Patrick Boulton

Our interviewee this month is Patrick Boulton, a Technical and Certification Engineer here at BINDT. Patrick started his job at BINDT after 24 years in the aerospace sector…

Briefly describe your current role
My primary role as one of BINDT’s Technical and Certification Engineers is to maintain and develop PCN Scheme documentation for NDT and inspection programmes. It is a role that is key to the management and continuous improvement of all of BINDT’s certification schemes. It provides broad technical support to the Institute’s staff, committees and other stakeholders who are associated with providing certification services for NDT. Certification scheme development typically involves participation and assistance from industry sector working groups (ISWGs) and their associated industry sector professionals.

What education or training route did you follow?
I started at BINDT in 2014 after 24 years in the aerospace sector. In 1990, I was lucky enough to be offered an aeronautical engineering apprenticeship at British Airways (BA) after completing A Levels in geography, economics and law – a world away from aerospace engineering.

After gaining my apprentice deeds, I joined BA’s Boeing 747 major maintenance section at Heathrow Airport, carrying out routine engine and airframe maintenance. In 1996, I joined BA’s NDT department and found myself on a new career path where I would receive PCN training in all the main methods of NDT deployed by the airline. I have been privileged to carry out NDT inspections on the airline’s Boeing and Airbus fleets, as well as on the airline’s fleet of Concorde aircraft, one of many pinnacle moments in my career using PCN certification.

Away from the probe face, I gained a certificate in management studies through Oxford Brookes University, which assisted my entry into the Technical and Managerial Group (TMG) at BA. This role required the daily coordination of a team of NDT personnel whose primary function was to provide the airline with NDT coverage 24 hours a day and at any global location.

As a voting member on the UK National Aerospace NDT Board, I was tasked with achieving PCN Level 3 status, which I succeeded in doing for eddy current testing and penetrant testing.

How did you become interested in NDT?
I can specifically remember the first time I became interested in NDT as part of a team modifying Boeing 747 engine pylons, where open fastener holes required routine NDT after pylon removal and rework. Mr Leo Crossling inspected the holes using a Rototest and, out of curiosity, I stayed with Leo during the inspections, cleaning and re-reaming any holes that he was not quite happy with. It was a fascinating inspection with all indications explained to me methodically and patiently by Leo and, when I joined the NDT department, I was assigned to Leo. Sadly, Leo is no longer with us, but it was his patience and knowledge that led me to where I am today.

What would you consider to be your biggest NDT achievements to date?
BA aside, one of my major achievements is knowing that BINDT has placed its faith in me and, at the same time, provides further opportunity for me to develop and grow.

What do you think are the pressing challenges for the NDT industry?
I see Industry 4.0 as being extremely influential in the near future and I believe that the take-up of embedded sensors is where we will see additional benefit across all industry sectors. I find it a great privilege to experience first-hand (through the BINDT conference lectures) how developments made by industry and academia see both structural health monitoring and NDT becoming ever more closely entwined.

How would you describe NDT to someone who has not heard of it before?
In the past, my son has asked me what NDT is and my stock answer is that that NDT is a science used to evaluate the properties of a material, component or structure without causing it harm, damage or affecting its ability to function after the test, which in turn will keep us safe from any future harm, more often than not when we are sitting on the runway waiting to take off on holiday.

Please get in touch if you have any recommendations for future interviewees or would like to be interviewed yourself. Contact the editor at ndtnews@bindt.org or email Maria Felice direct at mvfelice@gmail.com

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