Page 30 - MetalForming January 2020

FABRICATION
It’s Official: AWS Set to Certify
Resistance Welding Technicians
The exam covers weld-equipment setup, including machine and tooling design; welding processes and schedules; weld quality and testing, including destructive and nondestructive procedures; and much more.
After more than 100 years as a stepchild in the world of sheet metal joining, the resistance welding (RW) process is about to become recognized by the American Welding Society (AWS) with its own knowledge-based certification. The new AWS Certified Resistance Welding Technician (CRWT) designation, recently rolled out, joins eight other professional welding certifications offered by AWS.
To gain the certification, candidates must complete a 100-question multi- ple-choice exam, developed over the past several years by volunteer subject- matter experts drawn from member companies of the Resistance Welding Manufacturing Alliance (RWMA), an AWS standing committee comprising representatives from suppliers of RW machinery, components and consum- ables. Exam questions originate from several AWS publications available for
Tom Snow, CRWT, is a past chairman of the RWMA, and chairman of T. J. Snow Co. of Chattanooga, TN, a man- ufacturer and distributor of resistance welding machinery, supplies and acces- sories; www.tjsnow.com.
Most metal stampers offering resistance welding (RW) as a value-added secondary process do not have welding engineers on staff. And, although RW can appear decep- tively simple, ensuring quality requires a solid understanding and control of numerous process variables.
BY TOM SNOW
28 MetalForming/January 2020
www.metalformingmagazine.com
purchase. Applicants may choose to study on their own, or take advantage of several exam-prep options offered by AWS, including an online course— visit www.aws.org/crwt-training for details. Private companies also offer classroom and hands-on training to help candidates earn their AWS CWRT designation.
The exam covers several subjects,
weighted as follows:
1. Weld-equipment setup, including
machine and tooling design—15 percent 2. Welding processes and sched-
ules—15 percent
3. Weld quality and testing, includ-
ing destructive and nondestructive— 12 percent
4. Definitions and terminology—10 percent