Procedure qualification record (PQR)

A procedure qualification record, PQR, is the record of what actually happened during a qualification test weld, and what testing that weld afterward showed: the parameters as recorded during welding, not as planned; the mechanical test results — typically tensile, bend and, where required, impact and hardness; and the non-destructive and visual examination results. It is evidence, not instruction — the opposite role of the WPS, which is the instruction a production welder follows.

The name changes depending on which code is being read. ASME and AWS documents call this record a PQR. ISO 15614-1 qualifies a procedure with the same kind of test weld and testing, but the resulting record is called a Welding Procedure Qualification Record, WPQR — same function, different label, and worth knowing before assuming a document referenced by one name is missing just because a report uses the other.

The relationship between a qualification record and the WPS built from it is one-directional and load-bearing: a WPS carries no more authority than the record behind it. A qualification that covers one range of thickness, process and position supports a WPS covering that range and no more; extending the WPS beyond it requires either a new qualification test or a formal extension governed by the applicable code, most commonly ASME Section IX or the ISO 15614 series. This is why the record is retained indefinitely rather than treated as a one-time test report — every WPS derived from it, potentially years later, depends on the record still being available and legible.

A PQR qualifies the procedure; it says nothing about whether the person who welds it in production can do so consistently. That is the separate role of welder qualification, tested and recorded independently, on the same or a similar joint. A shop can hold a valid PQR and still have no qualified welder available to run the WPS it supports, which is why the two records are audited together rather than one standing in for the other.