Flanked by David Shackleton, Chairman of the WFCS Management Committee (left) and Tim Jessop, Chief Executive, TWI Certification Ltd (right), representatives of Babcock Offshore and Marine and BARMAC receive their certificates
At a recent ceremony, representatives of TWI Certification Ltd presented the first certificates to be awarded under the newly accredited Welding Fabricator Certification Scheme (WFCS).
Accredited by the UK Accreditation Service and recognised by the European Welding Federation, the scheme provides unique certification opportunities for companies involved in welding fabrication.
At the ceremony, Babcock Offshore and Marine and Brown and Root McDermott Fabricators Ltd (BARMAC) were presented with certificates to confirm compliance with EN 729/ISO 3834 Quality requirements for welding Part 2. The awardfollowed in-depth audits of the welding activities of the two organisations.
Crawford Lochhead, Quality, Safety and Environmental Manager of BARMAC commented: 'Being certified by TWI to EN 729/ISO 3834 greatly assisted BARMAC recently when defending the use of European Welding Standards whilst negotiatingwith a North American client. It demonstrated to our client that we had independent verification of our welding competency and capability at all levels throughout the organisation. That the certification had been achieved via TWI gaveadditional credence to our proposals.'
Babcock Offshore and Marine's Quality Manager, Steven Heneghan, said that they also expected to reap the benefits. 'The offshore business is going through a difficult time at present. We need a competitive edge and we are expectingthis scheme to provide it' he said.
