Vol 16 Issue 15 December 2018

15

Defective Samples – Their Importance in Training and Examination of NDE Personnel *Uday B. Kale and Rahul R. Kulkarni KUB Quality Services Pvt. Ltd., Plot No 55, Scheme No 4, Sector No 21, Yamunanagar, Nigdi, Pune-411044. India. *Email ID: anay2000@gmail.com

ABSTRACT Flawed Specimen are integral part of Training and Examination of NDE personnel. This paper discusses the importance and their role in NDE Certiď€ cation. The paper also discusses about preparation of defective samples.

NDT Personnel Certification Schemes like ASNT SNT TC 1 A or ISO 9712 emphasize that the candidate should be enough DE personnel have a great responsibility, not only with capable to demonstrate familiarity with and ability to operate respect to their employers or contractors but also under the necessary NDT equipment, record and analyze the resultant the rules of good workmanship. The NDE personnel must information to the degree required. be independent and should be free from the economic influences regarding his test results, otherwise the results may be b. For Practical Examination under various Certification compromised. The NDE personnel should be aware of the Schemes - The practical examination will involve applying the importance of his signature and the consequences of incorrect test to prescribed specimens, recording (and, for Level 2 test results for safety, health and environment. candidates, interpreting) the resulting information to the Therefore, it is inevitable that an NDE personnel apart degree required, and reporting the results in the required from not only grasping the theory but to acquire a thorough format. understanding of practical application of the NDE method on the It is very important to note that defective specimens used for actual component. Finally, the NDE personnel is responsible for training purposes shall not be used for examination. all interpretations and evaluation of test results.

Thus, importance of acquiring practical skill in c. For Demonstrating NDE Procedures - Defective Specimens application of an NDE method cannot be overlooked. Defective can be used to prove that an NDE Procedure yields in giving samples play an important role in achieving these skills. meaningful result. They are therefore used by construction codes to demonstrate an NDE Procedure.

2.0 CERTIFICATION OVERVIEW Everybody is aware of various certification schemes for NDE 5.0 ADVANTAGES OF USING DEFECTIVE Personnel. All the Certification Schemes have three ways of SAMPLES assessing a candidate for Certification.

The following advantages of using Defective or Flawed a. Educational Qualification and Experience. samples can be envisioned. b. Imparting a Structured Training and Practical a. NDE Personnel must understand the limitation and c. Evaluation by conducting an Examination in General, advantages of NDE methods. This can be very well Specific and Practical. demonstrated by the application of a particular NDE method on these defective samples so that NDE personnel understands both of the above aspects.

3.0 NDE METHODS AND THEIR LIMITATIONS In general, we must consider that every NDE method have their own advantages and limitations. Each method may be able to b. Since there are various manufacturing processes, defective find out flaws with constraint of orientation of discontinuities, samples of various forms of product sector offer an added type of discontinuities, location of discontinuity. Another aspect advantage of detecting those discontinuities during Practical Training. would be the surface condition and type of Material.

Therefore, we need to classify NDE method in the following form a. Surface NDE methods c. Based on the practical session using such flawed samples b. Volumetric NDE methods with intended flaws can increase ability of NDE Personnel for detection of mandatory reportable discontinuities with their 4.0 IMPORTANCE OF FLAWED SPECIMENS IN characterization in terms of type, position, orientation, TRAINING AND EXAMINATION OF NDE apparent dimensions, etc.

PERSONNEL Flawed specimens required for three important things as : d. More practice can reduce the time duration for calibration and sensitivity setting, reduce the time duration for a. Practical Exposure for individual NDE personnel on actual Examination, thus increasing accuracy. Maintaining application - The intent of imparting Practical exposure is to consistency during Non-Destructive Examination can be develop skill in applying an NDE procedure. considered as by product.

1.0

INTRODUCTION

N

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6.0

TYPES OF DEFECTIVE SAMPLES

Defective or Flawed Specimens may be of two types:a. Component having Natural Flaws b. Articial Flawed specimen Getting Natural Flawed Specimen is a bit difcult but not impossible. One has to be vigilant while performing NDE and request the manufacturer if he can share the component to preserve as a Defective sample.

Preparing Articial Flawed Specimen is an art and can be produced with variety of natural occurring defects.

The defective samples should simulate eld geometries and should contain discontinuities representative of those likely to occur during manufacturing or in service. They may be natural, articial or implanted. For NDE personnel evaluation tasks, data sets or lms can be used instead of real specimens.

The defective samples should be encompassing both the Product Sector and Industry Sector.

Product Sector includes – a) Castings B) Forgings c) Welds d) Tubes And Pipes e) Wrought Products f) Composite Materials Industrial Sectors includes – Industrial Sectors combining a number of product sectors including all or some products or dened materials a) Manufacturing; b) Pre- and In-service testing c) Railway maintenance; d) Aerospace.

7.0 NUMBER OF DEFECTIVE SAMPLES USED IN EXAMINATION The number of samples for examination of an NDE personnel is based on the qualication level of individual. For e.g. Level I or Level II or Level III. (Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3) Therefore, based on the Certication Scheme requirements for number of Defective Samples and number of defects for Practical Examinations will vary.

8.0

OVERVIEW OF DEFECTIVE SPECIMENS

In actual, it is difcult to produce or fabricate natural discontinuities of known size at known depths or with known dimensions.

Hence, before going to manufacturing of awed specimens, we have to always consider limitations and advantages of individual NDE method As we discussed about NDE methods, which are bifurcated based on their Advantages and Limitations.

Let us see few of the common and regularly utilized NDE methods in industries on regular basis December 2018

a) Surface Examination NDE Methods: 1. Visual Examination 2. Liquid Penetrant Examination 3. Magnetic Particle Examination b) Volumetric Examination NDE Methods 1. Radiographic Examination 2. Ultrasonic Examination The following things can be borne in the mind while preparing Defective Specimens. a. Intended aws - An intended aw whose size and location dimensions meet the requirements of Article 1 of ASME Section V, is intentionally produced within the test specimen. b. Unintended aws - A aw that has been unintentionally produced during the manufacturing process. (Unintended aws within the specied acceptance criteria may remain in the test specimen.) c. Rejectable aws - Flaws outside the specied criteria are called rejectable aws.

9.0 PARAMETERS FOR MANUFACTURING OF DEFECTIVE SAMPLES 9.1 OVERVIEW OF DEFECTIVE SAMPLES For manufacturing of intended flaws using expected discontinuities as per product sector form given in Table 1 to 6 with requirements as specified in clause no. 9.2.

Based on the various product forms like Rolled, Cast, Forged and Welded, products, defective samples can be produced. As welded components are more easy to fabricate rather than other product forms. They can be produced artificially with known defects in close tolerances. Usually rejected cast, forged or wrought components become flawed or defective samples for NDE for simulating actual defect. It is advantageous to use them as they show a typical natural occurring phenomenon. That is the reason why cast, forged or wrought defective samples having natural flaws are preferred.

9.2 T H E F O L LO W I N G PA R A M E T E R S M AY B E CONSIDERED FOR MANUFACTURING DEFECTIVE SAMPLES a. Product forms: Plate, pipe and T joint welds, Forgings, Tubes or Extruded Products. b. Minimum Dimensions: Based on the requirements as per particular specications and type of product form. c. Material: Carbon steel, Stainless Steel, Aluminium d. Typical aws: As specied in Table 1 through 6 based on the products forms. e. Location: As specied in Table 1 through 6 based on the products forms.

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10.0

CONCLUSION

Defective Samples are an essential requirement for Qualication of NDE Personnel. This makes NDE Personnel more conversant with the expected discontinuities and their characterization. The exposure during Practical Training will make him/her more condent in accurately nding aws.

Locations

Planar Flaws Surface

Flaws in CastingsCracks (Manufacturing Process –

By Sand Casting, Hot Tear Investment Casting or Pressure Die Casting). Cold Shut Material – Ferrous or Shrinkage Non-Ferrous

Internal Cracks Shrinkage

Surface

Volumetric Flaws Surface

Internal

Blow holes Porosities Inclusions Gas Cavities

---

---

Shrinkage

—

---

Inclusions

Table 2 - Product Sector: Welding Planar Flaws Type of Flaws Locations

Internal

c.

CP-189

d.

ISO 9712

Planar Flaws

Planar Flaws

Type of Flaws Locations

Surface

Volumetric Flaws

Internal

Flaws in Forgings Cracks Cracks (Manufacturing Process –

By Close Die Or Scratches Burst Open Die Forgings) Material – Ferrous or Laps Inclusions Non-Ferrous

Surface

Internal

Inclusions

Inclusions

-

-

-

-

Locations

Surface

Internal

Surface

Internal

Flaws in Castings(Manufacturing Process –

By Hot Rolling, Extrusion or Cold Rolling) Material – Ferrous or Non-Ferrous

Cracks

Cracks

Pitting on Pipes & Tube

Inclusions

Seams

Inclusions

Buldge (ID)

-

Stringers

-

Sludge

-

Planar Flaws

Volumetric Flaws

Table 6- Product Sector: In Service Inspection Volumetric Flaws Surface

Internal

Cracks

Cracks

Pitting on Surface

Piping in Bar

Seams

Lamination

-

Inclusions

or Cold Rolling) Material – Stringers Inclusions Ferrous or Non-Ferrous Lamination Piping in Bars

-

-

-

-

By Hot Rolling, Extrusion,

SNT-TC-1A

Surface Internal

Internal

(Manufacturing Process –

b.

Type of Flaws

Surface

Flaws in Plates & Bars -

Article 1of ASME Section V

Volumetric Flaws

Table 3 - Product Sector: Plates and Bars

Locations

a.

Table 5 –Product Sector: Tubes and Pipe

Cracks Cracks Porosities Porosities Flaws in Welding (Manufacturing Process – Lack of Undercut Slag

by SMAW, GTAW, GMAW, Lack of Fusion Fusion Inclusions SAW or Combination Process) Lack of Lack of Material – Ferrous or Penetration Penetration Non-Ferrous

Type of Flaws

REFERENCE DOCUMENTS :

Table 4 - Product Sector: Forgings

Table 1: Product Sector: Castings Type of Flaws

11.0

Type of Flaws Locations

Planar Flaws Surface

Internal

Volumetric Flaws Surface

Intergranular Through Pitting on Cracks Extension Of Pipes & Specimens from the Surface Cracks Tube field Material – Localized Transgranular Inclusions Thin Area Ferrous or NonCracks (Metal Loss) Ferrous Fatigue Cracks Flaws in Actual

Internal -

-

-

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Development of National Certification Scheme in full compliance with ISO 9712:2012, Singapore Experience Dr. Sajeesh Kumar BABU Non- Destructive Testing Society, Singapore E-mail: skbabu@ndtss.org.sg

ABSTRACT Non-Destructive testing increasingly adopted by various industries as a tool of quality control. To cope up with the future demands for non-destructive testing personnel and to cater the local industry needs for qualied and certied NDT operators, NonDestructive Testing Society (Singapore) developed the SGNDT Certication Scheme, the scheme is prepared in consideration of requirements from local industry needs. NDTSS has started planning and preparing personnel certication since 2007, with a greater effort from the core members and with further support from AINDT, the scheme becomes a reality in 2017. The certication aims to provide a greater condence to the clients and end users who utilize the NDT test results provided by the certied operators in comparison with other certication schemes. NDE certication in Singapore varies from industries & currently relies heavily on the in-house certication scheme based on SNT-TC-1A where organizations nd it difcult to standardize the skill and reliability of operators. NDE Certication system varies globally from countries to countries. A proper certication system is required to produce successful NDT Practitioners to suit the local industry and shall include competency criteria. This paper outlines the development of Singapore NDT Certication Scheme (SGNDT), the operations, levels of qualication, the method of operation & control measures.

The Training & Certication committee, Quality Management system within the certication scheme and the current system practiced in Singapore are discussed in this paper. The paper also highlights the importance of third-party certication scheme. The paper will also detail the creation of new scheme specic to industry, based on the growing needs here in Singapore. The paper will explain the recognition of other potential qualication records to certify NDT Personnel in Singapore. This paper could be used as a guide for national adoption of ISO 9712 qualication.

1.0

T

INTRODUCTION

he NDT certication scheme in Singapore, as practised in most of the countries over the world is based on SNT-TC1A, the well known ASNT recommended practices. NDT Test houses or Laboratories accredited by Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC) under the SINGLAS, ISO / IEC 17025 scheme would require a minimum of in-house certied personnel to conduct Non-Destructive test, however for approving the test reports, the signatories are expected to have PCN / CSWIP / ACCP / AINDT Level 2 as a minimum. In recent years, many of the oil & gas companies and offshore industries expect NDT personnel qualied and certied by third party certication scheme such as PCN of BINDT or ISO 9712:2012 scheme.

The quality level of in-house certied personnel varies from organization to organization; hence, most of the major contractors hire third party agencies to cross check the work done by in house inspectors. A growing trend of unsatisfactory performance of in-house qualied operators tends to question the integrity of in-house certication system. There were also growing trend of third-party certied operators from questionable Authorized Qualifying Bodies experiencing lack of competence also lost condence with training & certication bodies. The need for qualied and certied NDT personnel in the construction, ship building, offshore, Oil & gas and petrochemical industry is expected to grow in the coming years and the importance of independent certication scheme is also expected to grow proportionately.

December 2018

The publication of EN ISO 9712 provides a chance to launch the certication scheme managed by NDTSS to provide standardization in the qualication and certication of NonDestructive Testing Personnel. The executive committee of NonDestructive Testing Society (Singapore), NDTSS decided to gain accreditation by SAC to ISO/IEC 17024.This paper aims to outline the system adopted by NDTSS to launch its SGNDT personnel certication scheme.

2.0 QUALITY SYSTEM OF NDTSS FOR SGNDT SCHEME The quality system requirements of ISO/IEC17024:2012 are implemented within the training and certication scheme of Non -Destructive Testing Society (Singapore)-NDTSS. To symbolize Singapore, the merlion is used as the symbol of certication. An approval from National Heritage board was obtained for the use of national symbol for the certication scheme. The logo shown below in gure1.

Figure 1: SGNDT Certification Logo

The Quality System consists of a quality manual, scheme manual, quality procedures, specic instructions, quality forms & operational forms which is depicted in Figure 2.

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behavior and proven cheating or violating code of ethics, his certication would be suspended, and he would not be allowed to take NDTSS examination for a period of one year. Figure 3 describes the overall organization chart of NDTSS and the certication body organization chart is depicted in gure 4.

Figure 2: Quality System hierarchy

The purpose of the quality manual is to provide guidance to staff whose activities can affect quality. It provides an overall view of the quality system within the society for certication of persons. The Quality Manual is intended to be a training document for all staff in Personnel Certication Committee. The Manual is a basis for auditing to check on current practice and to ensure the maintenance of all procedures. The manual consists of the following parts:Ÿ General Ÿ Management Policy Ÿ Responsibility of Management Ÿ General Requirements Ÿ Requirements for Personnel Ÿ Outsourcing Ÿ Records & Information Ÿ Condentiality Ÿ Security Ÿ Certication Scheme Ÿ Certication Process Ÿ Management System The President of the NDTSS shall be responsible for ensuring the implementation and maintenance of this Quality System with the aid of Certication Chair. The Certication board chair shall report to the NDTSS Executive board on all matters of review and improvements to the Quality System.

3.0 ORGANIZATION & RESPONSIBILITY The NDTSS Executive committee holds the ultimate responsibility for “All Society Activities”. Wherein the quality manual, is the mechanism by which, authority for the “Certication Activity” are placed with the NDTSS Certication Committee. The members from the Advisory Committee who are independent and not be the member of the executive committee manage the Impartiality of the certication. The structure of NDTSS is organized based on its volunteer-based organization.

The President of NDTSS or Chairman of Certication committee possesses authority related to certication matters & shall be responsible for decisions related to certication, including granting, maintaining & recertifying. The scope of certication shall be expanded or reduced based on the resources of the certication committee of NDTSS. The authority for certication, suspension or withdrawing the certication shall lie with the chair of certication committee or president of NDTSS. Chair of certication possesses the decision on reduction & suspension of certication. The reduction of certication would be applicable when certied person does not meet the requirements of recertication to the initial scope of certication. When a certied person exhibits unethical

3.1 Requirements of Examiner Examiners shall meet the requirements of the scheme based upon applicable competence standards and other relevant documents. The selections and process shall ensure that examiners assigned to an examination or part of an examination :a) Are familiar with the relevant certification scheme b) Have a thorough knowledge of the relevant examination methods and examination documents c) Have appropriate competence in the field to be examined d) Are fluent both in writing and orally in the language of examination and are free from any interest so that they can make impartial and non-discriminator y judgements (assessments).

Members (Annual Meeting)

Figure 3: Overall Organization Chart of the Society

Figure 4: Organization Chart of Certication Scheme

4.0 MANAGEMENT POLICY The management policy extracted from the quality manual is explained below “NDTSS shall comply with all legal and contractual requirements relating to its activities as a minimum standard”.

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Ÿ Ÿ

Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Ÿ

NDTSS shall provide certication services to meet the industry needs to the latest standard NDTSS shall ensure that it has sufcient staff and appropriate resources (including essential equipment) to carry out its activities with due regard for quality; and that staff are sufciently trained, experienced, qualied and competent to carry out their duties effectively, efciently and in compliance with this policy and the quality system.

NDTSS expects all members and subagents to be responsible for the quality of their work at all times.

In order to provide a competent quality service to clients, the following principles must be maintained: Condentiality - as required by law; requested by clients and approved by operational standards (e.g. ISO9712).

Transparency - disclosure of all conicts and potential conicts of interest - program must be available for assessment by the accreditation body or member of public.

Third party - Certication assessments are not subject to inuence - persons different from those who carried out the assessment (examination) take certication decisions.

5.0 OPERATION OF SCHEMES The Singapore NDT Certication Scheme (SGNDT) is developed by the Certication Committee of NDTSS for the certication of competence of non-destructive testing personnel, which satises the requirements of the international standards ISO 9712: 2012. The scheme fully comply with the standard in terms of training, qualication examination, and experience and certication process.

Australian Institute of NDT supports the Scheme manual to have mutual recognition of certication & to have global access for NDTSS examined person, however personnel appearing for both the schemes shall take the AINDT paper for theory examination.

The current available examination is Visual Testing, Magnetic Particle Testing, Dye Penetrant Testing, Ultrasonic Testing (Manual, PAUT, and TOFD), Radiographic Testing (Manual, CR, and DR) and Eddy Current testing in compliance with the standard. Three levels of certication are developed; the examination also covers individual product sectors such as weld, casting, forging & Industrial sector (Pre-& In-service Inspection, Manufacturing, Railway Maintenance & Aerospace).

The EN4179:2017 is an employer-based scheme, NDTSS provides approval for outside agency services and conducts exam through audited facilities. The certication becomes invalid once the certicate holder changes his / her employer. The recognition of the qualication is managed by an Aerospace NDT board.

5.1 TRAINING The applicant for certication shall have successfully completed an approved program of training in the relevant NDT Method and Product/Industry Sector in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9712:2012 and/or complying with the published national training modules for the NDT method and product/industry sector. The applicant is required to produce December 2018

validated evidence of training completing the required training and reaching an acceptable level of comprehension of the training. The Board may recognise training by public and private training providers who train in accordance with approved national NDT training modules or NDTSS approved training module descriptors (syllabi as listed) that comply with the training syllabi and training hours specied in ISO 9712:2012.

NDTSS also recognises that formal training courses provided by technical colleges and AQB’s of other certication bodies. NDTSS also accepts company “in house” training provided, the training scheme is fully documented and submitted to the CB for review and acceptance. In such cases, the company is expected to have appropriate equipment available for training purposes and to provide information on study time/hours, course notes used, syllabus followed, textbooks used and other relevant information. The company must also provide an examination at the completion of the training to demonstrate the candidate has achieved an acceptable level of comprehension (70% or greater pass mark would be considered acceptable). The company will provide each candidate who has successfully completed the training an in-house certicate of training signed by the ofcer responsible for the training scheme.

5.2 INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE The applicant is required to have had a period of experience relevant to the certication sought in addition to any experience gained during training courses, such as practical training time. The applicant is required to produce evidence of experience and to complete the “Record of NDT Experience” on the application form. The experience requirements for the relevant methods and levels of certication are listed in ISO 9712 or EN 4179 as applicable.

5.2.1 Trainee An applicant, who lacks the minimum experience requirement but has received the relevant training and has demonstrated competence by a passing in the prescribed examinations, may request to be granted “Trainee” status and have certication deferred. Once the NDTSS has received evidence from the applicant of additional experience and the minimum number of hours have been satised, trainee status will be upgraded to full certication with an expiry date of 5 years from the date they completed the practical examination.

Note: It is the responsibility of a trainee to inform the NDTSS of the experience gained whilst holding that status.

Trainee status is valid for ve (5) years from the date of success in the practical examination. Applicants who require more than two (2) years to accumulate the required experience hours will have to demonstrate to the applications committee they have not had a signicant interruption, i.e. a period of twelve (12) months or more where they have not used that method, otherwise a re-sit of the practical will be required. If after ve (5) years the trainees have not nalised their certication, the application will lapse, and they must apply for fresh certication as a new applicant

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5.3 EXAMINATIONS NDTSS conducts periodic examinations as scheduled in the website. The closing date in general for the NDTSS examinations is six (6) weeks prior to the examination week.

These examinations are organized at Approved Examination Centres & at NDTSS HQ facility. Examination dates and examination closing dates are available from the NDTSS Certication Administrator, and on the Societies web site.

Practical Examinations can only be done via an authorized exam centre. The passing criteria is as dened in ISO 9712:2012. Practical examinations are normally held in conjunction with the written examinations but may require special arrangements due to availability of test pieces and test equipment. Applicants for Radiographic Testing should note that they are required to produce minimum of two radiographs as part of the practical examination. Furthermore, applicants for Radiographic Testing are required by NEA to hold R1 or L5/L6 associated with the employed organization. Proof of License and TLD would be requested prior to the training Persons certicated to Level 2 or Level 3 in ultrasonic testing (UT) may obtain endorsements to the certication for complex geometries of T joints, nozzle joints and node joints.

Nozzle endorsement is a prerequisite for node endorsement.

Persons seeking these endorsements must make application using the Application for Endorsement form and pass a practical examination (including a work instruction) for UT of the applicable geometry. For all product sector examination or specic geometry examination, candidate should test at least two specimens. For Industrial sector examination, candidate would provide with 3 specimens for practical examination.

Candidates can choose a mixed endorsement by doing one specimen in each category.

For example, a candidate prefers to have plate & pipe endorsement, he/she shall be attempting one plate and one pipe exam. Failure of one sample would be resulting in not certied for both categories.

5.3.1 Re-Sit Examinations A candidate who fails to obtain the pass grade for any examination part, may seek re-examination up to two times in the failed part(s), provided that the re-examination takes place not sooner than one month, unless further training acceptable to the certication committee is satisfactorily completed, nor later than two years after the original examination. Applicants who fail the second re-sit examination shall be required to sit all examinations as for a new candidate.

5.3.2 Examiner & Examination Exemptions Certied Level 3 from ICNDT MRA Schedule 2 Certication Bodies and ASNT NDT Level 3 with ISO 9712 Level 2 Obtained from MRA Schedule 2 Certication bodies in the method concerned satises the requirements to be as a SGNDT Level 3 examiner until December 2021. For Infrared & Vibration Testing ASNT Level 3 satises the requirement of an examiner. The below are some exemptions for examinations.

Ÿ

AWS –CAWI (Associate) / CSWIP 3.0 visual inspectors will be exempted from practical examinations for Visual E x a m i n a t i o n – We l d e d Pr o d u c t s ( L e v e l 1 ) .

Ÿ

AWS CWI (Welding Inspector) / CSWIP 3.1 Welding Inspectors are exempted for their practical examination for visual Examination– Welded Products (Level 2) except of instruction writing to the given standard.

Ÿ

Candidates holding valid ASNT/ACCP Level III are exempted from Part A & Part C of basic examination.

Ÿ

Candidates holding valid ASNT/ACCP Level III in the method are exempted from Part D method examination.

If any candidate elects to claim an exemption to which he or she is entitled, the marks obtained in the examination, which lead to the issue of certication, under which such exemption is claimed will be used to calculate the composite grade in the examination applied for. Where the actual examination mark cannot be ascertained, a mark of 70% will be used.

Candidates passing NDTSS General Examinations in the method would be recognized for exemption for both ISO 9712 Scheme and EN 4179 Scheme.

5.4 SCHEME MAINTENANCE The scheme committee will meet at least once a year to review the progress of examinations and to review additional resources required to improve for the betterment of the scheme. The review includes certicate holders, pass / fail rate, performance of examination banks, performance of examiners, and development of working group.

6.0 DECISION OF CERTIFICATION The decision on certication of a candidate shall be made solely by the NDTSS based on the information gathered during the certication process. Those who make the certication decision shall not have participated in the examination or training of the candidate.

Successful applicants receive a certicate and an identication card. Issue 1 - Certications are valid from the date of issue and up to ve years from the date of successful completion of the practical exam. Issue 2 - Certications are valid from the date of issue and up to ve years from the date of successful renewal. Re-certication will be required after 10 years from the date the practical examination was successfully completed. To avoid penalising candidates who re-certify prior to expiry of their certicate, the re-certication shall have a validity of ve (5) years from expiry of current certication, up to a maximum of 6 months. Certicate issued by NDTSS is shown in gure 5a & 5b.

December 2018

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Figure 5a: Front view of the certicate

7.0 RECOGNITION OF INTERNATIONAL QUALIFICATION NDTSS will recognize all AINDT certications for the applicable sector without any additional examinations. The NDTSS is signatory to a Multilateral Recognition Agreement within the ICNDT.

(a)

Figure 5b: Rear view of the certicate

Persons with certication from an ICNDT signatory certication scheme will be able to recertify to the SGNDT ISO9712 certication from NDTSS provided the evidence of examinations were held in the country of origin of certication body or examinations held in Singapore are submitted. The NDTSS reserves the right to require persons seeking certication in Singapore to undertake additional examinations (e.g Suspended Examination centres). The validity of the ISO9712 certication granted on transfer from an NDTSS recognised Certication scheme will remain the same as the expiry date of the current overseas certication. For example, the ISO9712 certication granted for a BINDT PCN certication obtained by taking examination held in UK or from an approved examination centre in Singapore expiring in, say, October 2020 would also expire in October 2020. At that time, the ISO9712 certication is subject to the procedure for ‘Renewal or ‘Recertication’, depending upon whether the international certication is an Issue 1 or Issue 2. Applicants wishing to transfer to the NDTSS certication scheme, who held overseas qualications recognised by NDTSS, which are issued within Non-English-speaking countries, must be accompanied by evidence of an IELTS Band Score of 6.0.

December 2018

A valid ISO 9712 Level 1 / 2 /3 by a certication body accredited to ISO 17024 & with the evidence of examination held in Singapore for the relevant method and sector may be waived for all examinations in that sector & method & level. Candidates certied other than by AINDT might be required to do practical examination for 1 specimen in each sector at the discretion of Certication committee in order to recognize such certication (e.g. Examination held through an AQB outside Singapore or Certication obtained from a Certication committee where the examination is held away from the host country). Failure to pass practical examination shall follow the requirements of initial examination. At the discretion of the NDTSS Certication Board, applicants may be subject to a personal interview to cover issues not clear from the written application.

8.0 CONCLUSION This article concludes the development of the new certication scheme launched by NDTSS. The paper would provide a guideline to support similar societies aiming for an independent certication scheme, the paper also briefed the method of international recognition and its operations.

Improvements to the system will be made once all the test methods are being used for certication. Currently the industry has welcomed the move, the accreditation of the SGNDT scheme to ISO/IEC 17024:2012 is another important step NDTSS has achieved for international recognition.

9.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank the members of certication committee of NDTSS who have taken the effort to develop the relevant scheme documents, which have been used as reference for developing this article.

REFERENCES The following are the references referred by the author in preparing this paper [1] NDTSS Scheme Manual – SGNDT Certication “Requirements for Qualication & Certication of NDT Personnel”, NDTSS/SGNDT OM-001-Rev 5 [2] NDTSS Quality Assurance Manual – Certication of Persons” NDTSS/QAM00, Rev 6 2018.

[3] Non-destructive testing -- Qualication and Certication of NDT personnel, ISO 9712:2012 [4] Aerospace series. Qualication and approval of personnel for non-destructive testing, BS EN 4179:2017 [5] Conformity assessment -- General requirements for bodies operating certication of persons, ISO/IEC 17024:2012 [6] SAC SINGL AS -- Technical Notes “Specic Requirements for Non-Destructive Testing Laboratories”, NDT001 [7] 15th APCNDT “Success Story of SGNDT Certication Scheme in full compliance with ISO 9712:2012

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NDE Training and Certification in Aerospace Industry Zbynek ZAVADIL – Member and Secretary of the Czech NANDTB (National Aerospace NDT Board) Tomas ZAVADIL – Deputy of General Director of ATG 2 Vaclav JANDURA – Head of NDT department of ATG, member of Czech NANDTB, Member of ANDTBF (Aerospace NDT Boards Forum) ATG (Advanced Technology Group) s.r.o. Touzimska 771, Prague 9, 199 02, Czech Republic Emails: 1zavadilt@atg.cz; 2jandura@atg.cz 1

1.0

INTRODUCTION

The whole industry is based on the very principle that Employer/Manufacturer has the ultimate responsibility for all of his products and services provided to its customers. This responsibility cannot be removed from him and it also covers responsibility for all of his/her activities and operations. That implies he/she is responsible for his/her employees as well.

The main responsibility of the manufacturer is to produce only safe products, which will not cause any harm on health, or damage on property during the service life of these products as a result of poor design or quality. This requirement is even a law in EU member countries (safety declaration in CE marking) and its principles are adopted by most of all modern countries in the world. Due to its unique status, aerospace is one of the most important adepts for this requirement.

The main goal of the manufacturer is to produce only such products, which have adequate value added, that allows generating of more prot, creating competitive advantage or raising other barriers for competition.

Special processes (i.e. processes that require verication of correct execution) have a substantial role in the development of every business entity as it is an important source of value added. NDT, a special process of its own, is extremely important, because it works as a verication tool for all other special processes and it also often works as a quality assurance mechanism before nal release of products to the customer.

In general, to implement a special process (e.g. NDT/NDE) the employer needs to ensure the following: 1. Responsible person for the given special process, taking responsibility for the whole process as its “Technical Manager” – i.e. to have a manager of the process.

2. Fully qualied operating personnel able to execute the process correctly based on given requirements and understanding its responsibilities – i.e. to have competent personnel.

3. Correctly implemented Quality Management System (QMS) ensuring shared knowledge about standardized execution of all key parts of the given special process in dened quality – i.e. to have rules, standards and internal documentation to follow.

4. Proper selection of equipment and consumables able to reach the requested outcome based on the physical limitations of the application – i.e. to have an equipment suitable for requested application of the special process.

5. To have a proof of prociency that demonstrates to the customer that the special process is implemented completely & correctly.

None of the requirements above are standalone requirements and a company that wants to handle any special process well needs to make sure that all points are fullled.

ATG has 26 years of experience with delivering consultancy services and as the Outside Agency, including support for NADCAP audits. It is approved by Czech NANDTB (the Czech Republic is the EU member state) and it has a broad range of customers among aerospace producers and MRO organizations, including companies as GE Aviation Czech, Latecoere, SEKO Aerospace, Aeroot, Korean Air, GE On Wing Korea, and AKKA, S7 engineering, PCC, and others - counting more than 100 applications. In this article the authors share their experience with successful implementation of NDT process to aerospace organizations, most common problems companies may encounter and principles how to avoid them.

Where applicable, references to paragraphs of EN 4179 / NAS 410 will be provided to demonstrate solid background for given statements.

2.0 SPECIFICATION OF THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR Aerospace is highly dependent on use of special processes and NDT especially. It is valid statement for both sectors - the manufacturing (covered by EASA Part 21 or equivalent) and the maintenance (covered by EASA Part 145 or equivalent).

Aerospace industry, compared to majority of other industries, cannot be taken as national industry and it is always necessary to look at it as on a global, multinational segment.

Aircrafts are currently the key transportation system that enables contact between all countries and continents, therefore all the rules, procedures, manuals etc. used in aerospace have to be harmonized all around the world. Without this, the aircrafts could not move without substantial barriers built by different legislative or normalization. It implies all aircrafts shall be produced by international standards and also be able to be maintained in each country, where they are landing, therefore the same rules/procedures shall be utilized.

Aerospace is also unique in its perception of safety.

Aerospace has the most strict requirements from all transportation industrial sectors, because, compared to others, the danger of loss on lives is extremely high and several plane crashes in a row may push the airline to bankruptcy. Without correctly implemented NDT process the operation of aerospace equipment may not be trustable. In this eld even more than in the others it is extremely important to handle perfectly the personnel qualication correctly.

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3.0 EN 4179/NAS410 HARMONIZED PERSONNEL QUALIFICATION SYSTEM FOR AEROSPACE INDUSTRY – DESCRIPTION Qualication of NDT personnel in aerospace is controlled by two qualication standards, EN 4179 (EN 4179:2017 Aerospace series - Qualication and approval of personnel for non-destructive testing) and NAS 410 (NAS 410:2014 NAS certication & qualication of nondestructive test personnel).

Due to the facts stated above it is necessary that those two documents are harmonized. It is therefore not surprising these documents are the same in the technical content and therefore in theory works as one (with some specic exceptions that shall be explained in next paragraphs).

The main features of this qualication standard (further only EN 4179 / NAS 410) are explained in this chapter.

AEROSPACE USES EXCLUSIVELY THE EMPLOYER QUALIFICATION SYSTEM This qualication system assumes that the qualication and certication process of the NDT personnel is under the responsibility of the Employer. This is based on the fact that central (or also independent) qualication systems don’t focus on Employer´s specic needs. Nevertheless, in order to ensure safety of operation on aircrafts, general knowledge is NOT ENOUGH and the NDT personnel need to have sufcient product-specic knowledge so they can test the specic parts produced / maintained in the Employer´s facility.

CERTIFICATION AND OPERATING APPROVAL FOR IS THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EMPLOYER Compared to general belief, only the Employer may certify acc. to its own Written Practice (see EN 4179 / NAS410 paragraphs 4.4 and 4.4.3). Despite that the certication is not itself the authorization for performing of NDT tasks. Additional authorization (also known as the operating approval – paragraph 3.23) is required for all personnel to perform NDT tasks. This authorization may be done by any feasible means, but for solving any future disputes it is recommended to provide a written statement (e.g. list of approved NDT personnel).

RESPONSIBLE LEVEL 3 IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ESTABLISHING AND MANAGING OF THE QUALIFICATION PROCESS Responsible Level 3 is acc. to EN 4179 / NAS 410 (paragraph 4.4.1) an NDT Level 3 designated by the Employer to be responsible for qualication process on Employer´s site.

Written principles of the qualication process are summarized in the so-called “Written Practice” that he needs to prepare.

Employer may also use a so-called Outside Agency (external organization approved by the Employer to perform the role of the Responsible Level 3, or other Level 3 activities) – in such case this Outside Agency can only qualify, not certify the personnel acc. to Employer´s Written Practice (paragraph 4.4.3). It is Employer´s responsibility to ensure full competence of the selected person.

RESPONSIBLE LEVEL 3 MAY (BUT DOES NOT HAVE TO) USE NANDTB SERVICES Responsible Level 3 may (but does not have to) use NANDTB (National Aerospace NDT Board) to help him to do subset or all December 2018

of the following (paragraph 4.4.2) :Ÿ Develop training course outlines and training materials Ÿ Create examination questions and administer examinations Ÿ Approve organizations providing training and/or examination services Ÿ Dene requirements for qualication of NDT personnel in emerging NDT methods Ÿ Retain written and practical examinations Ÿ Designate Examiners and/or instructors at organizations providing training and examination services He/she may use also other NANDTBs where no suitable board exists.

MRO ORGANIZATIONS NEED TO FULFILL REQUIREMENTS ON QUALIFICATION ORGANIZATIONS In the case of aerospace maintenance, however, the airlines that wish to operate ights to the European Union needs to satisfy additional requirements of EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) that requires that the NDT personnel performing maintenance tasks shall be qualied by an organization approved for qualication activities by EU member country NANDTB (AMC 145.30.g). This may be a problem especially for non-EU countries, which therefore need to seek help by Outside Agencies for this task.

AMC 145.30.g is the only requirement that enforces specically EN 4179 (not stating NAS 410). Many organizations due to that face complications. Best solution in such case is to recertify the personnel under approved organization by EU member NANDTB. If the NDT process was implemented well in their facility, this will be just a formal act. If there will be some discrepancies, it will be an option for the organization to correct them.

EMPLOYER NEEDS TO DEMONSTRATE REAL EXPERIENCE OF THE PERSONNEL PRIOR CERTIFICATION Suitably collected experience of the operator before the training and examinations is the basic step of qualication process.

EN4179/NAS410 rev. 4 emphasizes (under inuence of increasing requirements of NADCAP system) suitably documented proof of experience. This includes at least a logbook with indication of the individual, performed task, hours of experience on the task, and certied personnel providing direct supervision (see paragraph 6.3).

EMPLOYER NEEDS TO DEMONSTRATE CONTINUOUS PROFICIENCY OF ITS NDT PERSONNEL EN 4179 / NAS410 understands that capabilities and prociency of personnel may deteriorate during time if the personnel is not performing NDT tasks regularly. EN 4179 / NAS 410 paragraph 8.6 requires from the Employer to develop and implement documented annual process to verify the technical prociency of each method during the certication cycle (socalled “Annual Maintenance” – see paragraph 8.6). Validation of continuous prociency of the operator to fulll dened process requirements through annual maintenance is under responsibility of Responsible Level 3. Level 3 is responsible for quality and eligibility of employer´s operators.

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CUSTOMER APPROVALS AND ACCREDITATIONS REQUIRE PASSING THROUGH COMPLEX AUDITS Companies working in the aerospace need to demonstrate their competencies to their Customers in order to get bigger contracts. This may include a subset or all of the following: Ÿ ISO 9100 Ÿ PRI Nadcap Ÿ EASA approval – Part 21 Ÿ EASA approval – Part 145/AMC 145.30.g ISO 9100 is basic requirement for companies to get business in aerospace. As these requirements are too vague for big primes and Customer audits were too expensive to be performed for each Contractor, PRI created with primes an accreditation system Nadcap (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program) that may be used as a benchmark of competency for the Customer. This system requires passing through complex audit including QMS and NDT system in the given NDT method, which also includes witness audit of NDT personnel performing NDT tasks on real parts for their customer.

To get ready for such audit is a task for 3-12 months depending on whether it is a greeneld or browneld organization and what is the current state of NDT process implementation. From ATG experience suitable is to expect 612 months with proper guidance by a Level 3 experienced with NADCAP. 4.0 IMPLEMENTATION OF EN4179/NAS410 NDT PERSONNEL QUALIFICATION SYSTEM The implementation process of EN 4179 / NAS 410 depends on the personality and prociency of the responsible person for the NDT process and it is the Responsible Level 3. He has to create, establish and implement a qualication procedure (Written Practice) which will be in accordance with all requirements of EN 4179 / NAS 410 and additional Customer´s requirements.

Consequently, this means it will also cover the Employer´s manufacturing program (paragraph 6.1 and 6.1.5). In this document, there will be also dened all necessary steps of qualication process as well as duties, competencies and responsibilities of all relevant qualication levels – i.e. who can prepare and approve Written Procedures (which dene mandatory steps for providing of all NDT tasks in given methods and techniques), who can provide according to these procedures NDT services and who is responsible for signing of test reports.

Responsible Level 3 then needs to prepare training outlines, examination content, samples and equipment for each technique of each NDT method. If correctly prepared, it can signicantly enhance the quality of the NDT personnel.

However if incorrectly prepared, the personnel may be incompetent, and Employer may face problems when attempting to receive approvals, accreditations etc.

Further special assessment is necessary during preparation for NADCAP audits. For example NADCAP requires specic examination questions to be focused on verication on understanding of the principles and shall not be based on simple search-the-standard-for-correct-answer questions.

Despite looking simple, NADCAP auditor can easily turn down whole qualication of the NDT personnel based on one inappropriate question, because he wants to be sure, that operator is ready and able to fulll given tasks.

The implementation process is not a onetime qualication event only, it is a continuous process of establishing, maintaining and improving of the personnel quality. That is the most substantial part of qualication process – to continuously verify, that the operator is prepared, qualied and able to realize dened tasks by the Employer. A tool designed specically for this is the Annual Maintenance. It is a critical part of the qualication process and aerospace is emphasizing its importance.

Responsible Level 3 can delegate some of own duties, competencies and responsibilities to the third (outsourced) person (the Outside Agency), or the role of Responsible Level 3 may be outsourced completely (see paragraph 4.4.3).

Nevertheless the Employer is responsible for proper selection, verication and approval of the Outside Agency and accepts consequences of incorrect selection.

5.0 THE MAIN MISTAKES OF TYPICAL EMPLOYER APPROACH Many aerospace companies don´t meet the basic requirement, that qualication system shall be focused for the Employer manufacturing program. Unfortunately, some NANDTBs mystify the companies by inaccurate statements about “partial acceptability” of independent qualication systems (i.e. qualications acc. to ISO9712 sector AS, etc.). The independent schemes are then used even for the specic and practical part of the qualication training that should be always reecting the Employer´s manufacturing program / maintenance manuals.

Typical proof of training by predatory qualication bodies trying to get easy money from an uninformed customer (or sometimes even a certicate) than states “Company XXX hereby certify that person YYY satised the requirements of ISO 9712, SNT-TC-1A, CP 189, and EN 4179 / NAS 410”. All auditors/inspectors will reject such established qualication system and/or proof of training as inadequate as 1) Outside Agency cannot certify acc. to Employer´s Written Practice, it is not its task (see paragraph 4.4.3) and 2) it is not possible to satisfy in parallel all of those systems in one training and therefore the training was not held properly in the rst place.

Similar problem represents the requirements of the Customer or the Aviation Authority. There is not enough to meet only EN 4179/NAS410 requirements, there is a necessity to meet also requirements of the Customer, which may be stricter in some specic details, or requiring specic approaches.

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26

In both cases, who does not satisfy Authority´s or Customer´s

NADCAP, as a customer accreditation system created by

demands will not participate on the given business (as the

aerospace prime contractors, expect auditing real process on

Customer is the one who decides which company will be the

real parts provided by real Customers. Auditors are well aware

supplier).

of the NDT process and given NDT methods, study Employer´s The most common problem of the implementation

process is that Responsible Level 3 tend to simply copy the

procedures ahead and witness execution of NDT tasks on real sample for the Customer.

standard EN4179/NAS410 directly and do not adjust it for the specic Employer´s manufacturing program / maintenance

6.0

manuals. It is important to know that all these parameters

Personnel qualication is the main part of NDT process (similar

needs to be set explicitly, because they determine the Employer qualication and certication system and his ability to cover requested quality. Companies may tend to take this fast solution (i.e. make the Written Practice as a copy of the standard) in order to satisfy the requirements fast and get rid of it. Sometimes, they even try to push the responsibility to the Outside Agency. However despite Outside Agency may provide priceless help, inappropriate selection of such agency may easily set a reverse mode in the implementation process that took for months or years. Responsibility to the Customer is however still on the Employer and his Responsible Level 3.

Last example shall discuss the NADCAP accreditation.

Employers often confuse NADCAP with other government-run accreditation systems, based on the main request for independency. These tend to focus on checking the established management system by checking that documentation properly describes the process from the beginning to the very end.

NADCAP however, is not a national accreditation system for independent systems and the auditors are far from checking only the paperwork.

December 2018

CONCLUSION

to all other special processes) and the Employer is fully responsible for prociency of his personnel. It is therefore necessary, to consider carefully whether to invest in well implemented NDT qualication process that will pay back in the future. This requires either having own strong Responsible Level 3 that fully understands the requirements of the EN 4179 / NAS410 qualication standard, or a veried, trustable and reputable Outside Agency with good references that can satisfy all the requirements and provide adequate support during implementation and/or in front of the Customer and/or auditor.

In specic cases like in the case of MRO organizations this may result in non-EU countries to be limited to use exclusively EU member country Outside agencies that are also approved and controlled by their (means EU) NANDTBs, but even among them, there are big differences. Serious Outside Agency does not provide simple and surprisingly cheap solutions. It will however make the Employer much less headache, that will pay back in the future by no necessities for re-installment of process implementation or re-audits.

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Prominence of ISO 9712- International Standard for Qualification and Certification NDT Personnel Jayaprakash Hiremath General Manager – Inspection Services, Head of PED and Special Inspection Services, TUV India Pvt. Ltd. Email: nisargajh@yahoo.co.in 1.0

INTRODUCTION

W

ith the efforts of International Standardization Organisation (ISO) with 162 members, WTO with 164 members, advancement in engineering, science and technology, industrial community is coming closer to each other, which makes the standardization in every eld a necessity to ensure cooperation between the countries easy and hurdle free.

One of such effort in the eld of NDT is ISO 9712, International standard for Qualication and Certication of NDT Personnel, which is widely accepted by world industrial community and legal authorities responsible for health, safety and environmental requirements.

Certication to ISO 9712 is becoming more prominent as the most of the Construction Standards used internationally are making NDT Personnel qualication and certication mandatory as per ISO 9712, like EN standards, hence qualication and certication to ISO 9712 is gaining momentum.

2.0 WHAT IS NDT Non Destructive Testing is the application of science and engineering to detect, locate and size both surface and subsurface discontinuities without harming the component thus contributing to the protection of life, public health and the environment through assurance of the quality and integrity of critical equipment and facilities.

3.0 WHY QUALIFICATION AND CERTIFICATION IS REQUIRED As effectiveness of any application of non-destructive testing (NDT) depends upon the competency of the persons who perform test and those who are responsible for the test, hence it is very essential that personnel responsible shall be qualied and certied so that they can apply NDT effectively.

Competence is dened as the ability to apply knowledge and skills to achieve intended results.

In NDT world, commonly two systems for NDT personnel qualication and certication are used which, cover all essential parts of training, examination and certication.

1. Manufacturer Based Qualication System: Is exible and manufacturer can dene requirement on the basis of his specic application, if other manufacturer wants to use the personnel for his application he needs to check suitability of NDT personnel to his specic application needs and if required has to conduct additional training / examination before certication, and such certications are always manufacturer specic, one of the widely used guideline is SNT-TC-1A from ASNT. NDT personnel with minimum dened skill level and knowledge certied by manufacturer are available for use by the particular manufacturer.

2. Central Certication System or Third Party Certication: Qualication and certications are performed to established

standard prepared in consensus of the members considering all generic applicable requirements of product, industry and training, examination & certication are performed under guideline, monitoring and control of certifying body, which is independent of manufacturer / user.

NDT personnel with minimum dened skill level and knowledge certied by independent body are available readily for the industry.

4.0 UNDERSTANDING OF ISO 9712 INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR QUALIFICATION AND CERTIFICATION OF NDT PERSONNEL ISO 9712 is a standard published by “International Organisation for Standardization (ISO)”. ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with membership of 162 National Standards Bodies.

These 162 National Standards Bodies are foremost organisations responsible for development and implementation of National Standards of the country. Through these members, ISO brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus based, market relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solution to global challenges.

ISO 9712 dene minimum requirements for personnel with respect to the appropriate theoretical and practical knowledge of the non-destructive tests they perform, specify, supervise, monitor or evaluate, document and monitor for continued effectiveness.

5.0 HISTORY OF ISO 9712 ISO 9712 was rst published in May of 1992 as ISO 9712:1992, and quickly adopted by several countries by revising their national standards in line with ISO 9712 requirements. These regional modications come up with some improvement points over ISO 9712, prompting Technical Committee ISO / TC 135 to review the current edition and modify / adopt changes as required by industry and come up with second edition of standard in May 1999 as ISO 9712:1999, major technical change in second edition is regarding industrial experience, which can be gained either before or after examination to cope with industry demand for qualied and certied NDT personnel.

ISO / TC 135 and Subcommittee SC 7 are working continuously to adopt technical developments, specic industr y requirements and come up with third edition in 2005 and current edition is ISO 9712: 2012.

Major technical changes in current edition are again regarding industrial experience and introduction of digital certicates. Duration of industrial experience before examination is left to the discretion of Certication Body. From rst edition to current edition new NDT methods and limited certications are added to cope with technological changes in methods and techniques. Current edition of ISO 9712 is adopted as harmonised standard by European Union. ISO 9712 certications becoming more prominent day by day as, they have following advantages: December 2018

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5.1 Acceptance By International Community ISO 9712 is widely used and adopted as standard for NDT Qualication and Certication or as an alternative to national standards worldwide. Some of the countries, continents, unions who are using ISO 9712 as qualication and certication standard. a. European Union: Is a Political and economic union of 28 member countries and world’s largest single market. Entry of any product into EU must meet the EU requirements to protect human and animal health, the environment and consumers’ rights. EU has published various directives, which details product specic Essential Safety Requirements (ESR’s) for almost all product which may affect the health, safety and environment. Some examples are, Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) 2014/68/EC, Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, Construction Product regulation EU 305/2011 etc.

To ensure technical compliance to these directives EU has come up with harmonised standards and for NDE personnel qualication and certication ISO 9712 is harmonised standard. Except few applications where alternate NDE qualication are permitted, ISO 9712 is mandator y requirements and thus big NDE market is available for ISO 9712 qualied personnel.

EU is one of the biggest industrial partner to the world with a lot of technical innovation and is the largest importer for more than 100 countries. b. US / Canada: NDE Qualication and Certication requirements for these countries are controlled by their national standards like ANSI / ASNT CP-189 and ASNT SNT-TC-1A, being member state of ISO, US / Canada also accept ISO 9712 as one of the standard for qualication and certication for NDE personnel. One of the popular NDE Code ASME Section V for boilers and pressure vessels, accepted ISO 9712 as one of the alternative standard for personnel qualication and certication in Article 1, clause T-120 (f), if addressed through employer’s written practice. c. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also uses ISO 9712 as qualication and certication standards for NDE personnel. d. Australia: Australian standard AS 3998: NDT: qualication and certication Personnel, is identical with ISO 9712. e. India: Indian standards IS 13805: Qualication and Certication of NDT personnel is also developed referring ISO 9712. f. Most of the other countries either use European Standards or American Standard/ASME, which in turn accepted ISO 9712.

6.0 POINTS TO MAKE IT MORE INDUSTRIAL FRIENDLY AND RELIABLE CONSENSUS: Is developed with consensus of 162 member countries, which responsible for promotion of this standard in their nation.

CONTROL AND MONITORING: Ensure effectiveness of Qualication and certication by dening responsibility & controlling all elements requirements for candidate, responsibilities of employer, requirements for Training Centre, Examination Centre, authorised qualifying body through various ISO standards, specically :December 2018

1.

Certication Body shall full the requirements of ISO 17024: This international Standard species general requirements which ensure that certication bodies operating certication schemes for persons operate in a consistent, comparable and reliable manner. These requirements may be supplemented with additional requirements as required by market need or legal requirements. Certication bodies are accredited by accreditation bodies who are further controlled

by International Accreditation Forum (IAF) with these controls application of ISO 17024 ensure that accredited certicates can be relied upon and accreditation assures users of the competence and impartiality of the body accredited.

2.

G u i d e l i n e s f o r p e r s o n n e l Tr a i n i n g C e n t r e organisations ISO / TR 25108 and Guideline for NDT Training Syllabus ISO / TR 25107: Which gives the minimum requirements for effective structured training for NDT personnel to ensure eligibility for qualication examination and then certication by Certifying Body.

3.

Responsibilities of all concerned parties i.e.

Certication Body, Authorised Qualication Body, Examination Centre, Employer, Candidate and Certication Holder are clearly dened. Employer is responsible for authorisation of certied personnel to operate and provide required job specic training before issue of authorisation to operate.

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS: As different section of industry or technology use specialized NDT practices, they require specic product related knowledge, skill, understanding of equipment and training, and to ensure certied candidate shall have these knowledge, Qualication and Certication are made specic to cover these requirements, which addresses NDT requirements specic to industry and application. a. Product Sectors, which cover, via. Casting, Forging, wrought Product, Welds, tubes & Pipes Composite Materials. b. Industry Sector which cover Manufacturing, Aerospace, Railway, Pre- & In- Service etc. which are always combination of multiple product sectors and additional application requirements.

FLEXIBLE / PROGRESSIVE APPROACH a. Addition of new NDT methods or techniques other than the methods/ techniques already covered by the standard is possible. If comprehensive scheme of certification exists and such methods / Techniques are covered by international, regional or national standards or the new NDT methods or technique has been demonstrated for its effectiveness to the satisfaction of the certification body, which ensures that new technical developments shall be addressed without waiting for new edition of ISO 9712 and help the industrial progress. b. Industry / Certification Body can develop additional sectors to satisfy national needs, such development shall be within the frame lines of this standard and acceptable to interested parties.

7.0

REFERENCES

1. ISO 9712: 2012 Non Destructive Testing- Qualication and certication of NDT personnel 2.ISO 17024: Conformity Assessment- general requirements for bodies operating certication of persons 3. ISO/R 25108: 2006 Non-destructive Testing-Guidelines for NDT personnel training Organizations 4. ISO/TR 25107:2006 Non-destructive Testing-Guidelines for NDT Training Syllabuses 5. TCS-34 by IAEA 6. ICNDT Guide to Qualication and Certication of Personnel for NDT 1st July' 2012.

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E-Learning: Future of NDE Education and Training Bikash Ghose High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Armament Post, Pune - 411007, India E-mail: ghose.bikash@hemrl.drdo.in 1.0

E

INTRODUCTION

ducation and training are complementary. Education is very much necessary for the initial development of human potential and training is required to develop new skills and competence of the human resource to keep pace with time [1]. This concept is universally accepted in every area and the eld of Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) is not an exception.

Accordingly, as per available standards for training and certication in NDE, training in the eld of NDE and subsequent demonstration of qualication is a mandatory requirement to acquire levels of certication in different NDE methods. All the standards for qualication for NDE personnel mention the number of hours of training and the course outline. It also mentions the minimum numbers of questions, passing percentage, exam methodologies etc required to be followed for awarding certication. More than the requirement of basic educational qualication, demonstration of qualication and experience are given a major emphasis on nearly all standards.

Hence acquisition of knowledge and skills through imparting training plays a very crucial role in the eld of NDE. Training in NDE, is an inseparable part of the development of human resources for the procedure development, implementing standards, decision making regarding products etc. The developed human resources are ultimately responsible for creating a safer world for all of us.

Conventionally, the training in NDE for certication used to be imparted through text, lecture-based learning process and also aided with practical demonstration. In recent times, e-learning, which is based on computer-based training or learning has taken a big leap for NDE education and training due to various advantages associated with it and also because of the exponential growth of information technology in the last two decades.

Computers or web technology was much used for the e-examination than e-training because of ease of design of modules, adaptability, the requirement of limited numbers of centres and affordability of services. It can be envisaged from the fact that e-examinations within a controlled environment are the new standards for many organizations or institutions like GRE, IIM, IIT etc. whereas e-learning or training has not gone to that stage. Recently, the online examination is also made its place for NDE examination. For example, certication in NDE based on online examination or e-assessment system is now accepted by the standards e.g., ISO 9712:2012. Online examination of ASNT Level-III was started from January 2017 and online examination from API was started from March 2014.

For the e-examination, the examination bodies setup the facility or hire the services and hence the success is dened mostly by the agency. But the success of e-learning reachable to large mass mostly depends on the affordability of data and computation device at the user end. Hence e-examination is agency-driven whereas the e-learning is mostly user-driven. In recent times, the utilization of e-learning also picked up due to the reduction of the cost of data. The cost of computers or computation has also decreased to the extent affordable to a large mass.

The era of the smartphone or mobile computing has made the technology affordable and reached the large mass in the community. Hence the growth of data bandwidth, cost reduction of the computational device has reached to a level where computer based training or e-learning in general and NDE, in particular, can be a reality for the masses which can be delivered to any individual at any place.

2.0 TRAINING METHODS AND NEED FOR ELEARNING With time and advances in technology, it is well established that education in general, cannot be treated based on templates and xed or traditional approach. This is mainly because different individuals learn at a different pace and also different ways of learning like reading, audio, visuals, hands-on, interactive is better suitable for different individuals.

VAK model of learning indicates about three major styles of learning namely Visual, Auditory [2] and Kinesthetic (movement) which are based on three main sensory receivers.

Although the model indicates these as styles of learning, but these are in fact preferences of learning by the learner. As per the modality theory, although one or two styles are dominant but generally learners use all three modalities to receive information to learn new theory or concepts. The style or preferences also differ based on the kind of information being received by the learner. So the learner will have a particular style of learning for a particular task whereas a different combination for another task [3].

The basic purpose of indicating all of the above is that the presentation or passing of information to the learner should be done through various means like visuals, auditory and kinesthetically. Hence a blended learning approach will be most suitable and the same is now being adapted by utilizing the text-based presentation modules along with gures, audio, videos and animations etc. However, under this model, the problem of the pace of learning by individuals becomes the bottleneck. All the learners cannot learn in the same pace and hence there remains disparity among student regarding the absorption of the delivered information. In a large group, very often students do not ask question due to fear of failure and the trainer is really clueless regarding the effectiveness of the delivered information. There should have learning process by which student can learn at their pace and can overcome the fear of failure. In that case, they can learn that it is okay to be wrong when it is part of the learning process. Learning is much enjoyable and effective when learners are challenged and driven by curiosity to learn, capable to investigate and correlate the pieces of information, allowed to make mistake in isolation and take corrective action.

The well-known training methods are Lecture, Discussion, Case Studies, Role Playing, Brainstorming, Demonstration, Worksheet, Simulators etc. Each method has its own advantages, disadvantages and is useful for particular tasks. The trainer has a specic role to play in each training method [4] and each method is effective in a particular manner.

As mentioned above, training in NDE indeed requires a blended learning process mainly because of various complexities involved in the process of training and practical demonstration December 2018

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pertaining to various NDE methods. The pace of learning is a major issue, particularly for conventional text-based NDE training courses, because participants of varying educational levels, education background, experience as mentioned in the standards gets trained in the same group.

Hence, it is necessary to devise methodologies to deliver knowledge through blending of different ways of delivery as mentioned above. Not only there is a need to deliver knowledge of NDE in a blended manner, but also the method must be suitable for exibility for switching to different learning method and also the choice of the pace of learning as per the requirement of the learner. For all of this, e-learning is one of the best ways of delivering knowledge through various training methods to the individuals for effective and faster grasping.

Nearly all of the above training methods can be implemented in the e-learning process for training in NDE so that the learner is in complete control to choose the preferred method to suit his style of learning. E-learning in current form is nothing but the WebBased Training / Learning, has a lot of exibility to deliver the information in the form best suited to all.

3.0 E-LEARNING E-learning is simply a learning process with the aid of electronic devices like computers, tablet, mobile etc. E-learning overcomes the limitation of conventional text and lecture-based training and also adds various benets to the learning process.

Few of the major advantages of the e-learning are the pace of learning, the exibility of navigation of information available in the different form, explore and experiment. As per Bossi et al [5], studies have shown a 50% improvement in information retention with a 38-70% increase in the speed of lesson completion using CBE (Computer Based Education) materials.

Due to the availability of result immediately at hand, learners tend to try different combinations without the fear of failure.

Various combinations of values can be tried to understand the concept during the utilization of animations.

The potential of computers in the training and learning methods were well envisaged long back. The terminologies like Computer Based Training (CBT) or Computer Based Learning (CBL) or Computer Based Education (CBE) were predominantly used earlier to describe the training methodologies which utilized computers in the complete curriculum of training. The CBT existed since the computer made its place in the public domain. Initial days the computer-based learning was based on the multimedia les like video, audio etc made available in the CD, DVDs etc. Hence the face to face classroom teaching has been aided with the learning by watching the illustrations such as photographs, videos etc at leisure and also as per the pace of learning of the candidate.

However, the learning was non-interactive and monotonous.

With the websites became more common, the computer-based training is turned out to be web-based training (WBT). During the initial days of web technologies, the websites were more static in nature and were used mostly for one way communication i.e., delivering content to the user without any need for input from the user. With the internet revolution and technological upgrades in the server-side programming, the websites became more interactive and resourced with more and more contents. The developments in the web-based technology lead to incorporation of contents based on both visuals and auditory information such as text, graphics, videos, animations, voice etc.Standardization or normalization is another major advantage of e-learning. The contents remain the same for the participants, unlike the classroom teaching where different trainers with varying specic skills pass on the information.

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Even the presentation materials may vary which are used during classroom training by different trainers. Continuous improvement is possible in the e-learning modules and the updated contents at once will be available for all learners.

4.0 E-LEARNING FOR NDE EDUCATION AND TRAINING Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE), an important applied eld of Engineering is not in the mainstream curriculum of academics in the undergraduate or postgraduate courses in India. In that perspective, the need for NDE Education is an important requirement in India. Hence, training and skill development in the area of NDE plays an important role in preparing individuals willing to build a career in the eld of NDE. The requirement of NDE education for the undergraduate and college students was felt before more than three decades and Iowa State University took a lead to develop NDE education modules [3] which were embedded with various animations for explaining various concepts of NDE. The promising nature of elearning was sensed by the NDE community and the recommended practice SNT-TC-1A:2016 now recognized conducting of training programs based on virtual instructor-led training, computer-based training or web-based training. ASNT has added study materials for CBT on various NDE methods and is made available in CD, DVD and USB Flash Drives which are made up using numbers of photographs, graphics, videos and modules are made interactive. The practice quizzes with large numbers of questions are also included in these programs for practice.

Going ahead with the current need, Blended Learning Packages [6] [7] [8] for NDE training are being offered which are the mixes of e-learning and in-class practical training. The online NDE training modules meet the minimum requirement as per SNT, AWS, NAS-410, CP-105, and ISO 9712. The elearning process offers the presentation materials with selfexplanatory notes, explanation of practical, critical or complex concepts through video or animations. Test sections are also embedded in the e-learning module which helps the participants for self-evaluation. The test sections are in general structured as per the sections or chapters so as to go to the next level after completely satised with the learning of the current section. In-class practical training is followed by the e-learning process. Lastly, the certication process is followed as per standard such as ISO 9712.

The comprehensive e-learning modules for NDE training are required for delivery of information to the learner in a blended manner and the same should also meet the requirement of standards for personal qualication for NDE. The platform of the e-learning module itself will make the learning self-paced for the learners Following are the ways by which the different blended methods of training approach can be incorporated into the online training module:Ÿ Text – The study material in the text form should be made available to the associated section. Link to the relevant associated topic should also be made available for crosslinking the concept and understanding. Ÿ Lecture – Availability of recorded classroom teaching video (like NPTEL course material [9]) which should be linked to the concept being displayed or explained. Ÿ Multimedia les – The multimedia les like video, audio and photographs describing the different concept of NDE should be linked to section concerned. Ÿ Animations – Elucidation of complex concepts should be carried out by animations with audio.

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Discussion – Interactive session should be made available on demand with the instructor. Ÿ Case Studies – The case studies related to relevant topics with an explanation of the problem-solving approach and with the required animations. Ÿ Group Discussion – Discussion among participants using the same online module should be made possible. Ÿ Quiz – Quizzes should be available related to different sections for self-assessment and display of result immediately. The standing of the learner in comparison to others taken the same tests should also be displayed immediately. Ÿ Brainstorming – Problem-solving using real-life issues of NDE by a group through sharing of information. Ÿ Worksheet – Participants should be able to share solved worksheet by the participants and its online evaluation by a trainer.

In short, all kind of form of learning can be very well implemented in the e-learning process with the virtual classroom, two-way communication, self-paced learning and without the geographical barrier.

The currently available blended NDE e-learning modules do not offer the hand-on to be implemented through online. This is mainly because the standard mandates it to be carried out with real-life instruments. Hence the practical or hands-on are being performed using real instruments after completing the e-learning modules. However, training on virtual instruments will be a reality in the near future which will minimize the use of real instrument during initial hours of training. This concept of working with virtual instrument comes as handy because the same can be used simultaneously during studying the theoretical aspect of the concept.

The working with virtual instruments can be borrowed from the concept adopted in the project called Virtual Laboratory (vlabs.iitb.ac.in) [10]. The vlab, a project initiative of MHRD lead by IITB and also supported by few IITs and Universities helps students perform practical of the regular academic curriculum. The laboratory experiments are programmed and virtual experiments are designed and the students perform the experiments with the virtual instruments designed to be available on the web portal. The NDT practical training and experiments can denitely be developed and will surely be performed in a similar manner in near future for initial hours of training in NDE methods for hand in hand understanding of concepts theoretically as well as practically. Ÿ

training module and time duration spent thereof. The same can simply be carried out by an online video recording of activities of the learner. Time spent in the different module for blended learning should also be monitored by using innovative technologies. As the learning through e-learning module is driven by the pace of learner and obviously will be different for the different learner, the evaluation of actual time spent for the total module to be documented and should be made sure that the standards are meticulously being followed. Although the close controlled e-learning like learning at designated centres will solve these issues but it is impractical considering the fact that it will deviate from its actual purpose.

The minimum level of hardware is required at the client end (learner) for smooth processing of data and also a minimum data bandwidth will also be essential for e-learning.

Poor or inconsistent data ow rate likely to affect the learning process.

6.0 CONCLUSION To be specic to the e-learning in NDE, it is useful for individual study, passing on information and facts, show the correct procedure by means of text, audio, video, animations etc. The main advantages of the e-learning are the participants take part in their own locations and study with their own pace of learning. The major disadvantages of e-learning are that it is expensive and time-consuming to design and prepare.

Although the cost and time for a set-up of e-learning platform are high, but it is advantageous in terms of the greater visibility of the training modules without any geographic boundaries, availability of the virtual trainer for 24x7, the requirement of less physical trainers. The e-learning is known to have limitations due to the requirement of high end computational and communication device with high-speed data access.

However, these limitations are getting diminished with time.

Worldwide, training in the eld of NDE is slowly shifting towards automated e-learning modalities. The e-learning modules will attract participants from anywhere in the world thereby expanding the whole world as the possible market without the need of the physical presence of the trainer. Limited numbers of exceptional trainers will not be the limitation anymore as he will be available to all through the single platform of e-learning. Few years down the line, e-learning method for NDE training will be the new normal and probably the conventional classroom training will be the exception.

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5.0 POSSIBLE LIMITATIONS AND LIKELY IS SUES WITH E-LEARNING OF NDE FOR TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION As per standards, it is the responsibility of the trainer to train the learners and make sure the required training and knowledge have really been delivered for the requisite number of hours.

Hence, the e-learning modules should have the provision to record the number of hours spent in each module or for the complete training module. SNT-TC-1A:2016 mandates that in the case of CBT or WBT method of training is utilized, tracking of the number of hours and actual contents delivered is necessary.

Sufcient examinations for the students have also to be ensured during the training using CBT or WBT method.

However, documentation and authenticity of the same is a challenge considering the chances that actual login to the module does not guarantee that the learner is really going through the modules. Hence documentable methodology must be devised and adapted to monitor the actual usage of the

REFERENCES

[1]. L Cote et al, “Trends in NDT Certication and Training in Canada”, 5th Pan American Conference for NDT, 2-6 October 2011, Cancun, Mexico [2]. web.mit.edu last assessed on 29th Oct 2018 [3]. Brian Larson, “Development of computer based educational materials through the North Central Collaboration for Education in NDE”, Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation. Vol. 18 Edited by Thompson and Chimenti, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999 [4]. Part-III, Chapter-52, Designing & implementing training programs, Management sciences for all [5]. Bossi, Richard, Newmark, Stephen and Jone, Sharman, “Computer Based Training and NDE”, American Society for Nondestructive Testing Fall Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Oct 1997 http://www.twivirtualacademy.com [6]. Last assessed on 21st Oct 2018 http://www.worldspec.org [7]. last assessed on 27th October 2018 www.ndttrainingonline.com [8]. last assessed on 22nd October 2018 http://www.nptel.ac.in [9]. last assessed on 23rd Aug 2018 [10].vlabs.iitb.ac.in last assesses on 24th Aug 2018 December 2018

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International Certification in NDT (ICN) : ISNT’s New and Upcoming Certification Scheme Dr. Shyamsunder Mandayam Chairman, National Certication Board - Indian Society for NDT Email : MT.Shyamsunder@ge.com

ABSTRACT Training and Certication (T&C) is one of the very important activities of a NDT professional society. Almost all the major NDT societies of the world have adopted and implemented one or more certication schemes based on their need, demand, popularity and acceptance by industry. The National Certication Board (NCB) of the Indian Society for NDT (ISNT) has been primarily promoting and conducting certication exams in accordance with IS 13805-2004 released by the Bureau of Indian Standards. NCB is the sole certication body for this specic scheme. IS13805 is based on and adopted from ISO 9712. In the recent years, with the changing world scenario, the need was felt to develop a new certication scheme with due accreditation from an appropriate international body which enables a wider international acceptance of NCB-ISNT’s certication schemes. With this objective, NCBISNT is getting ready to launch the “International Certication in NDT (ICN)” – a new scheme duly accredited by NABET / QCI in accordance with ISO 17024. This article describes the salient features of ICN and how it can change the certication scenario for Indian and global NDT professionals.

1.0

INTRODUCTION

Training and Certication (T&C) is one of the very important activities of a typical NDT professional society and contributes signicantly to the growth of skilled manpower and competent professionals necessary for nation building. With increasing emphasis on safety, reliability and productivity across all industries, it is only natural that NDT is growing in its importance be it for quality control and assurance of raw material, manufactured components, assembly, in-service or residual life assessment kind of applications. Personnel certication, for technicians and engineers practicing NDT, has a very important role in the NDT quality chain to maximize the reliability of inspections. The amount of additional experience, training and examinations that an employer must provide, over and above that gained to attain central certication, depends on the specicity of the NDT application, since central certication is, by implication, relatively generic. Nevertheless, central certication adds signicant value since it provides assurance of independence, impartiality and conformity with relevant international standards, such as ISO 9712. NDT personnel having quality knowledge and practical training are of great importance for constructive and effective work performance in the eld of inspection and quality assurance.

Safety and standard requirements are forcing society and organizations to an increasing extent and emphasis on nondestructive testing. For several decades various NDT organizations, institutes and interested organizations and public are involved in the acquisition of NDT qualications, certication of NDT personnel and formalization processes.

Competences and skills of NDT personnel are an important issue for quality performed non-destructive testing. The inuence of different areas, global, national and organizational interests are reected also in the requirements and implementation of trainings. Different certication schemes and various mechanisms assuring quality of training, certication and continuity of NDT personnel qualication have been developed.

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2.0 HISTORY OF NDT CERTIFICATION IN INDIA NDT certication in India has been happening for over four decades now. It has become an accepted reality that training, and certication form an important aspect of non-destructive evaluation. For training and certication of NDT personnel to be successful, it is imperative to have a system or methodology to objectively evaluate and certify the competence levels of NDT personnel. In India, those who were working in the eld of NDT even in the 50's and the 60's realized the importance of training of NDT personnel. In the 60´s the Department of Atomic Energy and railways organized familiarization talks and lectures on NDT arranged in different organizations and at various places.

With the formation of a Professional Body on NDT in 1972, training programs became a part of the agenda of this Society.

The society through its active branches in places like Mumbai and Kolkata organized structured courses on specic NDT methods with practical demonstrations.

With the pace of industrialization and increased application of NDT, particularly in nuclear, defence, aerospace, petrochemical and heavy industries, Non-Destructive Testing Society of India in the 80's constituted a panel of professionals for formulating a certication scheme. Comments on the draft scheme were invited from user departments around the country and the rened certication scheme was adopted in 1982. This certication scheme followed the syllabus of SNTTC-1A of ASNT. With this as foundation, ISNT (Indian Society for Non-destructive Testing) started conducting Level-I and Level-II certication examinations in the conventional NDT methods at different ISNT chapters. In 1986, ISNT arranged the ASNT (American Society for Nondestructive Testing) Level – III examinations in India in collaboration with ASNT. The Indian Society for Non-Destructive Testing is now the prime body for NDT professionals in India. Training and certication in NDT is conducted by the National Certication Board (NCB) of ISNT. This Board is the only authorized body recognized by the Indian Standards Organization - Bureau of Indian Standards, for certication of NDT personnel. It has members carefully drawn from public, private sector,

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organizations, third party inspection agencies, ministry, regulatory bodies, professional bodies, research and educational organizations. Since its inception in 1997, NCB has made signicant progress towards harmonization of training programs within the country. The NCB Quality manual has been prepared. Steps have also been taken for making Indian certication program comparable to internationally accepted programs to facilitate easy international harmonization.

“Training” is dened as an organized program developed to impart the knowledge and skills necessary for qualication.” It should be clear that training alone does not satisfy the requirements for certication. The need for competent personnel to perform NDT tasks is paramount in all industries.

To determine competency, systems have been devised to ensure that NDT personnel have the proper training, have passed written and practical examinations, and have enough experience to properly perform NDT tasks using the applicable test method or technique. Personnel that have met all three of these requirements are said to be “qualied,” and once qualied they can be certied, which is dened in several different ways under the various NDT systems.

3.0 NDT CERTIFICATION SYSTEMS NDT certication systems worldwide in general are of two main types; “employer-based” and “central” certication systems.

Employer-based certication systems are systems in which the employers are responsible for the administration of the training and the qualication examinations of their own employees, as well as the documentation of the required training, examinations and experience in accordance with an employer-based standard or recommended practice. Most employer-based systems do allow the employer to accept training and examination services provided by outside agencies provided it is properly documented and the employer has determined that the content of those services meet their own company requirements as described in the employer's Written Practice. Upon proof of qualication, the employer may issue a certicate, which can be a formal certicate or in letter format and can authorize their personnel to perform NDT tasks.

In all employer-based systems, the employer is responsible for authorizing their personnel to perform such work. Because employer-based certication is usually tailored to an employer's specic needs, the resulting certications expire when an employee leaves the company that issued the certication.

Central certication systems are systems in which the qualication examinations are administered by an independent third-party certication body based on a central certication standard. To be eligible to sit for these examinations, prospective candidates must provide acceptable documentation of their training and experience to the certication body. Upon successful completion of the thirdparty examinations, the certication body will issue a certicate attesting to the fact that the named certicate holder has met the requirements and passed the examinations described in the third-party certication system. The employer can then choose to accept the third-party certicate(s) as proof of qualication.

As with employer-based systems, the employer has the ultimate responsibility to certify (authorize) the certicate holder to perform NDT tasks. The Certication Body shall full the requirement of ISO / IEC17024 (Personnel Certication) and an Impartiality Committee in terms of ISO / IEC 17021 (Management Systems Certication).

The certication body shall initiate, promote, maintain and administer the Certication scheme according to ISO / IEC 17024 and ISO 9712 and shall publish specications for training courses that includes the Syllabus which embody the content of ISO / TR 25107 or equivalent. It may delegate under its direct responsibility if it so desires, the detail administration of Qualication to authorized Qualifying bodies(AQB) to which it shall issue specications / procedures for examination, examination materials, questions papers, specimens, examination grading etc. The Examinations can be conducted directly by the Certication Body at the Approved Examination Centres and shall be responsible for the issue of all the certicates.

4.0 A C C R E D I TAT I O N P R O C E S S F O R CERTIFYING BODIES Accreditation is a “third-party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specic conformity assessment tasks,” as dened by ISO/IEC 17011 Conformity AssessmentGeneral Requirements for Accreditation Bodies Accrediting Conformity Assessment Bodies.

Certication bodies (organizations certifying the competence of persons) wishing to seek accreditation in accordance with ISO/IEC 17024: 2012 Conformity assessment–General requirements for bodies operating Certication of persons must provide evidence that they are meeting the provisions of the standard. The standard provides information and sample policies and procedures to help the certication body develop evidence to show that it is meeting the standard. Certication of persons through compliance of ISO 17024 standard provides; a Global benchmark for personnel certication schemes to ensure that certied person have the necessary competencies to perform their work; helps in enhancing the acceptance and employability of certied persons both in the local and global markets In India, the accreditation is provided by NABET which is a wing of the Quality Council of India (QCI). NABET is a member of International Accreditation Forum (IAF), world association of Conformity Assessment Accreditation Bodies.

NABET has also obtained the membership of Pacic Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) for Accreditation of Conformity Assessment Bodies. In many areas where, purchaser, user and public condence in the competence of individuals is extremely important, certication of persons conrms the competence of named individuals to perform specied services or duties. This is achieved through the issuing of a certicate of competence. Certication bodies for persons or Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) are those which are involved in assessing the individuals' necessary competencies and ensuring that these are appropriate to the work being performed. Accreditation scheme for the CAB has been developed as per the requirements of ISO/IEC 17024:2012 standard to establish an internationally accepted benchmark for organizations assessing and evaluating the skills of personnel. The main objective is to raise condence, improve productivity and give direction through enhanced skill training to the personnel. A conformity assessment body running scheme for certication of persons must be able to demonstrate its competence to assess and certify its clients. ISO/IEC 17024:2012 has several requirements for organizational structure, quality management system elements, December 2018

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competence of personnel, condentiality, etc. An assessment body must also describe the certication process, how candidates are evaluated and must dene periods of recertication. In addition, the CAB must be able to demonstrate how conict of interest is managed and must have mechanisms in place to objectively evaluate the outcome of the certication process.

5.0 O U R S C H E M E – I N T E R N AT I O N A L CERTIFICATION IN NDT (ICN) NCB-ISNT’s new and upcoming certication scheme has been aptly named “International Certication in NDT” to convey its intended impact and reach. This scheme is prepared by National Certication Board of ISNT, meeting the requirements of ISO 9712:2012. The effectiveness of any application of NonDestructive Testing (NDT) depends upon the capabilities of the persons who perform and are responsible for the test. This scheme has been developed to provide a means for evaluating and documenting the competence of the personnel whose duties require adequate theoretical and practical knowledge and skill of the NDT tests they perform witness, monitor or evaluate. Most of the fabrication and inspection codes insist on only qualied and certied personnel to be employed to carry out mandatory NDT inspection jobs at various levels. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer and /or the employer to ensure the competency of the NDT personnel employed by him/her by proper training, qualication & certication.

This scheme has been developed considering the current international practices and industrial scenario and accordingly aligned with International Standard (ISO 9712:2012).

The scheme describes the different levels of certications, eligibility in terms of qualications, experience, etc. Responsibilities of NCB, Employer, examination Centres, Candidate and certicate holder, Content and grading of the qualication examination, certicate Administration, Validity, Renewal and recertication.

In the rst phase of the launch, only a few methods and sectors will be part of the scheme. The long-term plan is to continue adding a few methods and sectors every six months so that by2020 we have covered all methods and sectors under the scheme.

A clause on Transition Period is included. The aim of this clause is to permit the initiation of the system when NCB applies the certication scheme to an NDT method, which is not yet covered within this standard or when a new sector is created. The certication body may temporarily appoint, for a period not exceeding ve years from the date of implementation of the new method or sector, duly qualied personnel as examiners for conducting, supervising and grading the qualication examinations. The ve-year implementation period is not to be used by NCB to certify candidates who do not meet all the qualication and certication requirements of this standard.

5.1 Marketing, Publicity and Implementation Plans NCB-ISNT has formlly submitted its application to NABET seeking accreditation to conduct certication in accordance with the International Certication in NDT (ICN). Once the formal accreditation is accorded, we have an aggressive plan to implement it without any delay. If the scheme is to obtain wider acceptance, then its operation and benets must be explained to a wide range of industries. In order to make it popular both in India and elsewhere, we intend to publicize the scheme and its December 2018

advantages and spread awareness across the country through workshops targeting key industries, government bodies and all agencies who would benet from the new scheme. All modes including the ISNT journal, ISNT website, seminars/conferences held by various ISNT chapters would be fully utilized as a means of marketing the scheme and making it popular.

While NCB is focusing on implementing the certication scheme, the parent body ISNT has initiated several activities to ensure that the training aspect of the requirements which are usually imparted by the several ISNT Chapters around the country also need to be of world standard. Actions are in progress on standardization of training material, course notes, training samples and other elements necessary for the best-in-class training.

6.0 CONCLUSION Robust NDT certication schemes are very essential so that the certied personnel employed by the industry are properly qualied, assessed for competency and certied. There are several different schemes globally and individual countries/societies have adopted and implemented one or more of these schemes depending on their respective demands and needs. NCB-ISNT has been certifying NDT personnel in India to Level I, II and III in accordance with IS 13805 for the last several decades. Now, we are embarking on the ambitious plan to launch a new scheme “International Certication in NDT (ICN)” which is fully compliant with ISO9712 and with due accreditation as per ISO 17024 by NABET/QCI. We expect widespread popularity for this new scheme not only in India but globally through Mutual Recognition Agreements.

Please be on the lookout for the formal announcement and launching of the ICN scheme in the next few months and ensure you take advantage of this scheme for your professional growth.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Creation and implementation of a internationally accredited certication system requires a lot of hard work, perseverance, team work and institutional support. Reaching the current stage of formulating both the Quality Manual and the certication scheme and submitting the same to NABET has been a long journey for NCB-ISNT with support from several individuals and we wholeheartedly acknowledge their contributions. Mr. RB Bhardwaj, Mr. DD Joshi, Mr. Uday Kale, Mr.Chintamani Khade, Dr.P Nanekar, Mr.T Loganathan, Mr.V Pari, Mr.DJ Varde, Mr.RJ Pardikar, Mr.Rajul Parikh, Dr.B Venkatraman and several others.

REFERENCES 1. ISO 9712:2012 'Non-destructive testing, qualication and certication of NDT personnel' issued by the International Organization for Standardization 2. IAEA-TECDOC-628 (2013), Training guidelines in non-destructive testing techniques, published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria 3. ISO 17024:2012 - General requirements for Bodies operating Certication of Persons 4. ISO TR 25107: 2006 -Non-Destructive Testing - Guidelines for NDT Training Syllabuses 5. IS 13805:2004-General Standard for Qualication and Certication of Non-Destructive Testing Personnel 6. Quality Manual NCB-ISNT/QMSD/01 Revision 0 7. http://www.asnt.org 8. http://www.qci.org/nabet

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NDE TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION - CHALLENGES AHEAD! Diwakar Joshi Director, Insight Quality Serivices - 507/508, 5th Floor, Building No. 1, Siddharth Towers, Kothrud, Pune-411029 Email : diwakarj@gmail.com 1.0

INTRODUCTION

NDE (or NDT) Training and Certication plays a pivotal role in meaningful NDE in all situations. The curriculum in science and engineering study does not cover NDE in details, necessitating professional training to NDE technicians at all levels. This training requirement may change on the basis of the basic education of the candidate. Hence at different education levels, different hours of training programs are required to full the qualication requirements.

The purpose of training is to upgrade the candidate’s knowledge to the required level. However, only knowledge is not sufcient for qualication. Skill is another requirement for qualication. This skill development is achieved during the practical training and when the candidate is having hands-on experience. Experience is nothing but working with qualied supervision. In addition to the training and experience, qualication also demands a vision test of the candidate. Thus, qualication addresses education, experience, training and vision capability. Once the candidate has these four requirements in place, he reaches the qualication stage.

However, certication - which is the testimony of qualication needs to be issued after examination.

The examinations can be General, Specic and Practical for Level I and Level II, and Basic, Method and Specic for Level III. Generally, a Level I Candidate carries out NDE, a Level II supervises, interprets and evaluates and a Level III develops the procedures, approves the procedures and trains Level I and Level II persons. The certication for any NDE operator at any level is the responsibility of the employer who employs him.

The above process and sequence seem very simple; however, it is not so in actual practice. For controlling NDE qualication and certication, different standards are developed and implemented in the last ve decades, and one needs to understand the chronology of these developments.

2.0

DIFFERENT CERTIFICATION SCHEMES:

A brief comparison of different schemes is given in Table 1.

SNT-TC-1A, rst published in 1968 and revised subsequently, is a Recommended Practice to enable the employer to develop a Written Practice for training and certication of NDE personnel.

It is an employer based scheme and the employer has to certify the personnel, whose certication becomes invalid once they leave the organization. The journey of SNT-TC-1A is as given in Table 2.

Table 1 : A Comparison for Different Schemes Point of SNT-TC-1A Comparison Certifying Agencies

Employer

CP-189

ISO 9712 PCN/EN 473 IS 13805

Employer

Independent Independent Independent of Employer of Employer of Employer

Level III

Independent Independent / Employer (ASNT Level Centralized Centralized Centralized based III)

Level I & Level II

NonNonCentralized Centralized Centralized Centralized Centralized

Validity for Level III

Five Years

Five Years

Five Years

Five Years

Five Years

Validity for Level I & Level II

Five Years

Five Years

Five Years

Five Years

Five Years

Specific

Written + Practical for Level I & Employer On Descretion Specification Level II Procedure for L III

Written + Written + Practical for Practical for Level I & Level I & II Level II Procedure Procedure for L III for L III

ASNT CP-189 is not a recommended practice but a standard.

Hence the requirements in it need to be fullled as minimum requirements, unlike SNT-TC-1A wherein the recommendations can be modied to suit the employer’s needs.

In central certification schemes, ISO 9712 is widely accepted and is the central scheme on which the other schemes are based. The current edition of ISO 9712 in practice is edition 2012 and it mentions sector-wise certifications like Welding, Casting, Rolled products and so on. Here, even though the certification is by a third party, the employer needs to assess the additional specific training requirements for the candidate and issue work authorization to the certificate holder, only after his additional requirements, if any, are fulfilled. The Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) was requested in late 80's to take up the task of formulating an Indian Standard on this subject in line with prevailing international standards. BIS promptly recognized the need and importance of ensuring the quality of trained and certified personnel and took up the issue in its MTD (Metallurgical Engineering Department) Sectional Committee (SMDC 21). ISNT took an active part in the deliberations and finally the Standard IS13805 on Guidelines for Training and Certification of NDT Personnel was printed and released in 1993. With the formulation of these guidelines, training and certication of NDT personnel was taken up by the chapters of ISNT more rigorously. These guidelines have since been revised and reprinted in 2004 and include 10 NDT methods, and is in line with the requirements of major international standards such as ISO 9712 and SNT-TC-1A. An amendment was published in 2008, and a revised draft of the standard is ready now, more in line with the latest ISO 9712:2012.

December 2018

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Table 2 : Development of SNT –TC-1A Method wise Sr. No.

Method

Year of SNT-TC-1 A 1968

1971

1975

1980

1984

1988

1992

1996

2001

2006

2011

2016

1

Radiographic Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

2

Magnetic Particle Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

3

Ultrasonic Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

4

Liquid Penetrant Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

5

Eddy Current Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

6

Newton Radiographic Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

7

Leak Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

8

Acoustic Emission

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

9

Visual Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

√

10

Thermal / Infrared Testing

√

√

√

√

√

√

11

Vibration Analysis Testing

√

√

√

√

√

12

Laser Testing Method

√

√

√

√

13

Magnetic Flux Leakage

√

√

√

14

Ground Penetrating Radar

√

√

15

Guided Wave Testing

√

√

16

Microwave Technology

Even though employer based and central certification schemes look different, their purpose is the same. One gives authority to the employer who is finally responsible for the work carried out by the certified individual, and the other rests it on a third party to issue the certification.

3. IMPORTANCE OF BASIC QUALIFICATION It is very essential for the employer to get actively involved in the certification process and ensure that the certified individuals are meeting his requirements. In general, the employers are not actively involved in the certification process leading to an ineffective control on the whole process.

4. ES SENTIAL ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE TRAINING The certification process starts after the training process is completed. Any certification process will become ineffective if it is not backed up by a robust training process. The accreditation of training centres with periodical audits to monitor their performance is very important to get the required results. The trainers, training materials, defective samples, infrastructure, practical books and sample questions play a very important role in the training process. The trainer must be trained and retrained and their performance must be monitored. needs to be controlled. Further, there is a demand for on-line training andn, reduction in administrative resources, access to candidates in remote areas, impartial examinations etc.

5. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF CERTIFICATION EXAMINATION Certification is an ongoing process. The demand for certified personnel will rise with increase in industrialization and advent of newer and higher technology.

December 2018

√

The consequences of improper certification can be disastrous.

Let us jump to a scenario. An aircraft part was checked by an NDT examiner duly qualified and certified by an international certification agency. Later, the aircraft crashed and investigations revealed that the root cause of the accident was a missed defect in the NDT carried out. Now the question is, who should own the responsibility of this failure? If the defect is missed due to lack of knowledge of the operator (let us ignore the possibility of negligence of the operator, which is remote and controllable by the testing administration), should not the responsibility be on the certifying body and primarily on the training organization who trained that operator? This framework of thinking has to be induced in the training organizations to set the training activity in the right perspective.

Certification examinations are having General, Specific and Practical Examination. Training the examiners is a very important aspect. Developing right type of questions with adequate degree of difficulty is skill by itself and certifying bodies have to monitor and keep on improving the question banks. Defective samples and characterization of defects and maintaining the samples is very important. A good examination has to segregate the candidate into two groups pass and fail. The candidates who are knowing and are capable shall pass the examination and the candidates who are not knowing and not capable shall fail. If incapable candidate passes the exams and capable candidate fails the exams, it is failure of the examination system.

A concept of conducting practical examination without the presence of examiners is mooted and some work has started on this. Verification of adequate experience is also an important parameter of certification process. Vision test and administering it with right procedure is important.

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6.0 CONTINUED ASSESSMENT OF CERTIFIED PERSONNEL Technical performance evaluation and the recertification / renewal of the certification has to be monitored.

Different standards are giving requirement for recertification and renewal. The qualified personnel shall maintain their skills and demonstrate the same by the required documentation to certifying body.

BASIC STANDARDS USED IN TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION SR. NO. STANDARD REFERENCE STANDARD AND DESCRIPTION 1.

ISO 9712:2012

Non-destructive testing – Qualification and certification of NDT personnel

2.

ISO 9001:2015

Quality management systems - Requirements

3.

2014/68/EU

4.

5.

ANSI/ASNT CP-106-2008 ISO/IEC 17024:2012

6.

EN 4179:2009

7.

SNT-TC-1A (2011) ASNT

8.

ISO/TR 25107:2006

9.

ISO/IEC Guide 21-1:2005

Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) – overview online at http://bit.ly/22fcq67 Non-destructive testing – Qualification and certification of personnel Conformity assessment – General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons Aerospace series – Qualification and approval of personnel for non-destructive testing Recommended Practice for Personnel Qualification and Certification in NonDestructive Testing Non-destructive testing – Guideline for NDT training syllabuses Regional or national adoption of international standards and other international deliverables – Part 1: Adoption of international standards Certification of NDE Personnel, World Nuclear Association, CORDEL Codes & Standards Task Force, October 2014

10.

WNA Report 2014/003

11.

ISO/IEC 17011:2012

Conformity assessment – General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies

12.

ISO/IEC 17040: 2005

Conformity assessment – General requirements for peer assessment of conformity assessment bodies and accreditation bodies

13.

ISO 20807:2004

14.

ISO TS 11774:2011

15.

ACCP

16.

ANSI/ASNT CP-189-2011

17.

CEN/TR 15589:2014

Non-destructive testing – Qualification of personnel for limited application of non-destructive testing Non-destructive testing – Performance-based qualification ASNT Central Certification Programme – ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ online at http://bit.ly/1rdnTng ASNT Standard for Qualification and Certification of Non-Destructive Testing Personnel Non-destructive testing – Code of practice for the approval of NDT personnel by recognised third-party organisations under the provisions of Directive 97/23/EC

Reference: ICNDT Guide 1st June, 2016 December 2018

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