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 9606-2: scope and what it qualifies in aluminium
Does ISO 9606-2 cover your aluminium welder, or does the steel part apply instead? Scope decision flow for the aluminium welder-qualification standard and the range-of-approval records a check depends on.
- Designation
- ISO 9606-2
- Issued by
- ISO
- Title
- Qualification testing of welders — Fusion welding — Part 2: Aluminium and aluminium alloys
- Edition
- Confirm the edition your certification scheme cites.
ISO 9606-2 is the aluminium-specific twin of the steel welder-qualification standard, and treating the two as interchangeable is the recurring mistake: a certificate under one part says nothing about the other, whatever the welder’s actual skill. Like its steel counterpart, it works through a range of approval a single test piece establishes, not a general license to weld the metal.
The variable that trips up range-of-approval checks specifically in aluminium work is alloy group. Aluminium alloys differ enough in weldability, filler compatibility and heat sensitivity that the standard’s own grouping table decides how far a certificate extends — and it does not extend as broadly as the equivalent steel groups often do.
Therness equipment does not administer or grade a qualification test. It ties every production aluminium weld to the welder who made it and the process values that weld ran at, so a range-of-approval and continuity check has a real record to test against. See ISO 9606-1 for the steel equivalent, and ISO 15614-2 for whether the aluminium procedure itself is qualified — a shop working aluminium commonly needs both.
Scope: does it apply to your job?
Applies to
- Qualification testing of welders performing manual or partly mechanized fusion welding of aluminium and its alloys
- Establishing the range of approval a welder's certificate covers — alloy group, thickness, diameter, position
- Contracts and application standards requiring a current ISO 9606-2 qualification for aluminium
Does not apply to
- Steel welding, covered by ISO 9606-1; copper, nickel and titanium each have their own part (ISO 9606-3, -4, -5)
- Mechanized and automatic welding of aluminium, covered by ISO 14732
- Qualifying the welding procedure itself, covered by ISO 15607 and ISO 15614
Applicability decision flow
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| Is the parent material aluminium or an aluminium alloy, welded manually or partly mechanized? | ISO 9606-2 is the applicable welder-qualification standard. | Steel routes to ISO 9606-1; copper, nickel or titanium route to the matching part (ISO 9606-3, -4, -5); mechanized aluminium welding routes to ISO 14732. |
| Does the job fall inside the test piece's range of approval — alloy group, thickness, diameter, position? | The existing certificate covers the work. | A new qualification test, or an allowed extension, is needed before assignment. |
| Does the job's alloy group differ from the alloy group the test piece used? | Check the standard's own grouping table — aluminium groups do not extend as broadly as steel groups often do. | The certificate's alloy scope covers the job. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Proof a production aluminium weld sat inside the welder's current range of approval | Welder ID joined to each weld record alongside the measured process values | WeldTrace |
| A continuity trail an auditor can check against the standard's confirmation interval | Per-weld timestamp and process record exported per welder over time | HeatCore AI |
Questions engineers ask about ISO 9606-2
Does an ISO 9606-2 certificate also cover copper or nickel welding?
No. Each base-metal family has its own part of the series — copper is ISO 9606-3, nickel ISO 9606-4, titanium and zirconium ISO 9606-5. An aluminium certificate does not extend across the family boundary.
Why does ISO 9606-2 exist separately from ISO 9606-1 instead of one combined standard?
Aluminium's weldability, filler compatibility and heat sensitivity differ enough from steel that a single grouping table could not serve both without either over- or under-qualifying welders, so the series splits by base metal instead.
Does a wider ISO 9606-1 steel range of approval mean the equivalent aluminium range is also wide?
No. The two parts run separate grouping and extension logic; a steel qualification's breadth says nothing about how far an aluminium test piece extends under ISO 9606-2's own 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.
