ASME Section IX: welding and brazing qualifications in plain terms

ASME Section IX is the part of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code that says how a company proves its welding (and brazing) procedures work and how it proves each welder can follow them. It is a code, not a personal certificate: the employer writes a Welding Procedure Specification (WPS), welds a test coupon and records the results in a Procedure Qualification Record (PQR), then tests each welder and records the pass in a welder performance qualification record (usually shortened to WPQ). ASME lists 2021, 2023 and 2025 editions, with the 2025 print edition at $785 (asme.org, as of 2026-10-01).

Three documents do the work under Section IX. The WPS is the written recipe for a weld: process, materials, filler, positions and the other settings ASME sorts into essential and nonessential variables. The PQR is the proof: the record of the test weld made to that recipe and the test results it passed. The WPQ is the welder's own record: proof that a specific person welded an acceptable test piece under a qualified procedure. ASME's Section IX course lists procedure qualification (Part QW, Article II), performance qualification (Part QW, Article III), brazing (Part QB) and fusing as its main subjects.

• Issuer ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), as Section IX of the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC)
• Scope The section of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code that sets the rules for qualifying welding, brazing, and fusing procedures and the people who perform them. ASME describes its Section IX course as covering "the rules for qualification of welding and brazing procedures and personnel" (asme.org, retrieved 2026-10-01).
• Who needs it Fabricators building boilers, pressure vessels and other work to the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, and the welders those shops qualify. Inspectors also use it: AWS lists ASME BPVC Section IX (2023 edition, with B31.1 and B31.3) as one of the code books a candidate can bring to the CWI Part C exam (aws.org, as of 2026-10-01).
• Prerequisites Section IX is a code, not an individual credential. There is no ASME exam a welder signs up for: the employer qualifies its own procedures and tests its own welders under its quality program, and the qualification record stays with that employer's documentation.
• Test format Not applicable at the individual level. A welder's qualification test is a test weld made under the employer's qualified WPS and evaluated against the code's requirements; the employer records the result.
• Cost The code book: ASME lists the 2025 print edition of BPVC Section IX at $785 (asme.org, as of 2026-10-01). There is no ASME fee for a welder's qualification; any test cost is the employer's.
• Renewal / recertification Not applicable as a personal credential. ASME publishes new editions of the code (its catalog lists 2021, 2023 and 2025); the employer maintains its welders' qualifications under its own program.
• Where employers ask for it Job postings that ask for an "ASME certified" welder usually mean a welder the employer will qualify, or has qualified, under Section IX for its pressure-vessel or boiler work.