*Standard requirement 1 — Joint numbering per ISO 3834-2 (Quality Requirements for Welding).*
ISO 3834-2 Clause 17 addresses identification and traceability. When traceability is required by the product standard (e.g., PED, EN 1090-2) or contract, each weld must be linked to the applied WPS, welder, material batch, and NDT results. The weld map is the essential document that provides this link. If a weld cannot be traced from the map to the WPS and the NDT report, the manufacturer fails to meet the specified traceability requirements of the quality system.
*Standard requirement 2 — NDT hold points per ASME Section V Article 1 (General Requirements).*
ASME V T-120 states that NDT procedures shall specify the stage of fabrication at which examination is performed. For welding, this translates to:
- RT or UT after root + hot pass (before fill) for CJP groove welds
- MT or PT after back-gouging, before welding the opposite side
- PWHT verification hold point per ASME Section VIII Div. 1 UW-40
A hold point expressed as "20% of welds" is not compliant — the standard requires stage-based hold points, not percentage-based.
*Standard requirement 3 — Weld traceability per EN 1090-2 Clause 12.5.*
EN 1090-2 requires that the manufacturer maintains a weld log that records the weld identifier, welder ID, WPS, NDT results, and any repair/rework. The weld map is the visual index to this log. If the map and the log do not match, the execution class (EXC2/EXC3/EXC4) traceability requirement is not met.
*Field check for any weld map:*
- Every joint numbered? → ISO 3834-2 ✓
- NDT hold points linked to fabrication stage? → ASME V ✓
- Weld map matches the weld log? → EN 1090-2 ✓
If any of these three is missing, the weld map is a sketch, not a quality document.