Construction Industry Trends
February 2004
2004 Update to Popular Welding Standard Now Available
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Last month, the American Welding Society (AWS) released D1.1/D1.1M: 2004 Structural Welding Code—Steel (D1.1), the newest revision of the standard since 2002. Over 540 pages in length, the 2004 edition provides industry standards for welded connections, fabrication, inspections, and the strengthening and repair of existing structures. Widely recognized by welders, building designers, general contractors, and construction companies as an industry standard, D1.1 is often referenced in new building designs that include steel structural elements.
Various versions of the standard have been produced since 1928 by AWS, an organization that boasts more than 50,000 individual members, including engineers, scientists, educators, welders, and inspectors. AWS produces over 170 standards; each one is developed by a committee of experts from the industry who volunteer their time. “The volunteers who work on our committees may or may not be members of AWS. The committees are open to anyone to join,” says John Gayler, senior staff engineer, AWS. This open policy allows the organization to help ensure that each committee represents as many people from the industry as possible.
“These committees are put together with a pretty wide range of people who are going to be affected by the standards they produce, so no one interest group dominates the process. We are required to sustain a balance between affected parties on these committees, and they produce the codes through a very formal balloting process,” John explains.
Unlike the other AWS standards, D1.1 is revised regularly, every two years. The reason for doing this, says John, is due to its importance in the industry. “Because it is such an industry standard, we have a lot of interest from people who want us to make changes to it regularly,” he says.
The significance of the changes made to the standard may vary from revision to revision, but each version tries to keep up with the changing construction industry. For example, the 2004 version of the standard reflects changes made by ASTM International to its structural steel specifications. In one instance, ASTM International replaced two popular steel specifications with a trio of new specifications. The new specifications were not pre-qualified in the 2002 version of D1.1.
For contractors interested in using the new steel, this caused problems. “They couldn’t use the 2002 code for pre-qualification, which meant they had to do costly qualification procedures to qualify for particular projects,” John says. “So we had a task group look at the new materials to make sure they were still within the limits of our code in terms of what we expect to see in a structural steel for a welding application, and then we accepted them into our code. And now they’re in the 2004 code.”
In most local building codes, D1.1 is only recommended, not required. The most notable exception to this is in New York City, where the local building code requires the use of D1.1 in the construction of buildings. However, whether or not D1.1 is required, most engineering firms still reference it in their own specifications, requiring fabricators and contractors to comply with it on new building projects.
Learn More
AWS offers two seminars on D1.1: 2004 to get users up to speed on the newest version. One of the classes is designed specifically for AWS certified welding inspectors while the other is available to people who will be using D1.1: 2004 on the job, such as welders and engineers. To learn more about class times and locations, visit www.aws.org/conferences.
D1.1/D1.1M: 2004, Structural Welding Code—Steel is now available for purchase. Order today!