Kiwa is a Notified Body (NoBo) under Pressure Equipment directive in many European Country. Within the EU, Notified Body is a third party accredited by a Member State to assess whether a product to be launched on the market meets specific standards. Conformity assessment may include inspection and examination of a product, its design, as well as the manufacturing environment and processes associated with it. We can personnel certification service to our customers almost every country in Europe.

Personal certifications in welding

Kiwa performs personal certification of welders, welding operators, machine setters and brazers in accordance with the following standards:

  • EN ISO 9606-1 Welder testing - Fusion welding - Part 1: Steel
  • EN ISO 9606-2 Welder testing - Fusion welding - Part 2: Aluminium and aluminium alloys
  • EN ISO 9606-3 Welder testing - Fusion welding - Part 3: Copper and copper alloys
  • EN ISO 9606-4 Welder testing - Fusion welding - Part 4: Nickel and nickel alloys
  • EN ISO 9606-5 Welder testing - Fusion welding - Part 5: Titanium and titanium alloys, zirconium and zirconium alloys
  • EN ISO 14732 Welding personnel – Testing of operators for fully mechanized welding and machine setters for fully mechanized and automated welding of metallic materials
  • TDOK 2014:0587 Welder testing - Welding of rails and rail components
  • EN ISO 13585 Brazing - Testing of brazers and brazing operators

The certification process for qualification testing of welders:

The certification can be carried out at your own company, welding school or in some countries we have our own Welding Studios.

Note: ISO 9606-1 and ISO 14732 have certificate types that are not extendable, while the other standards can be extended at different intervals, two or three years.

Certificates issued by another certification body may be taken over in the event of an extension/revalidation. A separate application must be filled out for a possible takeover.

Period of validity of welding certificates and soldering test certificates

Certificates according to ISO 9606-1 and ISO 14732 have the possibility to be non-extendable. Then the validity period is 3 and 6 years respectively, provided that the welder has maintained his competence and has not stopped welding for more than 6 months.

Renewable welding certificates according to ISO 9606 part 1 to 5 and ISO 14732 are valid for two years (three years for welding operators), provided that the welder has maintained his competence and has not stopped welding for more than 6 months.

Certificates according to ISO 13585 are extendable and valid for 3 years from the date of examination,  provided that the brazer has maintained his competence and has not stopped welding for more than 6 months.

Certificates according to TDOK 2014:0587 are extendable and valid for 3 years from the date of examination.

How to extend the validity of your welding certificate

To extend the validity period for another two years (three years for welding operators), the application for extension must be accompanied by:

  • The certificate wherein your employer has confirmed every 6 months that you have worked within the validity of the certificate with acceptable results. For TDOK, a one-year interval applies instead.
  • For ISO 9606-1, records of volumetric tests (buttwelds), fracture, bend or macro tests (fillet welds) carried out on two welded joints carried out during the last six months of validity.
  • For ISO 9606 parts 2, 3, 4 and 5, testing from a welded joint is sufficient. The welding tests shall be within the scope of validity of the certificate and shall be of similar difficulty to the initial test.
  • ISO 13585 requires only a protocol of volumetric or mechanical testing from a brazed joint carried out during the last six months of validity. The solder test shall be within the scope of validity of the certificate.
  • For the extension of certificates with supplementary fillet weld tests, a test protocol is required in which a weld is to be fractured macro tested (only applies to ISO 9606-1).
  • For TDOK, completely different rules apply and there must be attached 10 or 5 documented production joints depending on the welding method and an NDT protocol for each year the certificate is valid. Every six years, theory tests must also be rewritten and an appointment must be booked with Kiwa.

Kiwa Qualified helps you to manage certificates

Manage and monitor the certificates digitally via our new Kiwa Qualified customer portal. As a customer, you can see an overview of the company's certificates receive a reminder email about extensions, print certificates and more.

It is fast to implement and it is easy to migrate information from old certificates to the Kiwa Qualified environment. If you have old certificates issued any organisation in pdf-format we can bring them easily to new Kiwa Qualified system.