Welding standards important for safety, survey shows

When it comes to safety, Canadians trust expert industry approval. According to a recent survey commissioned by the Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB), 97 per cent of Canadians agree that construction work, including welding contractors and steel fabricators, should be overseen by a national organization and held to a common Canadian standard.

CWB is the regulator of welding professionals and companies throughout Canada, and works to ensure that each project involving welding is completed and overseen by certified and accredited professionals.

Craig Martin, vice-president of public safety at CWB, said, “Since founding CWB in 1947, Canadians have taken a position of leadership in the global welding industry and developed one of the first welding certification standards to ensure that the welding process provided consistent and high quality results. We are a standard Canadians should be proud of.”

But there is a contradiction amongst survey recipients. When asked to rank importance of features when it comes to keeping Canadian buildings, bridges and other key infrastructure like pipelines safe, design comes out on top (39 per cent ranking it as important) while certified tradespeople comes out near the bottom (13 per cent ranking this as important). Quality of materials comes in second (26 per cent) and regular inspection third (21 per cent).

“Most people assume that if a bridge or building is designed to meet the standards it is being built to those standards,” Martin continues. “Unfortunately that is not always the case. Industry needs to continue to enforce those standards from design through to building and maintenance.”

When considering the safety of a product, nearly all Canadians feel that expert industry approval is important, and three in four (76 per cent) view it as very important. Almost half of us consider products made in Canada to be safer than those made elsewhere (44 per cent).

“Welding is all around us, so being able to count on an industry standard should be important to all Canadians,” said Martin.

CWB’s certification programs have expanded beyond the welding of steel to offer programs for aluminum welding, resistance welding, welding electrodes and welding inspectors, among others. In all cases, the programs are based on standards produced by the Canadian Standards Association.
www.eng.CWBGroup.org

When considering the safety of a product, nearly all Canadians feel that expert industry approval is important, and three in four (76 per cent) view it as very important. Almost half of us consider products made in Canada to be safer than those made elsewhere (44 per cent).

“Welding is all around us, so being able to count on an industry standard should be important to all Canadians,” said Martin.

CWB’s certification programs have expanded beyond the welding of steel to offer programs for aluminum welding, resistance welding, welding electrodes and welding inspectors, among others. In all cases, the programs are based on standards produced by the Canadian Standards Association.
www.eng.CWBGroup.org