The Nemet Award
Open award for members and non-members
Award criteria
Purpose: This award scheme, established by the generosity of Dr A Nemet and operated by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing, has been set up to recognise examples of outstandingly effective use of NDT/CM/SHM, especially those that might encourage small firms to apply NDT/CM/SHM methods for the first time, over a period of at least 5-10 years.
Details of the Award: Annually, the Institute will call for the submission of entries that give instances of the introduction or implementation of an NDT/CM/SHM technique or procedure that has met with exceptional success. An awards panel, set up by the Institute, will consider all submissions and choose the winning entry. The panel will give due weight to instances where safety has been enhanced, costs reduced or reliability improved, particularly in first-time uses of NDT/CM/SHM. In years when the submissions are not of sufficient merit, no award shall be made.
Eligibility: Entries, submitted on the Institute’s form, may be made by any company using NDT/CM/SHM or by a third party recommending a suitable candidate. Companies that supply NDT/CM/SHM equipment or provide NDT/CM/SHM services to industry are well placed to initiate such entries and candidates for the award may also submit entries themselves.
This is intended to recognise contributions over a period of at least 5-10 years.
The proposer of the award should be a voting member of the Institute. If they are not, they will need to ensure the application is endorsed by an Institute voting member.
Frequency: Yearly, if a suitable candidate is deemed.
Nomination arrangements: Trade & Industry to nominate. Entries may be made by any company using NDT/CM/SHM or by a third party recommending a suitable candidate. Companies that supply/provide NDT/CM/SHM equipment or services to industry are well placed to initiate such entries and candidates for the award may also submit entries themselves. Nominations should be submitted by email to: karen.cambridge@bindt.org
Nominations for the award shall come from the Trade & Industry (T&I) Committee (nominations may also be submitted by any other BINDT Committee, in which case it will be passed to the Chair of the T&I Committee for consideration), which will be tabled as an agenda item at a meeting, if suitable nominations are put forward.
If there is only one nomination, then the T&I Committee should vote to confirm whether the nomination is eligible and, if so, to approve the award. If there is more than one nomination, then the entries should be sent for judging by a panel set up for the purpose. Four members of the panel are to be appointed by the T&I Committee. Each judge will be invited to score the entries on a point scale of 0 to 3 and send the scores to Karen Cambridge, who will total the scores, and the entry receiving the most points will be declared the winner.
Awarding arrangements: The award will consist of a certificate backed by £550 cash, an invitation to the NDT/CM Annual Conference Dinner and one night’s accommodation. In the case of a group award, the invitation to the Annual Conference Dinner will be made to one representative.
Committee: Trade and Industry Group.
Winners
2024 winner: Lance Marshall
The winner of the Nemet Award for 2024 is Lance Marshall.
Lance started as a mechanical apprentice in 2007 at British Gypsum East Leake (EL). Having already completed a BTEC in engineering prior to being employed, he began the apprenticeship completing a Higher National Certificate (HNC). On completion of the apprenticeship, Lance gained a Higher National Diploma (HND) qualification and was taken on as a fully qualified mechanical craftsman. The apprenticeship allowed Lance to move and complete time in all departments at East Leake, including the mine, and to work with a wide range of experienced engineers learning a multitude of maintenance techniques. During this time, the rise of technology and computers was very much at full pace and something Lance was able to incorporate into day-to-day engineering whilst learning basics and skills from experienced craft. This allowed a positive blend, contributing to an Industry 4.0 change the factory was to introduce.
As a craftsman, Lance would regularly conduct vibration analysis routes of high-priority equipment across the site, liaising with vibration analysts to review the data and then planning remedial actions. In 2015, he was promoted to Board Plant Line Engineer, where he would work closely with Eriks and the partnership would grow stronger in regard to vibration analysis and what could be improved across the department. Technology grew and working with Eriks, specifically Dave Manning-Ohren, equipment was used at British Gypsum to test and trial new equipment to enhance the condition-based maintenance (CBM) journey. This incorporated Wi-Fi, wired sensors and wireless sensors and developed into thermography sensors within panels. With a promotion to maintenance manager, this then grew across the site. Eriks won the CBM contract for the EL site and the journey continued, installing sensors on priority equipment, enabling 24/7 monitoring taking millions of readings a day, which allowed issues or defects to be picked up almost immediately. This also enhanced readings on equipment where access was impossible with the machine running. Alarms were set and the engineering department had access to a SMART dashboard where it was all online to view.
Vibration analysis has been a key part of the reliability roadmap and Lance has gained extensive knowledge working with Dave and Eriks to improve its use at EL. It sounds like a very straight road, but there were lots of speed bumps, wrong turns and cul-de-sacs that Lance (and the team) went down; however, this was part of the learning.
When this was fed back to the Eriks innovation team, they said that it is normal to fail; the point is that you fail quickly, learn and redeploy.
Mobilisations of mass sensor installation have been tested out and again this proved invaluable in getting a commercial model that can be rolled out to customers. Without being allowed to test these methodologies and technologies on offer and provide feedback to the industry, the condition monitoring (CM) world would be worse off.
Past winners:
1989 Mr B Garbett
1990 Dr D H Saunderson
1991 Mr M Orrell, Mr G Vessey and Mr A Holden
1992 Mr C R Bird, Mr C R A Schneider and Mr J Morton
1993 Mr F E Hardie
1995 Dr C I Nicholls
1997 Mr G Herdman
1999 Mr A K Dunhill
2000 Mr J A Hughes
2001 Eur Ing Prof R M Cripps
2002 Mrs S A O’Connor
2003 Mr J Smith
2005 Mr J H Calvert
2006 Dr D J Lovejoy
2007 No Award
2008 Mr A Hadnum and Mr T Berry
2009 No Award
2010 Mr M Moles
2011 Mr B Brown
2012 Mr J Harris
2013 No Award
2014 Mr J McNab
2015 Mr D MacLennan
2016 Raymond J R Wilson MInstNDT FIAQP
2017 Dr Didar (Dee) Singh Dulay FInstNDT
2018 Rex Ankers
2019 Dr Geoff Diamond
2020 Tim Armitt
2021 EUR ING Ryan Murphy BSc (Hons) CEng MInstNDT MIScT FIES and Robert Andrew Bright
2022 Michael James Gorman BEng IEng MInstNDT
2023 David Griffin2021 EUR ING Ryan Murphy BSc (Hons) CEng MInstNDT MIScT FIES and Robert Andrew Bright
2022 Michael James Gorman BEng IEng MInstNDT
