Just another few days in the working life of an NDT tester

I was recently in conversation with an NDT tester who explained how his work had been overseen by a client’s representative and how the event had progressed. This particular client’s representative did recognise ultrasonic testing, unlike a previous one who offered an observation that it was a method that used radio waves! The items for testing were castings and were urgently required, which is typically the case; how often does NDT incorrectly get the blame for slowing the process up or causing the delay rather than lack of planning and time management on behalf of the manufacturer? Back to the testing, this particular client’s representative was competent and ascertained that many of the castings were undersized. On testing the castings, flaws were found that were out of specification and required reworking or scrapping of the casting depending on the severity of the flaws, so the number of available castings was reduced. It was also difficult to report the results of the testing as the castings were not uniquely identified, with several having the same number cast on them; a return visit to the casting company was required to sort this out. The castings that could probably be repaired were not at the casting company but at a different welding and fabrication company that did a satisfactory job; however, there were concerns relating to a repair procedure being approved, but that was not part of the NDT tester’s work. The repairs were found to be free from out-of-tolerance flaws, so some more of the castings were available for delivery. Just another few days in the working life of an NDT tester and it would seem that they were important castings having a need for NDT and oversight by a client’s representative.

For the NDT tester’s next job, it looked like an easier task returning to a manufacturer where he had worked on several previous occasions; however, the usual contact was not there and the items requiring testing could have been stored at various locations on the site. The paperwork was checked for assistance in locating the items, but this was less than accurate with three different dimensions given for the same item. When the work was located it was still covered in heavy mill scale that should have already been removed. More time was spent sorting out the work rather than undertaking the NDT.

I was then shown an image of a large component that looked like it had been fabricated in an austenitic steel that had been colour-contrast penetrant tested and the main part of the component was showing significant multiple rounded indications. The history of the component was not known so, other than being able to confirm that the image did appear to show indications as a result of the penetrant test, no other comments could be made.

At home, I decided to erect a greenhouse and a well-known internet auction website was chosen to facilitate the purchase. The greenhouse arrived in two large boxes and on the chosen weekend I opened the boxes to locate the assembly instructions. These instructions were in French, apart from an addendum that was in German, but there were 30 sides of diagrams to refer to. The greenhouse was fully erected after 3.5 days’ work and a few cases of reworking where the diagrams did not include the need to add fixings that were subsequently required. Another success over poor/limited instructions using internet translation services and a logical approach to the task with a measure of patience thrown in to the mix. Or, as advised by my family, should I have paid a bit more and got instructions in English?

Comments by members

This forum post has no comments, be the first to leave a comment.

<< Back