About NDT perssonel & procedures

[Oscarvs]

Dear Sirs,

I work for a company that produces tanks, vessels, structures, etc. Our client have contracted a third companie for the Quality Control of theirs products.The supervisor say that all NDT procedures (VT, PT, RT or UT) must be signed by a Level III Inspector, he say that it is a requirement for the Practice SNT-TC-1A of ASNT.
We execute VT and PT with our personnel (qualified as Level II according to RP SNT-TC-1A of ASNT) and, RT and UT with a NDT inspection subcontractor (subcontractor personnel qualified according to RP SNT-TC-1A of ASNT)
I have reviewed some of the common standards that we used in our projects,such as API 650, ASME Section XIII Div. 1 (BPV Code), AWS D1.1, etc., and these standards are references for the recomended practice, qualification and certification of the NDT Personnel by SNT-TC-1A.
Also for the NDT procedures, the referenced standard is ASME Section V (BPV Code), I reviewed this standard and each article give criteria to consider for NDT procedures, but I don't see any reference to sign off these documents by a Level III.

I will be thankful of your comments.

 

[weldtek]

What does your written practice say?

 

[Duwe6]

If you use the Level III that signed your peopls' Level II cert's, that will satisfy SNT-TC-1a. Just get your NDE procedures approved by your L/III.

If you have no Level III retained, then you have no certified Level II's. It takes a L/III to certify and 'supervise' all L/II's. If your L/II's only received training, and you did not retain a L/III, they are not considered as being certified under SNT-TC-1a. Your folks are 'qualified' but non-certified.

 

[weldtek]

It's important to understand that SNTC-1A is a recommended practice for the qualification and certification of NDE personnel. It does not cover requirements for procedure development and certification. It does stipulate that each employer must have a written practice and that written practice should detail responsibilities for procedure development and certification, and, the written practice must be approved by the company's Lev III.
So what does your written practice say?

 

[stanweld]

The Certifying Authority need not be a Level III. Per 9.3 of SNT-TC-1A, "At the option of the employer, an outside agency may be engaged to provide NDT Level III services. In such cases the responsibility of certification of the employess shall be retained by the employer." The Certifying Authority of the employer must be defined in the written practice.

A Level III must be involved in the certification process as defined in 5.4 and 8.0 of SNT-TC-1A.

 

[weldtek]

Clarifying, the paragraphs referenced by Stanweld apply to certification of personnel, not procedures.

 

[stanweld]

If you are performing ASME B&PV work, your Code Quality Manual must define your NDE practices. What does it requires? When we have Code NDE services subcontracted to an NDE provider, we appoint, by letter, the individual who will act for us as our Level III, after reviewing his Level III certifications as defined in our Code Quality Manual.

SNT-TC-1A requires that the "Written Practice" (procedure) only to be signed by the employer's designated Level III, who may or may not be directly employed by the Employer. It does not define that the Employer's NDE method procedures be signed by a Level III.

 

[weldtek]

I concur with stanweld. So Oscarvs, the answer to you original question depends on your written practice.

 

[SJones]

Under CP-189, a Level III "shall have the skills and knowledge to......verify the adequacy of procedures." Is the third party entity European by any chance as this is a typical European requirement? Certainly for oil and gas applications in Europe, SN-TC-1A is regarded as not being of any value whatsoever.

Steve Jones
Materials & Corrosion Engineer

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