Railway rolling stock manufacturing
Railway weld monitoring for EN 15085 rolling stock
Thermal and process records for every weld on car bodies, underframes and bogies: what they show, how a one-cell pilot runs and what goes into the EN 15085 file.
ISO standard · reference card
ISO 15614-2: scope of the aluminium procedure test
Does ISO 15614-2 qualify your aluminium welding procedure? Scope decision flow for the aluminium and aluminium-alloy procedure test, the codes it sits inside, and the records that evidence the qualified range.
- Designation
- ISO 15614-2
- Issued by
- ISO
- Title
- Specification and qualification of welding procedures for metallic materials — Welding procedure test — Part 2: Arc welding of aluminium and its alloys
- Edition
- Confirm the edition your certification body works to.
ISO 15614-2 is the aluminium counterpart to the steel arc-welding procedure test, and it exists because aluminium’s essential variables do not map onto the steel part’s. Heat sensitivity, oxide behaviour and alloy-group differences mean a procedure proven sound on steel says nothing about the equivalent aluminium procedure — the test weld and the resulting WPQR have to be run against this part specifically.
The error this standard exists to prevent is treating an aluminium WPQR as broader than the test that produced it, exactly as with the steel route: a qualification covers the alloy group, thickness and position the test weld actually used, and a production job outside any one of those sits outside the qualification whatever the bead looks like. The WPS essential variables checklist structures the resulting document without reproducing a framework’s own variable table.
Therness equipment does not qualify a procedure. It records what an aluminium test weld, and every production weld measured against it, actually did. See ISO 15614-1 for the steel equivalent, and ISO 9606-2 for whether the welder running the procedure is qualified.
Scope: does it apply to your job?
Applies to
- Qualifying a welding procedure by test, for arc welding of aluminium and its alloys
- The test weld and the mechanical and NDT testing that produce an aluminium WPQR
- Work built to a contract or application standard naming this qualification route
Does not apply to
- Steel and nickel-alloy procedures, covered by ISO 15614-1 instead
- Qualifying the welder rather than the procedure, which is ISO 9606-2 for aluminium
- Choosing whether a test weld is even the required route — that is ISO 15607's job
Applicability decision flow
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| Is the process arc welding of aluminium or an aluminium alloy? | ISO 15614-2 is the applicable qualification-by-test route. | Steel and nickel-alloy work routes to ISO 15614-1 instead, indexed through ISO 15607. |
| Does an existing WPQR already cover this job's essential variables — alloy group, thickness, position? | Check its range of qualification; a fresh test may not be needed. | A test weld has to be welded, tested and recorded to create a WPQR for this combination. |
| Is the actual question welder qualification rather than procedure qualification? | That is ISO 9606-2 for aluminium, a separate qualification usually needed alongside this one. | ISO 15614-2 covers the procedure; qualify against its essential variables. |
What proves conformity, and what only supports it
Conformity is decided by inspection and testing against the criteria the standard and the contract set. The records below are evidence that the process was held where it was qualified; they support an inspection result, they never replace one.
| Requirement | Record produced | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Recording essential variables achieved on the aluminium qualification test weld | Measured voltage, current and wire feed speed per pass, set against the WPQR range | WeldTrace |
| Holding interpass temperature within the range a multi-pass aluminium test must demonstrate | Non-contact interpass measurement on every pass, test weld and production alike | HeatCam IR-C |
Questions engineers ask about ISO 15614-2
Can an ISO 15614-1 qualification cover an aluminium procedure?
No. ISO 15614-1 qualifies steel and nickel-alloy procedures; aluminium needs its own test weld and WPQR under ISO 15614-2.
Does ISO 15614-2 also qualify the welder?
No, the procedure only. Production welding still needs a current ISO 9606-2 welder qualification, a separate requirement.
Why use the WPS essential variables checklist for an aluminium procedure?
It structures which variable categories a WPS must document for the framework and process, without reproducing any framework's own variable table.
Evidence the process, not just the paperwork
Therness records what the machine actually delivered on every weld — parameters, thermal signature and a per-weld trail — so a conformity argument rests on measurements instead of recollection.
