NDT Qualification and Certification
How do I become a certified or qualified NDT inspector in a company?
First you have to understand the difference between being qualified and certified. Qualification for NDT includes the class training that you receive by a certified instructor, on the job training (OJT) or experience hours and the successful completion of your general, specific and practical examinations.
Certification is the written verification that a Level III approved by your company has reviewed your records and agrees that your qualification is satisfactory for certification. With the written certification you are usually certified for 5 years then you will have to retake the written examination. Most codes and standards are different so the certification process changes depending on your industry and country.
The Nondestructive written qualification and certification procedure outlines the requirements of your qualification and certification process. Typical things you will find include the definition of an NDT Level II and III technician, including auditors and instruction, and the number of required training and OJT hours. The most common documents that a written qualification and certification program mimic are SNT-TC-1A, CP-189 and NAS-410.
How do you become a corporate Level II or III Inspector?
That is completely dependent on your companies NDT written qualification and certification program often called NDT program or NDT written program. Usually this process requires a specific amount of classroom training hours for a Level I and a Level II, followed by successful completion and documentation of supervised OJT hours. Once you have your classroom training and OJT hours out of the way the next process is to administer the General, Specific and Practical examination. The General is usually a 40 question closed book exam. The Specific is usually a 30 questions open or closed book exam depending on the standard that you are attempting to meet. The Practical is usually a hand on demonstration of the inspection process, including using an appropriate code and the equipment which will be used by the inspector; many codes require multiple practicals. To successfully become certified you usually have to have a composite score of 80% on your General, Specific and Practical.
What is a method and what is a technique, and why do they have to be listed on our qualification and certification procedure?
A method can be considered an NDT discipline such as Ultrasound, Radiography, Eddy Current, Liquid Penetrant, Leak Testing and Magnetic Particle. A technique is a subgroup within that specific method. For Liquid Penetrant, it could be Method A Water Washable, Method C Solvent Removable, or Mehtod D Post-Emulsifiable Hydrophilic. For Ultrasound, it may be UTT Thickness, UT Shearwave and UT Straight Beam. The main purpose of classifying techniques is to ensure that when you certify a technician they will be familiar with the specific equipment and process. An inspector that is accustomed to looking at a digital number on a screen for ultrasonic thickness will usually not be versed in Shearwave and trigonometry.
If you have any more question or wish to use Aqualified to provide you with a written practice, training or simply wish to outsource your in-house NDT services give us call. We provide many cost effective solutions.
Citation information
By Amado Garcia
www.Aqualified.com
January 29, 2010