ISO 5817:2014 provides quality levels of imperfections in fusion-welded joints (except for beam welding) in all types of steel, nickel, titanium and their alloys. It applies to material thickness ≥ 0,5 mm. It covers fully penetrated butt welds and all fillet welds. Its principles can also be applied to partial-penetration butt welds.(Quality levels for beam welded joints in steel are presented in ISO 13919-1.)

Three quality levels are given in order to permit application to a wide range of welded fabrication. They are designated by symbols B, C and D. Quality level B corresponds to the highest requirement on the finished weld. Several types of loads are considered, e.g. static load, thermal load, corrosion load, pressure load. Additional guidance on fatigue loads is given. The quality levels refer to production and good workmanship.

ISO 5817:2014 is applicable to non-alloy and alloy steels, nickel and nickel alloys, titanium and titanium alloys, manual, mechanized and automatic welding,all welding positions, all types of welds (e.g. butt welds, fillet welds and branch connections), and the following welding processes and their sub-processes as defined in ISO 4063: 11 metal-arc welding without gas protection; 12 submerged-arc welding; 13 gas-shielded metal-arc welding; 14 gas-shielded arc welding with non-consumable tungsten electrodes; 15 plasma arc welding; 31 oxy-fuel gas welding (for steel only).