Keep yourselves safe and work with integrity

By the time this has been published I expect that life will have changed again for us all. Currently, the UK is heading into two very significant events, the winter phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit happening by the end of 2020, and the issues this is generating for BINDT and PCN are very extensive. Please be assured that we, the staff, are trying to understand the ever-changing situations and are very mindful of how important it is for us to do the right thing as far as the rules allow.

There has been another meeting of the ISO 9712 working group; this was held online and, interestingly, the attendance numbers were up. The review process has to draw to a close very soon or all of the work that has gone before will have to be scrapped and the whole process restarted, which would be a shame as some good work has been accomplished. It has been recognised that to lose this work would not be good; however, the revision will not be perfect and to this end some resolutions have been drafted to encompass some of the key points for the next review of ISO 9712. These resolutions are:
  • There is reluctance from some countries to use the ISO 18490:2015 ‘Non-destructive testing – Evaluation of vision acuity of NDT personnel’ standard as the only option for the vision tests as they feel they understand the current requirements better. The current version of ISO 18490:2015 does not encompass colour or greyscale perception and is due for revision. The requirement for vision is the responsibility of the employer and the certificate holder and will remain so. PCN can work with either option.
  • This is probably the most important resolution for consideration. Currently, BS EN ISO 9712 discusses methods and briefly mentions techniques; a partial attempt has been made to include time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) and ultrasonic phased array (UTPA), but this does not include guided wave, immersion testing, electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs), laser ultrasound, etc. However, it is too late to include a more comprehensive scope of techniques and of how to approach the training and certification requirements for techniques. There are fundamental issues regarding what the method is; no definition of the ultrasonic method was forthcoming and the question of whether the term ‘technique’ is correct, or if the more appropriate term ‘technology’ should be used, remains. Once the current revision has been published, it is recognised that there is a need to look at this considerable issue in readiness for the following revision.
Please continue to keep yourselves safe and work with integrity.

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