Report from the Aerospace Workshop on Technique Validation and Standards
27/04/2023
The BINDT Aerospace Workshop on Technique Validation and Standards took place on 4 October 2022 at GKN Aerospace, Bristol, UK, and intended to provide the background to technique validation and also describe the current practices for some key industries, including aerospace, civil nuclear and naval/marine. This provided a contrast between aerospace and civil nuclear, where the structure around qualification is different and both have well-established processes. The naval qualification uses the European Network for Inspection and Qualification (ENIQ) guidelines, providing a good example of how to start a qualification with no previously established processes. 
The workshop also included a session on standards, where the process and thinking behind recognising new standards without causing contradiction and confusion in the industry was described. The final session covered historical practices in non-destructive testing (NDT)/technique validation and a proposed draft standard to assist with probability of detection (POD) selection.
Finally, the workshop was split into two groups for a discussion session.
The specific objectives of this workshop included:
- The promotion of discussions with UK stakeholders in the area of technique validation
- Addressing some knowledge gaps around POD and model-assisted qualification (MAQ) by feeding thoughts and ideas into a BINDT general validation document
- The promotion of a greater understanding of the differences between qualification in aerospace and qualifications that use the ENIQ methodology
- Eight presentations were made and are summarised in the report. These were followed by a discussion session with two proposed questions: How can we select PODs from the options available?; and What approaches do other people use in the industry for the training of new inspection techniques/methods?
- Addressing the state of standards around technique qualification.
The full report from the Aerospace Workshop on Technique Validation and Standards is now available to download from the BINDT website at: www.bindt.org/downloads/2022-Technique-Validation-and-Standards-Workshop-Report.pdf
