I have a nagging conundrum with the ethics involved in some NDT work. Several weeks ago I told a friend that I would help him out during the inspection of the bottoms in two SS Tanks, one 20' dia butt welded and the other 30' lapped welded. I visited the work site and I know both tanks have leaking bottoms. I also know the material that is in these tanks isn't miscible with the currently used PT materials , the cleaner and the dye. He has gone through lengthily sessions with the owner in establishing a procedure to PT the bottom seams. The essentials of this procedure is to hand clean with PT cleaner, dab and wipe, dab and wipe, then apply the developer. This procedure will not work and will consume many manhours and cause an extended outage of each tank. All that needs to be done is clean the process material from the floor, the spray short sections of the bottom with PT developer and look for the ubiquitous wet spot. I tried to show him that the dye isn't miscible with product oil. He states that this procedure has been approved by both parties and will have to adhered to essentially verbatim. My problem is that this NDT supervisor has been a friend for long time and I know a lot of the people who own the tank and I know the problem with these tanks is SCC as I use to inspect similar tanks that held the product oil as we used to be partners in the process.
The biggest problem is that I got into the process too late. It is not only the NDT testing problem that bothers me is the amount of leakage showing on each tank. Due to amount of leakage from different areas my approach would be to get a tank company mobilized and on the road.
Anyone have any ideas how to approach this problem.
The biggest problem is that I got into the process too late. It is not only the NDT testing problem that bothers me is the amount of leakage showing on each tank. Due to amount of leakage from different areas my approach would be to get a tank company mobilized and on the road.
Anyone have any ideas how to approach this problem.