ISO 15011-2:2009

Overview

ISO 15011-2:2009 is an international standard issued by ISO, focused on health and safety in welding and allied processes. This part of the ISO 15011 series establishes recognized laboratory methods for measuring the emission rates of harmful gases - specifically carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen monoxide (NO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) - produced during arc welding, cutting, and gouging operations. The standard outlines the use of a hood technique to capture and analyze gases, supporting consistent assessment of exposure risks and enabling workplaces to implement better health protection measures for workers involved in welding and related processes.

Key Topics

• Fume and Gas Sampling: Step-by-step laboratory procedures for collecting and measuring emissions during arc welding, cutting, and gouging using designated hoods.
• Emission Rate Measurement: Methods for determining the quantitative rates at which CO, CO₂, NO, and NO₂ are produced under standardized test conditions.
• Hood Design and Selection: Recommendations for different hood configurations depending on whether operations are manual or automated and based on the welding or cutting process.
• Measurement Equipment: Guidance on appropriate selection, calibration, and use of direct-reading instruments for gas concentration, air flow, current, voltage, and additional parameters.
• Data Collection and Reporting: Calculation methods for emission rates, averaging, and documentation requirements to ensure results meet recognized standards and support health and safety assessments.
• Quality Assurance: Emphasis on equipment calibration traceability to national or international standards and recommendations for repeat testing to ensure reproducibility.

Applications

ISO 15011-2:2009 is primarily used by:

• Occupational Health and Safety Professionals: Provides a reference for evaluating worker exposure to hazardous gases and informs necessary control measures in the welding environment.
• Industrial Hygienists: Enables comparative assessment of different welding processes, consumables, and parameters to identify options that minimize emissions of hazardous gases.
• Welding Engineers and Manufacturers: Supports the development and validation of safer welding processes by allowing structured testing of new materials, equipment, and process parameters.
• Test Laboratories: Acts as a methodological backbone for performing standardized emission testing and reporting, ensuring data comparability across organizations and regions.
• Regulators and Standardization Bodies: Serves as a documented benchmark for compliance checks, certification, and auditing of health and safety practices in metal fabrication industries.

By facilitating the identification and control of hazardous gas emissions, ISO 15011-2:2009 directly supports compliance with workplace safety legislation and promotes the development of safer welding environments.

Related Standards

• ISO 15011-1: Determination of fume emission rate during arc welding and collection of fume for analysis.
• ISO 15011-3: Determination of ozone emission rate during arc welding.
• ISO 15011-4: Fume data sheets.
• ISO 15011-5: Identification of thermal-degradation products generated by welding or cutting through products with organic components.
• ISO/TR 25901: Vocabulary for welding and related processes.
• ISO/IEC Guide 98-3: Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement.

Organizations aiming for robust occupational health management and compliance with best practices in emission monitoring should consider the entire ISO 15011 family, which together address comprehensive health and safety concerns in welding and allied processes.

Keywords: ISO 15011-2:2009, welding fume sampling, arc welding emission rates, gas measurement, carbon monoxide in welding, health and safety welding standards, laboratory fume analysis, workplace welding safety, welding gases, industrial hygiene.