That's about the truth right there.
A lot of people think they're good welders until they have their stuff destructive tested or x-rayed. A lot to keep up with welding on cars. I-Car used to call for 30% more plug welds than factory except in crush zones, what is or isn't HSS or SHSS steels, welding close to magnesium parts that should have been removed etc. Proper use of weld-thru primers, the fact some work better than others, and some just contaminate the weld. Cars full of computers that can fry from just one incident of an improper ground, Oem guidelines and sectioning procedures that don't always make sense but that's the way it needs to be done. Improper repair procedures/methods/poor welding can lead to early or late srs deployment etc.
When you get into something that is designed and engineered to collapse at a controlled rate to protect the occupants there's some different rules involved then what might be discussed in a standard sky scraper/ bridge building/pipe-line welding class or cert. Nevermind welding beer can thickness sheetmetal. lol
A standard sky scraper/ bridge building etc...cert aint exactly easy either.
We take two pieces of plate and bevel them and you have to multi pass both sides.
Then we cut that plate into "weld coupons" and put them in a press with a 1.5 inch punch and the ends are going over two rollers as it gets pushed into a "U" shape with the punch part pressing on your weld.
Then we take the next coupon and flip it upside down and do it again.
That assumes you havent been already rejected for visual undercut, porosity, slag inclusions, etc..
And that assumes I havent already busted you for bad setup/ no documentation/ no recording of anything. No weld spec in place .
No preheat record if required etc...
A weld certification has several parts to it.
You have to certify that it is an AWS approved process.
If it isnt, then you need to test and certify that out of bounds process.
Then you need to certify the actual machine settings. Are they welding within the parameters of that certified process.
And you also need to have rock solid documentation for the material that they are welding.
Do you have the "certs"
Is this a bonded material and if so do you have the entire chain of possesion and control for that material.
To pass that very basic basic test your bent coupon can not have any cracks or splits or seperation at all.
None allowed.
And we will test 4 coupons. 2 up, 2 down.
The allowable defect is zero.
All of that is so I will sign off on your 1g cert.
Yep, as a welding inspector you get to sign for it.
And that means that if a structural failure happens from poor welding practices you stand a pretty good chance of being charged with manslaughter.
I know people that have been through that.
I have certified many many people over my career.
I am not certified to inspect pipeline welds or pressure vessel welds.
That is whole different subset of the welding industry.
Welding sheet metal can be difficult.
But in no way is way welding sheet metal anywhere near as difficult and critical and dangerious as structural welding and being an iron worker.
Looky here pal.
Welding a seam on a car isnt easy.
Doing a multi pass back gouge on the 34th floor in winter and making it pass inspection is just maybe a little bit harder to do.
Just maybe.