In welds carrying a product's structural load — not merely cosmetic or secondary assembly — the quality of the work has direct safety consequences. Verifying it is not an optional bureaucratic step but a necessary part of the production process.
Visual inspection as the first level
The most immediate check is visual inspection: visible porosity, lack of penetration and surface cracking are defects an experienced operator can often recognise by eye, and they form the first quality filter before work proceeds further.
Non-destructive testing for critical welds
For welds that are particularly critical structurally, non-destructive test methods — which check the internal integrity of the weld without damaging it — are useful where the risk associated with a hidden defect is too high to rely on visual inspection alone.
The time for checks belongs in the quote
The time given to quality control, where the structural criticality of the product demands it, belongs as a processing line in its own right, not as an activity implicitly covered by welding time. Leaving it out understates the cost and, worse, risks it being skipped in practice to meet a tight delivery date.