other industries; the one with the largest number of people is Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry, which for the first time There should be six or seven taking exams and make-up exams.

The first is 5 days of training. The first three days are about welding inspection technology, the fourth day is about standards (Modi is talking about D1.1, and API 1104 is basically not explained), and the fifth day is The actual operation is the welding inspection work manual. All three courses are taught by one teacher, Zhao Yuwei. That’s 7 hours a day.

The book "Welding Inspection Technology" is available online. I won't go into details, such as: inspection safety, welding symbols, metallography, material properties and destructive testing, conversion of metric and imperial units, and non-destructive testing. and its symbols, welding discontinuities, etc. Presented in PPT, bilingual in Chinese and English. There is no substantial change from the content in the book. The content is broad and miscellaneous, but not deep.

In fact, I personally feel that the standard explanation does not have much substantive significance. A book with hundreds of pages is just a general read. Don't expect the teacher to teach you the specific details on this day. How many things. If you have not read this standard in private, you will get nothing from your teacher's day.

The practical training is to check the contents, filling methods, usage methods, etc. of more than a dozen forms in the work manual. Finally, students will be given a batch of defective test pieces that are very close to those used in the exam. Let you get familiar with common tools such as micrometers, megameters, vernier calipers, fillet weld gauges, etc., because these are what you will use to answer questions in the exam.

Of course, the three days also include doing the questions and correcting the answers. A book is distributed. This book is recycled. If you use up this issue, put it away and continue using it in the next issue. The book is relatively old, with writings and drawings by former students on it. This is actually the PDF scanned version of the exercise that is circulated on the Internet. The teacher just asked me to do it in the evening, and the next day she would tell me the answers and explain the questions I had questions about. But the teacher also has some questions that cannot be leaked and are not available online. They are more difficult and closer to or even the same as those in the exam. It will do you good to be very careful when doing this part of the exercise.

The exams on the last day: one in the morning and two in the afternoon; the students are divided into three batches, and different content is tested at the same time; the order of the exams for the seven or eight students in my group is B, C, A; another group of students are A, B, and C; and another group is C, A, and B. This approach is to avoid cheating when taking the same test paper; but in fact there is still a problem, that is, the test is completed in one stop. You can reveal some topics to others more or less from your own memory. There are also some students who know each other or are from the same unit and are assigned to the same group. The phenomenon of cheating still exists, which I personally feel is very serious.

Part A is closed book and the questions should be the same; Part B is definitely different because the standards used are D1.1 and API 1104; as for Part C, I am not 100% sure that it seems to be the same. Because the test pieces and tools used in the exam seem to be the same, but the defects on them are different, so your answers will be different.

The exam questions themselves are not very difficult. They are the same in the three courses. If you are given enough time, you can answer them all and answer them correctly. The key is that there is not enough time. I was particularly impressed by Part A. There are a total of 150 questions, all of which are single choice. Be especially careful about the chapter on welding symbols. I don’t think there are 10, but at least 8 questions. It is purely about welding symbols. I did everything I could do the first time, and it took me 50 minutes. There were still about 20 questions left, but I worked hard and solved about 10 more questions. There are still 10 questions left. I really don’t know. How to choose, but I accidentally discovered that part of it is because of some problems with the translation of the question: the Chinese translation deviates from the true meaning of the original English. If you look at the original English text carefully, it is very easy to choose the right answer, but it is because of this translation that this question The feeling of yes and no, this is right, it seems wrong, let’s change the answer, it’s the same feeling, I think there are about 5 of this type. For the last 3 to 4 questions, there is really no problem with translation. I really don’t know how to do it myself, so I just rely on my feelings to get the answers. This stage took me 20 minutes. After answering all the questions, I started to write the answer sheets: I painted them very fast while ensuring the quality - it took me 20 minutes, an average of 7.5 per minute; I still had 30 minutes left to check, and when I checked about 80 questions, the time was up. I felt like there was no time to breathe from the beginning. Part B has 50 questions and Part C has 46 questions. The number is much smaller, but the difficulty is much higher. Part B depends on how quickly you turn through the book, that is, how familiar you are with the standard itself, but it is not all rigid terms in the book. You need to combine the terms with tables, diagrams, etc. Don’t just look at the pictures or tables, look at the notes below, where all the traps lie! There were two questions that I really didn’t know where to look for, so I chose one based on my feeling. In Part C, you need to be familiar with the inspection work manual (a new one will be issued specifically for the exam during the exam and then recycled). For example: during the welder skills exam, there are several tests to be done on the specimen (of course, in the actual exam, the questions will not be the same). It may be this simple, but the form is almost the same)? You have to quickly turn to the form for the mechanical properties test of the welder skill assessment test piece. If you are slow, you will definitely not be able to keep up with the test speed. Then there are the test pieces that are issued with defects. Use tools to measure the test piece. The size and number of defects are calculated on the total, and then the qualification is judged based on the defect criteria, which also involves the application of tables.

In a word, the questions are not very difficult, but the time is extremely tight!

Let’s talk about the situation of students. There are very experienced people, for example, there is only one veteran who has held the certificate for 9 years and came to upgrade to the advanced SCWI. Most of them are people like me who have 4 to 6 years of experience. Of course, there are also some students who have less working years and even feel that they are very amateurs, because you can tell from the way they ask questions and the questions they ask. It's time to show off his "weight". One day, his repeated "low-level" questions angered the teacher. Teacher Zhao said to him bluntly: "When we explained the abilities that an inspector should have in our first class, we mentioned one of them: inspector You should have the ability to receive training. You are a typical person who does not have the ability to receive training. "It is even more funny. It has been three days since class and I was about to explain D1.1. Teacher Yang, who is in charge of the training, reminded me: "It will start tomorrow. Explain the standards and ask the students to bring them tomorrow. "Someone stood up and said, "Teacher, what are the standards? What should I do if there are no standards?" The teacher was dumbfounded and said, "Bring money here in the afternoon. I have some for sale. Ben. "I was so happy. I came to take the CWI exam, but I didn't know what standards to take, and I didn't know what standards to take! If this kind of student really passes the exam, I can only give a thumbs up: You are so awesome!

Let’s talk about my own preparation. I actually knew about CWI very early on, and I set a goal very early on to win her down. Therefore, in 2009, when the Chinese version of D1.1 of the 08 version was just released, I purchased it (I had an email exchange with Mr. Liu Liu, the former general manager of Zhenhua Heavy Industries Changzhou Base who was responsible for translating this book, so I was very interested in it). The release progress of the Chinese version of this book is roughly known).

The American Standard products in the factory also use this standard (also D1.6), but I didn’t really do an overall reading and understanding before preparing for the exam, because I was doing inspection, and what I usually used was Chapter 4 Assessment and Chapter 6 Inspection. In July 2011, I felt that the time had come and I really started to prepare. I read D1.1 front to back at least 4 times. Read it sentence by sentence, rather than looking at it in general (I can't understand some of the content, such as part of the design in Chapter 2, the ultrasonic testing in Chapter 2, which I have never done before, and it feels very difficult. In fact, Not even during the exam). What I feel is: this book is so profound and profound that I can only barely get started, and I don’t know how much time it will take to understand and apply it. But these few readings at least let me know: which part of the book to look for what I want. Reminder again: Don’t place your hopes on how much the teacher can give you by explaining the standards for a day. That’s simply impossible. It depends on familiarity and preview in advance.

The essence of inspection technology is a summary of the knowledge that an inspector should know. It is not very deep, but the content is very broad. If you learn metallurgy and heat treatment well, it will be very helpful. I read this book four or five times, so when I was training, I heard that many people had failed this course. I felt surprised, unexpected and incomprehensible: It can't be so difficult, right? Now let me sum it up: If you fail this course, it can only prove one problem: you didn't spend time at all and didn't prepare carefully. As long as you put in the time and effort, you can't fail this class. Because there are 150 questions, you have 42 mistakes to make, which is really forgiving! Even if time is tight, you shouldn’t have trouble passing this one! ! ! If you watch it several times before training, you will be able to follow the teacher's rhythm effortlessly. Coupled with his explanation and overall summary, it will be difficult for you to think about it.

Part C inspection work manual, one is the familiarity with that small book, that is, you can quickly find which form to use in the exam; the other is the use of common inspection tools Third, I think it is the accumulation and understanding of daily work, which this small book cannot provide. A simple analogy is the specimen inspection for welding process qualification and skills assessment, which is nothing more than the following: appearance inspection, non-destructive testing, and destructive testing. Appearance inspection is basically necessary. Non-destructive testing is generally required for process assessment, but skill assessment varies according to different standards. Some require it, and some don't. Just use appearance inspection plus destructive testing. ; For destructive tests, most standards are two pulls and four bends. Some thick materials involve back bending, and those that are sensitive to heat input involve impact. API 1104 may also have a more special notched hammer-breaking test, etc. If you have gone through this process and read the relevant standards, the standards in these tables are all similar. You will understand at a glance and it is relatively easy. Reading the book is just a confirmation to reassure yourself. If you haven't done it before, it might be a little more difficult. This part of advance review is actually the summary and accumulation of your actual work experience. That little book is of some use, but more importantly in ordinary times.

Let’s talk about the application of English in training. It doesn’t mean that if you don’t know English, you won’t be able to pass this exam. It’s not that serious; but if you know English, especially welding English, it will bring you Unexpected benefits, I realized two points: First, when the teacher was explaining inspection technology, the PPT was bilingual. The first PPT was in English and the latter one was in Chinese. In fact, the content was exactly the same, just translated. But when the teacher is explaining, he will inadvertently stop the PPT on the English version, and skip the Chinese version after explaining. If you don’t know a bit of English, it’s particularly difficult at this time because you can only listen but not see! The second point is what I mentioned above: the translation of the test questions is much more accurate than the translation of the exercises we did, but it is still not 100% avoidable. If you know English, you may encounter me when answering the questions. The same situation, this time is an unexpected gain!

Then there is the choice of test standards. I am not sure which standards Modi can test, but D1.1 and API 1104 are certain. I can tell you responsibly: If you want to truly learn how to read and understand a standard, study and prepare for D1.1; if you just want to get this certificate, then choose API 1104. Because the difficulty of the two is not of the same order of magnitude at all.

D1.1*** totals more than 600 pages. In addition to the appendices and design and ultrasound that are generally not tested, I am afraid it also has 300 pages. The content is all-encompassing, the language is relatively abstruse, there are many diagrams, and it is difficult to understand; but if you really understand this If you understand the standards thoroughly, there won’t be any big problems with basically all other welding standards. D1.1 itself is the mother of all structural construction specifications of the D1 series. Others such as D1.5 are separated from it and are related to it. More or less contact. API 1104 is different. It is much simpler and less. It has about 70 pages in one session. I only read the English version once a week. And the content inside is very conventional process assessment, skill assessment, NDT terms, what can be done and what cannot be done. It can be said that after reading the text once, you can't understand what she means. This phenomenon can be said to be very rare. But in D1.1, I personally feel that this phenomenon is very common. After I watched it twice, I started to feel something about it. Of course, it may also be due to my limited talent. Many students from Zhenhua Heavy Industry are working on offshore platforms, but they all took the 1104 exam. I thought they were working on pipelines. Later they explained: Many people in their company have taken the CWI exam and have very rich experience. They concluded that 1104 is much less difficult than D1.1, and there is no comparison at all!

I would like to talk about my views on this certification and IWE. In July last year, at the request of European customers, I also went to Beijing, took the IWE exam, and got the certificate with excellent results. The difference between the two is as follows: IWE is a European standard, and CWI is an American standard; IWE focuses on craftsmanship, that is, engineer training; CWI, as its name suggests, focuses on inspection; IWE takes a long time, one month; CWI lasts 6 days. ; The contents of the two vary depending on the welding and metallurgical systems, but my personal feeling is that they remain consistent. A significant advantage of CWI is that it is more practical, more specific, and more closely related to actual application because it is an assessment of actual standards. IWE is a bit like a summary of what I learned about welding in four years of college, and then a front-to-back sorting out based on my actual production experience.

Finally, let me talk about my views on certificates: Many people, especially those who think they are more NB, look down on certificates, thinking that they are just for collecting money, and that the examination is purely for appearance, and of little use. . My opinion is as follows: in the final analysis, human ability is omnipotent; although certification is not omnipotent, sometimes, without certification, it is absolutely impossible. My company has encountered it, and my classmate's company has encountered it: Foreign customers just say one thing: I don't care how many Chinese senior engineers you have, how many engineers you have, I only ask you one thing: Do we (Europe or the United States) This certification? Yes, we can talk next or give you the order directly; no, that’s it. This is at the corporate level. Looking at the personal level, you can go to several large talent websites for recruitment information in our industry. Those large companies such as Siemens, ABB, Hartford, etc. all have five-digit monthly salaries, and the conditions are so A few: 1. About five years of work experience; 2. Fluent English, especially welding professional English; 3. Certification from authoritative organizations such as IWE, CWI, SSPC, CSWIP, etc. I am more realistic. I go out to work to find a good job and to have a better life in the future. So, I will do whatever you need. There is no way to accumulate five years of experience. Without enough time, it is impossible for me to have five years of experience. But as long as one to five years, this condition will not have any restrictive effect on me in the future. If you want English, Therefore, I spent more time than welding and spent 20,000 yuan to learn English. I could read the entire English version of welding standards such as ASME IX. I persisted for several years and never gave up. This will continue in the future; if you want certification, I will go for it even if I spend my own money. What's more, I didn't take the exam for the sake of exam. Just to take the CWI exam, I read D1.1 four times, I read the inspection technology five times, and other related standards mentioned such as AWS B1.10 Appearance Inspection Guide , AWS A2.4 welding symbols, AWS A3.0 standard welding terms and their definitions, found the English version and read it word by word, I found: this process, I got much more than I imagined, more than mine There are many more certificates.

It doesn’t mean that I fully understand this standard after reading it four or five times, and that I am a qualified and excellent welder, but as a welder, I accumulate and grow bit by bit like this. stand up. In order to obtain the certificate, I worked hard and gained the ability; obtaining the certificate proved my ability, because not all cats and dogs can obtain these certificates. Some people get certificates without much effort. I can only give a thumbs up: You are awesome. But I won’t be jealous. A certificate may not be difficult to obtain, but behind getting this certificate, only I know how much I have paid and how much I have received, and I will never regret it.

There is also how to use the certificate. I always see many people asking on forums: Do state-owned enterprises recognize IWE/CWI? I don’t think it’s easy to understand: you’re lucky to find a state-owned enterprise that recognizes this certificate. If you don’t, don’t blame the certificate for being worthless. Because you used it in the wrong place. IWE is a European standard (mainly German), and CWI is an American standard. It can be said that the standards have two functions in the final analysis: 1. For us individuals and enterprises, if we do not follow the rules, we will not be able to achieve success: the manufacturing of pressure vessels You can’t just do whatever you want, because explosions will kill people, you have to abide by a rule, and this rule is the standard; 2. For a country or a unified economy (such as the EU), the standard is a trade barrier: who has grasped it? Whoever has the say in standards stands at the top of the industry chain: you have to pay patent fees, you have to pay certification fees, you have to pay testing fees, etc. Which standard is not like this? How much such fees do TUV, ASME, PED, including our country's 3C, get from other people every year? Isn’t the establishment of the standard system just to protect myself from being led by others? Why should I endorse my competitors’ stuff? Of course it won’t work for you to use IWE to find a job in an American company (of course it’s not absolute, the same is true for what is said below), but don’t you look at big European companies such as Siemens, Alstom, Tetra Pak, and ABB? ? I saw a data two years ago. There were 53 people in a class in the United States who obtained IWE certification, which was not as many as the number of people in a class when I was studying. Isn’t the European Safety Equipment Directive PED created to compete with the American standard ASME? Is it different if you go to Europe with a CWI to find a job? But don’t American companies like Procter & Gamble, Hartford, and Caterpillar want them all? After getting the certificate, you have to use it where it should be used.

Hope to adopt