AWS-Fabricator certification

admin

Have any of you gone through the process of getting yourself or your shop certified for this?  I don’t even know if this is a real question. I was trolling through the AWS web site and started reading through the information on this. I am not an idiot but I certainly have no understanding of what this is all about even after reading this. If I read it correctly it sounds as if I could get my shop “fabricator” certified and then each of us wouldn’t need to have our individual tickets?  The short take on my situation is this.  When I got out of school over 25 years ago I went straight into a machine repair position where I remained for 20 years. As a journeyman I never needed to hold a certification for welding-ect… Even though I was welding and machining and even going to classes and seminars, we never had to hold a ticket. When I opened up my new shop with a couple of employees I had to start really looking into insurance options.  One of my guys, who is a very good fabricator never even went to school for welding, he took a 3 month tech school course and that was it. I started looking into how he could get certified without having gone through a full program and then the confusion really kicked in.  I thought there was a way he could just go test out for the processes he would be doing: In his case mig & tig.  Then I stumbled on the welding fabricator and thought maybe I can get the shop certified instead. The cost is a bit steep but it’s a 3-year cert and may be worth it if it will cover all 3 of us.  Does any of this make sense or did I read this completely wrong?  I have had a rough day (12 hours on the lathe to make 1 part) and may have this completely turned around?  Can anyone shed any light on this subject and save me some reading time? Last time I talked to the AWS on the phone they were more crabby and less helpful then the DMV so I decided to ask here first.Dan.Repair Specialties LLC