Welding Inspectors are employed to assist with the quality control (QC) activities that are necessary to ensure that welded items will meet specifiedrequirements and be fit for their application. For employers to have confidence in their work, Welding Inspectors need tohave the ability to understand/interpret the various QC procedures and alsohave sound knowledge of welding technology. Visual inspection is one of the non–destructive examination (NDE) disciplines and for some applications may be the only form. For more demanding service conditions, visual inspection is usually followedby one or more of the other non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques –surface crack detection and volumetric inspection of butt welds. Application Standards/Codes usually specify (or refer to other standards) that give the acceptance criteria for weld inspection and may be veryspecific about the particular techniques to be used for surface crackdetection and volumetric inspection, they do not usually give any guidanceabout basic requirements for visual inspection.