An old story I just became aware of

[Rock knocker]

Pretty amazing that this happened. In the old days of UP&L, this would never had gotten by Dan and Sheldon, nor would have any of the contractors have tried.

My best guess is that this is a transition weld between carbon and a stainless alloy in the superheater section.

It probably not likely to fail in the near future, nor catastrophically, but would certainly have a much shorter life span, especially during the rigors of start-up and stopping.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=11872480

[Cofe]

Wow, I wonder who the CWI guy was, or who he worked for?

Any welder with any kind of knowledge should know proper procedures for welding P5 to P8 material. Those guys should be banned from ever welding R stamp...
The highest test I ever passed is shown below as my signature line.

[Mondo]

I have no quailifications to speak of the welding processes involved, but the story has a peculiar stench to it.

Some weldor blew the whistle: "PacifiCorp contracted with California-based PMSI, which put dozens of welders to work. One of them triggered an investigation by alleging widespread cheating." (News story text.) I wonder what happened to him. .

Next, it stinks of a cover-up with a list of patsys: "...our inspector working for PMSI said basically this is a standard operating procedure," (Union spokesman Jim Cooksey)

A dozen or so weldors were fired. Oh, I am sure they fired the guys who were taking the short-cuts, but who made the decision to take those short-cuts? How many of those weldors were only following orders? Was there one or two weldors who took it upon themselves to do this, and dragged a bunch of others along with them (hey Joe, do it like this....) ? Why would the weldor's have incentive to short-cut the work? If they are paid hourly for their time it shouldn't matter to them. But it does matter to the contractor who is paying the wages! My suspicion is a company boss or line supervisor directed the short cut work to improve his company's bottom line, then played like a duck when someone blew the whistle.

Of course, the other slant that poisons the entire situation is the perpetual conflict between the labor unions and companys who employ non-union labor. The union will pounce on any opportunity to point a fickle finger at non-union work.

What a steaming heap!

- Mondo

[DaYoungPup]

Wow....

A teacher in high-school said he put himself and his wive through college by welding. Said at one time, he was certified to weld in nuclear power plants. Pain he said in a story once...weld, chip, X-ray....repeat. Made an error.....grind off and start over. So he said...