Use eSignatures for Digital Security in Welding Documents

eSignatures are legally valid and enforceable in nearly every industrialized country around the world. Creating a secure password protected e signature can help automate a traditionally time-consuming paper-based process.

Why use an eSignature?

1. Creates confidence that only authorized persons are signing documents.
2. Restricts signature authority to a nominated person, using password protection for security.
3. Documents an audit trail with fast, documentation of who signed what and when.
4. Can create time-saving for bulk signing or un-signing of weld documents.

An eSignature includes an image (Jpeg, Bitmap or PNG) of the signer's handwritten signature and is intended to serve as the signer's authentication of the document. ProWrite welding documentation software, illustrated here, allows quick upload of an electronic signature that can be stored in the database and associated with a security account. This approach allows the rapid signing of PQRs, WPQs, and WPSs.

Digital security features must be enabled with an e signature that is added into the documentation software. There should be passwords and pins that must be entered before a signature is added to a document. In ProWrite welding software, once a signature has been added to a document, the document may no longer be edited.

To edit the document, the signature must be removed before data can again be modified on the document. The reason for this approach is the authorizing signature is the final step in the documentation that locks the document. There is no possibility of changes being made without the authorizing signator knowing.

ProWrite also provides defined user permissions as part of this secure signing capability, so that specific document types might be restricted to signing by specific staff.

Signature ID: should be used to determine which signature should be added to the document. Enter/Change PIN Number: Click this button to enter a PIN (personal identification number) to protect the signature, or to change an already selected PIN.

An example of a signature block:

Signatures can be Bulk modified/removed via Tools → Settings, Signatures (tab), Update (button for a given document type).

Unsigning a document can be done by opening the document and selecting Unsign. This removes all signatures from the document. The PIN must be known for each signature to resign the document.

For a quick 90 second review of how this works effortlessly in ProWrite just watch the following video…

If you’d like to test e signatures with ProWrite, simply hit the following button to download the software and activate a trial license.

You can, of course, call us or contact us through the website, where we’d welcome the opportunity to answer any questions you may have on this post.