ISO 9712 Revision

We are coming to the end of another year and once again time has flown by. There are still many projects that need work and one of significance is the implementation of the changes that will be required due to the revision of ISO 9712. Certificate holders and all other interested parties will be notified of the changes to enable them to adapt and these changes will not be for immediate implementation in January 2022 but probably by January 2023. I can almost guarantee that there will still be people and organisations that claim to be unaware of the changes and complain, but I guess we can put this down to human nature. As and when details become available, please make yourself aware of the changes and if/how they will affect you and your employment. Employers who are providing testers certified under ISO 9712 should avail themselves of a copy of the new standard to ensure they are compliant. The employers’ responsibilities have been reinforced and current quality processes will require at least a review and possibly an update.

On a different theme, I have been made aware of several situations in which material structures have not appeared to act in accordance with normal expectations. An aerospace NDT supplier has been carrying out immersion testing of discs for many years and occasionally the results are different; the thought-process links this to the grain structure, but does not fully explain what is happening. Each disc is further scrutinised and, if acceptable, concessions are raised. Following on from that, some of the NDT experts mentioned that they had a similar situation with seamless pipe, which affected both ultrasonic and eddy current testing. It was speculated that the manufacturing process could inadvertently lead to areas of hardness and a change in the grain structure, which affected both the ultrasonic sound wave transmission and the eddy current response. The third situation revolved around the ultrasonic testing of a cast component with parallel flange faces and the loss of the backwall echo or an inability to locate a backwall echo using the required equipment against an approved procedure. Again, a metallurgist was consulted and the grain structure was considered to be the reason for the loss of the backwall echo. The problem then arises on how to report the results of such situations and how much assumed information should be added to the report, if any at all. Should the correct course of action be to just report the inability to locate a backwall echo using the agreed procedures and instructions?

The first cohort of fully time-served apprentices (but not the very first to complete the Level 6 degree apprenticeship, as a previous apprentice did so with prior learning exemptions) have completed their end-point assessments (EPAs) and have all given me confidence in the future of NDE/NDT at the higher levels. They had coped with the challenges of the pandemic and produced a very good standard of projects and portfolios of evidence and at interview were pleasant to listen to and competent in answering the assessors’ questions. With the ongoing Level 2 and 3 apprentice EPAs that are also ongoing, there is a next generation of people in the industry who will take it forward in a competent manner.

It is a greatly varied industry with some testing being performed on in-service components that are very old and other recently produced items that are employing cutting-edge manufacturing technologies. The article in November’s NDT News covering how CAN Group’s advanced non-destructive testing team responded to a significantly different challenge at very short notice just demonstrates some of the variety within our industry. I have also been greatly interested in the use of slow-motion image capture in condition monitoring and how this is a valuable tool when explaining vibration to plant owners, many thanks to Dean at RMS Ltd.

Wishing you all well for 2022.

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