Certified Welding Fabricator

Showcase Your Company’s Top-Quality Fabrication Capabilities

Convey your expertise to customers and other industry professionals as a designated AWS Certified Welding Fabricator (CWF). The CWF program was developed in response to industry demand: it’s designed to recognize those select companies who prove they have the resources, procedures, and personnel to apply a quality management system to the welding fabrication activities.

Gain a Powerful Competitive Advantage

Certification offers your company a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace: your potential customers can do business with confidence: trusting that every product they ordered was fabricated under a quality, best practices system.

Are you AISC Certified already? Apply for reciprocity

The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the American Welding Society have established a reciprocity agreement whereby AISC Certified Fabricators are also eligible to receive certification as an AWS Certified Welding Fabricator.

The AISC certification program criteria fully satisfy the AWS Welding Fabricator Certification program requirements. AISC Fabricators that hold current building structures and/or bridge certification may apply to AWS and pay a minimal fee to also attain the AWS Certified Welding Fabricator certification.

The requirements for the AWS Certified Welding Fabricator (CWF) program are set forth in AWS QC17, Specification for AWS Accreditation of Certified Welding Fabricators and AWS B5.17, Specification for the Qualification of Welding Fabricators. These standards define the requirement for a company's compliance with welding-related functions and assures, through third party assessment, that the Welding Fabricator has the personnel, organization, experience, procedures, knowledge, equipment, capability, and commitment to conduct proper weldments.

AISC Reciprocity Requirements:

AWS and AISC have established a reciprocity agreement for AISC members that have successfully been certified as fabricators to apply for the AWS Certified Welding Fabricator program. AISC members are required to complete the AWS/AISC Certified Welding Fabricator application and submit to AWS, along with a copy of their latest AISC certification and a minimal fee. AWS program requirements for audit and quality manual submission will be waived.

Accreditation for certification is the process of documenting conformance to stated requirements. For welding fabricators to achieve certification, a process has been defined in AWS QC17, Standard for Accreditation of Welding Fabricators for AWS Certified Welding Fabricator Program.

Written by the AWS Certification Committee and administered by the AWS Certification Department, the Certified Welding Fabricator certification program for companies involves several steps on the road to certification:

1. Download and study the CWF On-site Audit Application and technical documents (B5.17 and QC.17) in order to become familiar with program requirements. For more information regarding the CWF program contact AWS at (800) 443-9353 extension 448 or 343 or email us at cwf@aws.org.
2. Submit your completed application along with your quality manual to cwf@aws.org or mail them to:
   • American Welding Society
     Attn: Certification Dept.
     8669 NW 36 Street, #130
     Miami, Florida 33166-6672
3. An auditor will be assigned by AWS to review the quality manual and work with you to improve it if necessary. After your quality manual has been accepted, an auditor will contact you and arrange for a date for your onsite audit. Be sure to read the requirements on the On-site Audit Checklist as it contains more detailed information on what the auditor will be looking for.
4. The onsite audit will consist of an opening meeting, a review of your facility's quality manual, an inspection and audit of the facility itself, and a closing meeting to discuss any findings and concerns observed by the auditor.
5. Your facility will have one month to respond to any outstanding actions to the satisfaction of the auditor.
6. Upon successful completion of all requirements and satisfaction of all fees due, your facility will be certified as an AWS Certified Welding Fabricator. This certification shall remain in effect for a period of three years, with annual internal audits in the second and third year, after which the process repeats itself.

CWF Initial Application

CWF 3rd Year Audit

CWF Internal QM & Audit Checklist

AISC/CWF Initial Application

AISC/CWF Renewal

QC17:2015 Specification for AWS Accreditation of Certified Welding Fabricators

B5.17:2014 Specification for the Qualification of Welding Fabricators

North America Price Schedule  (USA, Canada, & Mexico)

**Auditor fees included in price. Applicants are also directly responsible for the auditor's travel expenses.

International Price Schedule

***Auditor fees are not included in the price. Applicants are also directly responsible for the auditor's travel expenses.

All prices are subject to change due to individual circumstances for each facility.

As an AWS Certified Welding Fabricator, you are required to perform an internal audit annually for the 1^st and 2^nd year following the onsite audit. The self-audit reports aren’t required to be submitted to AWS, but will be reviewed by the AWS auditors during the next onsite audit visit.

AWS/AISC Certification:Annual Review
AWS/AISC certification is contingent upon current validity in the AISC program and will not require an additional onsite audit or documentation review.

In order to renew as an AWS/AISC Certified Welding Fabricator:

1. Fill out the AWS/AISC Renewal Application
2. Email the AWS/AISC Renewal Application and a copy of your current AISC certificate to cwf@aws.org or mail them to:
3. American Welding Society
   Attn: Certification Dept.
   8669 NW 36 Street, # 130
   Miami, Florida 33166-6672
3. Following a satisfactory review and approval of the documents submitted to AWS, a Certificate of Conformance will be issued by AWS. The certificate verifies that your facility continues to meet the requirements to operate in accordance with the AWS QC17, Specification for AWS Accreditation of Certified Welding Fabricators.

AWS/AISC Certification: Loss of AISC Certification
Should you fail to maintain your AISC certification, you will also lose your AWS status. You must apply to AWS as a new applicant and meet all requirements of the AWS program to regain status as AWS Certified Welding Fabricator.

In order to re-apply to the AWS Certified Welding Fabricator, you will need to apply as a new applicant. Please see section titled “Steps to Accreditation” for full details.

The CWF Program requires that the facility be re-accredited every 3 years. In order to re-apply to the AWS Certified Welding Fabricator (CWF) program:

1. Download a CWF On-site Audit Application.
2. Review and revise the Quality Manual for the fabricator shop to ensure compliance with the AWS standards: QC17, Specification for AWS Accreditation of Certified Welding Fabricators and B5.17, Specification for the Qualification of Welding Fabricators.
3. Ensure that any changes to the Quality Manual have been implemented (to be verified during the onsite audit).
4. Fill out the On-site Audit Application.
5. Complete the Quality Manual & Audit Checklist.
6. 6. Email the required documents to cwf@aws.org or mail them to:
7. American Welding Society
   Attn: Certification Dept.
   8669 NW 36 Street, # 130
   Miami, Florida 33166-6672
7. After the application, checklist and Quality Manual are received by the Certification Department, and following a satisfactory review and the documents, AWS will schedule an onsite audit of your facility by a third-party auditor.

8. If the results of the audit are satisfactory, a Certificate of Conformance will be issued by AWS. The certificate verifies your facility meets the requirements to operate in accordance with the AWS QC17, Specification for AWS Accreditation of Certified Welding Fabricators for the AWS Certified Welding Fabricator Program.

Re-accreditation is not required for AWS/AISC Certified Welding Fabricators, but must renew annually. See Renewal for more information.

The AWS Certified Welding Fabricator program is not intended to replace any product-specific company certification program. Certification to the AWS program does not indicate the suitability of a company's welding quality assurance program to construct pressure vessels, bridges, or complex high-rise buildings in accordance with procedures approved by organizations such as the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) or the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).