AWS ASME IX Endorsement study guide
AWS ASME IX Endorsement · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The ASME BPVC Section IX endorsement is an add-on credential offered within the AWS CWI and SCWI Endorsements program - that is, it is earned on top of an existing Certified Welding Inspector or Senior Certified Welding Inspector credential rather than as a stand-alone certification. AWS lists it alongside endorsements such as Structural Steel (D1.1), Bridge Welding (D1.5), Pipeline (API 1104) and ISO Standards, which tells you the intent: it certifies that an inspector can work competently against a specific code family rather than only against general welding inspection fundamentals. In this case the code family is ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section IX, together with the ASME B31.1 power piping and B31.3 process piping codes that invoke it. The exam is open book and multiple choice, and it divides into three roughly equal content areas: QG, the general requirements covering scope, definitions, responsibilities and the fundamentals of procedure and performance qualification; QW, welding qualification, including WPS/PQR structure, essential and nonessential variables, welder and welding operator performance qualification, and the testing and acceptance of qualification test coupons; and QB, brazing qualification, covering both brazing procedure qualification and brazing performance qualification. The AWS ASME IX Endorsement study guide has 3 sections and about 1,200 words.
01QG – General Requirements: Scope, Responsibility, and the Variable Model
Section IX tells you how to demonstrate that a welding, brazing, or plastic-fusing procedure - and the person using it - can produce a joint meeting stated test criteria. It deliberately says nothing about design, service allowances, production preheat, or production acceptance; those belong to the construction code (Section VIII, B31.1, and so on).
425 words, about 2 min02QW – Welding Qualification: Procedures, Variables, and Performance
QW-200 governs welding procedure qualification, QW-300 governs welder and welding operator performance qualification, and QW-400 holds the variable tables feeding both. First decide whether a scenario is a procedure problem or a person problem.
367 words, about 2 min03QB – Brazing Qualification: Procedures and Performance
Section IX treats brazing separately (Article III) because the physics differ: the filler metal melts, the base metal does not. Section IX defines brazing as joining with a filler metal whose liquidus is above 840°F (450°C) and below the solidus of the base metals.
408 words, about 2 min