Welding inspection activities typically start before shop or field fabrication. A solid project specification would require both desktop and shop/field welding inspection activities:

• Desktop activities typically require verification of welding contractors’ adherence to contract requirements.
• Shop/field activities should include pre-production, in-production, and post-production welding inspection.
  

Once the welds are completed there are limitations to the welding inspection activities that can be done. For instance, without being able to verify the actual weld joint fit-up prior to welding, it is not possible to assess if the joint dimensional tolerances were met. Therefore, the finished weld may seem adequate in size but in actuality, there could be a lack of effective weld to connected members.

To summarize, “after the fact” welding inspection hampers welding inspectors’ capacity to assess the welding process alignment with the contract requirements. Therefore, welds quality could be compromised and inspectors may not be able to sign off on some of the contract QC requirements.
    
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