Certified to ISO 3834-2, the standard's most demanding level

Welding at Hema Rostfritt AB is certified to ISO 3834-2 under certificate number 2237, issued by A3CERT, which is accredited by SWEDAC for the purpose.

Why the process is certified and not the product

Welding counts as a special process, and that term carries meaning. It means the result cannot be fully verified once it is finished. You cannot tell by looking at a completed weld whether it is sound all the way in, and cutting the part open to find out is rarely an option when the part is the thing being delivered.

The standard's conclusion is that inspection after the fact is not enough. The requirements are placed on the conditions instead: on the procedure the weld follows, on the welder laying it, on the equipment and on the records showing what was done. Get those right and the weld is right, and it can be shown why.

What level 2 requires

ISO 3834 has three levels. Part 4 sets elementary requirements, part 3 standard ones and part 2 the most comprehensive. We are certified to part 2, which is less a question of ambition than of what customers in food and pharmaceuticals need to be able to rely on.

The level covers qualified welding procedures, welders approved for the specific work they do, a designated welding coordinator with documented competence, controlled and maintained equipment, proper handling of filler and parent material, inspection before, during and after welding, and traceability through the whole chain. Any subcontractor we use is covered too.

Certification is not a one-off stamp. It is followed up by recurring audit, which means an independent party comes at intervals to check that we still do what we say.

What it gives you as a buyer

You do not have to take our word for it. A supplier assessment that calls for documented welding competence gets its answer in the certificate number, and if you have to account for your own chain you can point at ours rather than describe it. On parts where requirements peak we add X-rayed welds and material certificates.

What changed

Honestly, not the work. The know-how was in the building before the certificate arrived, built up over decades by welders who stayed long enough to train the next ones. What certification did was put it on paper, in a form a buyer can rely on without having to get to know us first.