What Is a WPS and Why Every Weld Shop Needs One on File
A plain-language walkthrough of Welding Procedure Specifications: what they are, what an inspector will demand, and what actually happens when you can't produce one.
What a WPS actually is
A Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) is a formal, written recipe for making a weld. It specifies the base material, filler metal, joint design, position, preheat, interpass temperature, current, voltage, travel speed, and post-weld heat treatment. It's backed by a Procedure Qualification Record (PQR) — the actual test coupons that proved the recipe holds up to destructive testing.
AWS D1.1 (structural steel), AWS D1.5 (bridges), ASME Section IX (pressure vessels), and API 1104 (pipelines) each define what a compliant WPS looks like for their scope. The idea is the same: if you can't hand the inspector a WPS and its qualifying PQR, the weld doesn't exist for code purposes.
What happens when the inspector shows up and the binder is missing
Best case: they issue a non-conformance report and give you 48 hours to produce the paperwork. Worst case: the weld is condemned and cut out. On a shear tab connection at column 12F that's a half-shift for two welders, a coordinated crane pick, and re-inspection. On a moment frame it's a week.
Neither of those outcomes is what your GC signed up for. Both of them are avoidable if the WPS is one tap away on the welder's phone.
Where Fabricators.io fits
The Weld QC suite ships with a WPS library scoped to AWS D1.1, D1.5, D1.6, ASME IX, and API 1104. Generate, revision-lock, and stamp WPS documents inline; every weld logged in the field auto-links to the exact WPS revision that governed it. The result is an audit trail an inspector can review in minutes, not a scavenger hunt through a filing cabinet.
Try the platform this post is about.
Two-week pilot on your next bid package. If it doesn't move the needle, we'll haul it off ourselves.
