Integrate PQR, WPQR, WPS manually at the start of the project?

Importing your data into SIRFULL™ Welding

Welding Mode QualificationsPQR), Welder QualificationsWPQR) and Welding Mode DescriptionsWPS) are the starting data for any first-time user of SIRFULL™ Welding .

These documents contain the essential information for the company’s welding quality management: field of validity, materials used, welding processes, welders’ qualifications, thicknesses, diameters, assembly diagram, intensity, etc.

Therefore, these 3 documents will have to be digitized in the solution. For the sake of simplicity, we voluntarily ignore in this article, the non-destructive testing reports, material certificates etc., because the logic that follows also applies to them.

THE PROBLEM is that at the beginning, all these documents are either: paper, PDF, EXCEL, WORD or all 4 at the same time.

In light of this issue, and before starting a SIRFULL™ Welding project, ALL of our customers then asked us this question:

PART 1 – How do I integrate my PQR, WPQR and WPS (manual or automatic)?

Preliminary note: You can use SIRFULL ‘s optional data recovery service. Nevertheless, you can do it yourself, using the different techniques that will be discussed below.

The most prohibitive constraint of this phase of digitization of welding data is the TIME.

To imagine manually copying all your PQR line by line into the application seems time consuming and scary!

NO WORRY, we’re going to walk you – YOU future SIRFULL™Welding users – through the options for importing your welding data.

Option 1 – The Excel import, called “mass” (semi-automatic method)

SIRFULL™ Welding welcomes imports from Excel files. Magic, you might say? This argument alone may lead you to believe that a simple“copy/paste” of your Excel files into the software interface is sufficient to import your data. However, the copy / paste of non-homogeneous Excel files in this case does not exist (yet).

In fact, whether it’s with SIRFULL™Welding or any other software, you need to format your Excel files in a format that the destination solution knows. This is also called“mapping“. That’s why we call it a semi-automatic method. To put it simply, it is necessary to put the data from your Excel files into“other clean Excel files“.

Thus, SIRFULL™Welding gives you access to compatible import templates for your WPS, PQR, WPQR etc… .

– Advantage: faster than manual re-entry

– Constraint: the number of fields in a WPS or PQR is high, and by correlation, so is the error rate. Indeed, the slightest mistake in character can lead to an import failure. The amount of time lost on import errors can – in the worst case – be greater than the time that could have been spent on manual import.

Option 2 – Manual “fast track” import

The manual import consists of copying your welding documents field by field into the application’s forms. Please note that in most cases, data entry is assisted and accelerated by automated systems.

Manual import is to be considered, when:

– few documents are to be imported (we consider “few” between 15-20 documents).

– Too many “ technical names Too many “technical names” such as grades, materials, filler metals, etc., are not present in the technical libraries of the solution.

Note on technical and normative libraries: Indeed, you should know that the SIRFULL™Welding application natively offers a very extensive normative and technical library (example of references: 500 welding gas references, 600 grades, 500 commercial and standardized names of filler metals etc.). Sometimes, these libraries are not sufficient – despite everything – to cover all possible cases. A fortiori, it is then necessary to reference these names in the libraries of the solution. In this case, manual import is then preferred or via the realization of several mass imports, but in this case this amounts to consuming the same amount of time as manual import.

– you give up on mass importing because too much time is spent correcting character errors.

– you do not have your welding documents in EXCEL format

To summarize: the more complex your documents to be imported, the more manual importation will be considered.

Part 2 – How long does it take to manually import my data?

Before asking this question, you must first know“what” to import exactly. In reality, no matter what happens, you don’t need to manually“re-import”everything into SIRFULL™Welding.

Indeed, the application hasan engine for creating WPS from a reference PQR. In short, a real time-saving machine !

Here is how it works:

1. Re-enter a PQR;

2. Designate this PQR as a reference for given WPS;

3. SIRFULL™Welding automatically copies all the information from the PQR into your new WPS (s);

4. Adjust the variables (angles, thicknesses…) necessary for your needs in the newly created WPS (s).

Therefore, re-entering your PQR is the only time – with a few small exceptions – that you do“pure” manual import.

In addition, SIRFULL™Welding offers many other tools to get rid of“unnecessary” re-keying:

– pass duplicator,

– WPS duplicator,

– assembly and passing diagrams available in the application (more than 500),

– Many automation algorithms.

In the end, a PQR takes on average 5-10 min to re-enter, sometimes less. For example, 30 documents to import would take less than a day.

Notes on areas of validity Since this interpretation depends on your expertise, we do not consider the import of these as pure manual re-entry. Nevertheless, SIRFULL is currently working on the creation of an automatic validity domain generator for PQR and WPQR. The latter should break down this time-consuming barrier.

3 – Conclusion

1. The import of your welding data can be done in bulk via EXCEL, but under certain constraints of format and“mapping”.
2. Manual re-entry is greatly facilitated by a number of automated features, including an automatic WPS generator based on a reference PQR and other automatic input tools (fields linked to technical and regulatory libraries, diagrams, metals, etc.). It is recommended when the effort/time ratio is lower than that of the EXCEL life import.
3. If these 2 options are not convenient for you, SIRFULL offers an optional data recovery service to all its new customers.

Finally: remember that the transfer of your welding documents/data will only happenONCE at the start of your SIRFULL™Welding project.

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To go further :

SIRFULL™ Welding offers many features and uses dedicated to the management of the welding activity; we invite you to discover them on our site.