3.4 Brazing Procedure & Brazer Qualification, Records and Continuity

Two Things Get Qualified: the Procedure and the Person

NFPA 99 requires brazing procedures and brazer performance for medical gas and vacuum piping to be qualified to either:

• Section IX, Welding, Brazing, and Fusing Qualifications, of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, or
• AWS B2.2, Specification for Brazing Procedure and Performance Qualification,

with both as modified by NFPA 99. The NFPA 99 modifications are what the exam tests.

NFPA 99's Modifications

1. Examination method: brazers are qualified by visual examination of the test coupon followed by sectioning. Sectioning cuts the joint open to show filler penetration, voids, and whether the inside surface stayed free of oxidation.
2. BPS content: the procedure must address cleaning, joint clearance, overlap, internal purge gas, purge gas flow rate, and filler metal.
3. Record content: the PQR and the BPQ record must document the filler metal used, base metals, cleaning, joint clearance, overlap, internal purge gas and flow rate during brazing of the coupon, and absence of internal oxidation in the completed coupon.

The record requirement explains why the purge gas and flow rate matter so much. A brazer who qualified with a nitrogen purge at a recorded flow is not qualified to braze without a purge, or with a different purge practice.

Procedures Qualified by Others

A contractor does not have to develop every BPS from scratch. NFPA 99 allows brazing procedures qualified by a technically competent group or agency, under three conditions:

1. The BPS and PQR meet the code's requirements.
2. The employer obtains copies of both from the group or agency and signs and dates them, accepting responsibility for the qualifications that group or agency performed.
3. The employer qualifies at least one brazer following each BPS it uses.

Carrying Qualifications Between Employers

An employer may accept a brazer's qualification records from a previous employer if:

• the brazer qualified using the same or an equivalent procedure that the new employer uses, and
• the new employer obtains a copy of the brazer's performance qualification records from the previous employer and signs and dates them, accepting responsibility.

How Long a Qualification Lasts

NFPA 99 states that brazer performance qualifications remain in effect indefinitely unless either:

• the brazer does not braze with the qualified procedure for more than 6 months, or
• there is a specific reason to question the brazer's ability.

That is the source of the six-month continuity rule. Certification bodies build their programs around it. At NITC, an authorized employer or contractor representative documents continuity every six months, and the brazer cannot submit it personally. The employer keeps the Record of Brazer Qualification. A lapsed qualification is restored by brazing one vertical up-flow joint under the BTS15 package, which extends the qualification another six months.

NITC Braze Tests and Their Size Ranges

A brazer who holds only BTS15 is qualified for nominal sizes from 5/8 in. through 2 in. Brazing a 4 in. main requires an additional qualification that covers that size, such as BTS4. Ranges are expressed in nominal sizes; for example, 5/8 in. nominal tube has a 3/4 in. OD.

Documentation Before the First Joint

NFPA 99 states that before any installation work, the installer of medical gas and vacuum piping must provide and maintain on the job site documentation for the qualification of brazing procedures and individual brazers. A typical job-site binder holds:

• Every BPS in use, with its supporting PQR, signed and dated by the employer when it came from a technically competent group or agency
• Each brazer's BPQ record, plus signed acceptance of records carried over from a previous employer
• Current continuity documentation showing no brazer has gone more than six months without using the procedure
• Each installer's ASSE 6010 card. NFPA 99 requires every installer to hold the qualification, and a certified installer may not oversee noncertified installers.