Welding, Materials & Corrosion Masterclass ASME IX, API 577

Welding metallurgy, WPS/PQR qualification, NDE, damage mechanisms, sour service & HTHA, PMI and repair - CWI & CSWIP
What you'll learn

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Review a WPS, PQR and welder qualification package and judge whether it covers the work in front of you
Identify damage mechanisms from appearance and service conditions, and predict which will occur where
Specify materials for sour service to NACE MR0175, including hardness limits and HIC-resistant steel
Select the right NDE method for the expected defect - RT, UT, PAUT, ToFD, MT, PT and VT
Explain the welding thermal cycle and the heat affected zone, and control hydrogen cracking risk
Assess HTHA using the Nelson curves, and understand why it is so difficult to detect
Apply XRF and OES within their real limits, and design a material verification programme
Select a repair method to ASME PCC-2 and judge in-service welding and hot tapping proposals
Read a metallurgical microstructure and understand what heat treatment did to it
Investigate a failure from evidence to root cause, and write a conclusion the evidence supports
Apply hardness control across welding, materials specification and corrosion prevention as one decision
Prepare for the welding, materials and corrosion topics examined in CWI, CSWIP, AMPP and the API codes
Requirements

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No prior metallurgy or welding training is required - both are built from first principles for engineers
Any engineering, inspection or technical background is enough to follow the programme
No welding ticket needed - this is the engineering and inspection of welds, not manual technique
Comfortable with basic chemistry concepts - the electrochemistry is explained as it arises
No software or purchases needed. Copies of ASME IX, API 571 and NACE MR0175 are useful alongside the course but not required
Suitable both as a complete programme and as a reference to return to module by module
Description

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Pull a failed component off a plant and three questions decide what happens next. What is it made of. How was it joined. Why did it degrade.
Most engineers can answer one of those. The materials engineer knows the alloy but not the weld procedure. The welding inspector knows the qualification but not the damage mechanism. The corrosion engineer knows the mechanism but not whether the hardness in the heat affected zone was ever controlled.
This masterclass covers all three, because on a real plant they are one problem.
WHY THESE THREE DISCIPLINES BELONG TOGETHER
A sour service failure is a materials selection decision, a welding hardness control decision and a corrosion mechanism, simultaneously. HTHA is a metallurgical phenomenon detected by NDE and prevented by material selection. A weld repair is a metallurgical intervention governed by a welding code and driven by a damage assessment.
Studied separately these subjects stay separate, and the engineer who owns one of them cannot close out a failure investigation alone. Studied together, the connections become the point.
WHAT IS INSIDE - NINE COMPLETE MODULESWelding Inspection & NDE.The arc processes and their application to pressure equipment, WPS, PQR and welder qualification to ASME IX, essential and supplementary essential variables, weld defects and their causes, and the full NDE method set - radiography, ultrasonics, phased array, time of flight diffraction, magnetic particle and penetrant - matched to what each actually finds and misses.
API 577 Welding Inspection & Metallurgy.The metallurgy beneath the inspection: the welding thermal cycle and the heat affected zone, hydrogen induced cold cracking and its three conditions, solidification and liquation cracking, reheat cracking in creep-resistant steels, lamellar tearing, preheat and hydrogen control, and PWHT with proper thermocouple control.
Materials, Metallurgy & Corrosion. Microstructure and grain size, the iron-carbon system and cooling rate, heat treatment and what PWHT actually achieves, the alloy families from carbon steel through duplex to nickel alloys, corrosion electrochemistry, localised corrosion, environmentally assisted cracking, high-temperature mechanisms, and material selection as a documented decision.
API 571 Damage Mechanisms.The mechanism catalogue that every inspection code assumes you already know: thinning mechanisms from sulfidation to corrosion under insulation, environment-assisted cracking including chloride and amine SCC, high-temperature mechanisms including creep and HTHA, and the metallurgical and mechanical mechanisms that complete the picture.
NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156 Sour Service.H2S partial pressure and the severity thresholds, sulfide stress cracking as hydrogen embrittlement, HIC and the role of inclusions, SOHIC and soft zone cracking, chemistry restrictions and calcium treatment, HIC-resistant steel specification and test acceptance, hardness control in weld and heat affected zone, and CRA environmental limits.
API 941 Hydrogen Service & HTHA.The high-temperature hydrogen attack mechanism and why it is so insidious, the Nelson curves and their revisions, hydrogen partial pressure and temperature assessment, materials for hydrogen service, existing equipment screening, and why HTHA is so difficult to detect by conventional NDE.
API 578 Material Verification & PMI. Why material mix-ups happen and what they cost, XRF and its real limits including carbon detection, optical emission spectroscopy, risk-based programme extent, traceability and marking, nonconformance management, and the components most often omitted from a verification programme.
ASME PCC-2 Repair. The repair decision against run, replace and rerate, weld repair and excavation verification, temper bead and controlled deposition, weld overlay and clad restoration, composite repair, mechanical clamps, in-service welding and hot tapping, and temporary repair control.
Failure Analysis & Root Cause. Fractography basics, failure mode identification from appearance, evidence preservation, the investigation process, and the discipline of reaching a conclusion the evidence actually supports.
THE PART NOBODY TEACHES
Hardness. It appears in three modules and it is the thread connecting all of them. A hardness limit is a welding control, a materials specification and a corrosion countermeasure at once. Get it wrong in the heat affected zone and a correctly specified sour service steel cracks anyway. The programme treats it as the recurring decision it is.
CERTIFICATION TOPICS COVERED
The programme covers subject matter examined in the AWS Certified Welding Inspector and CSWIP 3.1 welding inspection qualifications, the AMPP corrosion certification path, and API 510, 570 and 653 where welding, materials and damage mechanisms are named source documents.
TWO FULL MOCK EXAMINATIONS
Timed, scored and retakeable, covering welding and NDE, materials and corrosion mechanisms, and sour service and specification. Not video walkthroughs - actual examinations you can sit under conditions.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Welding and QA/QC inspectors who need the metallurgy their qualification assumes. Materials and corrosion engineers who specify alloys and diagnose failures. Inspection engineers holding API certification where these are named source documents. Integrity engineers assessing damage and authorising repairs. Project and fabrication engineers reviewing WPS and PQR packages. And engineers preparing for CWI, CSWIP or the AMPP corrosion path.
WHAT YOU GET
Around 27 hours of structured video across 180 lessons and 45 sections, two full mock examinations, downloadable presentations, lifetime access on mobile and TV and a certificate of completion.
No prior metallurgy or welding training is required - the microstructure and the arc processes are both built from first principles for engineers. No welding ticket needed; this is about the engineering and inspection of welds, not manual technique.
STILL GROWING
This masterclass is actively extended. New modules are added at no extra cost to everyone already enrolled.
Built by a practising Chartered Engineer (CEng MIMechE) with over fifteen years delivering safety-critical projects across oil, gas and energy infrastructure.
Enrol now and be the engineer who can answer all three questions.
Who this course is for

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Welding and QA/QC inspectors who need the metallurgy their qualification assumes
Materials and corrosion engineers specifying alloys and diagnosing service failures
Inspection engineers holding or pursuing API 510, 570 or 653 certification
Integrity engineers assessing damage, authorising repairs and setting inspection scope
Project and fabrication engineers reviewing WPS, PQR and material certification packages
Engineers working on sour service, hydrogen service or other special-service equipment
Candidates preparing for AWS CWI, CSWIP 3.1 or the AMPP corrosion certification path
Graduate and early-career engineers entering inspection, materials or integrity roles
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