FIU stands for Fabrication Inspection Unit.
This was first conceptualized in May, 2017 and related instructions were issued by Railway Board to all Zonal Railways. As per these instructions, a fabrication inspection unit should be set up in each Zonal Railways for fabrication inspection of steel girders. It shall be headed by an officer not below JA Grade who is working under CBE of that railway. The primary function of this FIU is to conduct inspection of fabrication of steel girders. Now question comes that what kind of steel girders can be inspected by this FIU. For this purpose you can watch another video available on this channel by clicking the banner on top right corner of this video.
Let’s come back to the topic of creating this FIU in zonal railways.
In order to create this FIU, competent Senior Section Engineers or Junior Engineers need to be posted in it. Fundamentally inspection of steel girder fabrication involves two aspects. Number one, inspection related to dimensional aspects of components, layout, trial assembly etc. and number two inspection related to welding related aspects like WPQR, WPSS etc. Therefore in order to create a fully functional FIU, we need FIU supervisors in both categories. There was a need to clearly define the minimum eligibility criteria for both these types of supervisors. RDSO has issued this eligibility criteria vide its letter dated 09.09.2021.
As per minimum eligibility criteria the first set of supervisors who will inspect aspects other than welding are as follows –
Number one, He must have been continuously and directly involved in girder fabrication inspection for a period of at least three years in the last seven years. This involvement means scrutiny of QAP, WPSS, trial assembly, master plate approval, layout inspection and component inspection under his signature. This experience includes inspection of railway girders, ROBs, Rail-cum road bridges only. Inspection of FOB and PP shelter etc. cannot be considered.
Alternatively, if above criteria is not fulfilled, he must have successfully done steel fabrication inspection of ROB, railway girders, rail-cum-road bridges to the tune of equal to or more than one thousand metric tons.
Apart from satisfying any of above two criteria he must have successfully obtained completion certificate of at least one course on “fabrication inspection of steel girders” conducted by IRICEN and RDSO jointly.
Similarly, eligibility criteria the second set of supervisors who will inspect welding related aspects are as follows –
Number one, He must have been continuously and directly involved in girder fabrication inspection for a period of at least three years in the last seven years. This involvement means scrutiny of QAP, WPSS and WPQR under his signature. This experience includes inspection of railway girders, ROBs, Rail-cum road bridges only. Inspection of FOB and PP shelter etc. cannot be considered.
Alternatively, if above criteria is not fulfilled, he must have successfully done welding related steel fabrication inspection of ROB, railway girders, rail-cum-road bridges to the tune of equal to or more than one thousand metric tons.
Apart from satisfying any of above two criteria he must have successfully obtained completion certificate of at least one course on “fabrication inspection of steel girders” conducted by IRICEN and RDSO jointly.
It is already mentioned that the fabrication inspection unit shall be headed by minimum JAG officer working under CBE of Zonal Railway. This JAG officer will issue the certificate in the names of such supervisors who are fulfilling the minimum eligibility criteria. CBE will approve these names for inclusion in Fabrication Inspection Unit based upon these certificates. The certificates issues in favour of supervisors included in FIU shall be renewed at the interval of two years.
It is important to note that FIUs formed by Zonal Railways can fully performed when they have qualified supervisors for inspecting welding related aspects. Only having supervisors from bridge domain like BRIs will not serve the purpose.
Any Zonal Railway, who wish to create fabrication inspection unit can include the supervisors who are qualified as per minimum eligibility criteria mentioned in RDSO letter dated 09.09.2021. The number of such supervisors can be decided depending upon the expected work load.
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