CONTENTS
News.............................................. 1-5
Asia-Pacific Regional Group...............6
European Regional Group..................7
Pan-American Regional Group..... 8-11
Calendar of Events............................12

The World Organisation for NDTVolume 7 Issue No 11

October 2008
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

I

Good leadership will inspire otherst has been over four years since I was nominated and elected at the 16th WCNDT as the Chairman of theInternational Committee for Non-Destructive Testing in Montreal, Quebec. I hope I have been able to live up
to your expectations.
During my presentation in Montreal, I addressed four objectives, which I felt were most important to continue
the growing success of ICNDT:q Complete and implement ICNDT Operating Policies and Proceduresq Legalisation of ICNDTq Utilise resources available to the Chairman/Secretariat, ie communications, etc.
q Develop a Business Plan with tasks and critical path for implementation
I can now look back at the ICNDT activities during my term and be proud of what our membership has accomplished with respect tothe objectives above. The most significant activities were the legalisation of ICNDT, the rewriting of our terms of reference and approval
and utilisation of resources outside of the ICNDT Secretariat to improve the administration and communication of our organisation. The
development of a business plan was built in stages as it lagged behind the approval and implementation of the operating policies andprocedures and the legalisation. Now that the objectives have been completed, the stage has been set for the development of a Leadership
Plan to take ICNDT to a new level.

What should be our goal for the new level?
ICNDT Terms of Reference identify in the purpose eight primary activities, two of which I would like to address:
1. “to encourage the formulation of international standards on non-destructive testing in collaboration with the International Organisationfor Standardisation, and other standards bodies”; and2. “to promote best practices in NDT and to encourage international harmonisation in this area”.
It is this Leadership Plan that will direct us as leaders to accomplish the two activities above. We can no longer spend time talking about
harmonisation of one standard, as we have worn out the word “harmonisation”. We must now address a leadership plan that encourages our
regional groups to take an international view of our purpose and address the activities as leaders who will do the right thing to accomplish
the tasks to obtain recognition of non-destructive testing certification programmes. If we are to be true leaders in non-destructive testing,
we will become further involved and do “the right things” to accomplish our goal and let the certification programmes’ implementers “dothings right” to meet certification requirements.
Good leadership will inspire others to do well.
Once again I would like to express my appreciation to all of you who have supported ICNDT and our activities. Our executive members,
Policy and General Purpose Committee and regional representatives have gone beyond the call of duty to support our organisation. It would
be remiss of me if I did not take this opportunity to thank my sponsor, the Canadian Institute for NDE, for its generosity in supporting myactivities as ICNDT Chairman and ICNDT Secretariat. Through its funding, I was able to attend and represent ICNDT during the AFNDT
Conference (Tunisia), EFNDT Conference (Berlin), APNDT (Auckland) and PANNDT (Buenos Aires). The following pages include somephotographs depicting my involvement in some of these events.
Finally, on behalf of the ICNDT Executive and Policy and General Purpose Committees, we would like to express our appreciation forthe hospitality shown by the regional organising committees and their host societies to organise our full assembly, committee and working
groups meetings during their respective conference.
The hard work of our members has made my job much easier and very appreciative. I thank you and please enjoy the hospitality shownby the Chinese Society for Non-Destructive Testing (ChSNDT) at the 17th World Conference on NDT.
Douglas J Marshall
ICNDT Chairman
Continued on pages 2, 4-5

The Official Journal of the International Committee for Non-Destructive TestingICNDT Journal

ICNDT Award Winners

Publisher: 				

The International Committee for Non-Destructive Testing (ICNDT)Secretariat: The Canadian Institute for NDE (CINDE), 135 Fennell Avenue,
Hamilton, Ontario L8N 3T2, Canada. Tel: +1 (905) 387-1655; Fax: +1 (905)574-6080; E-mail: s.bond@cinde.ca

Editor:		

Giuseppe Nardoni, Italian Society for Non-Destructive Testing andMonitoring Diagnostics (AIPnD), via A Foresti, 5, 25127 Brescia, Italy. Tel:
+39 030 373 9173; Fax: +39 030 373 9176; E-mail: aipnd@numerica.it

Production Editors: David Gilbert, The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT).
Tel: +44 1604 630124; Fax: +44 1604 231489 E-mail: david.gilbert@
bindt.org
				Sergio Ghia, AIPnD
E-mail: ghia@icndt.org

Production:		

Pauline Thomas, BINDT.

Your new ICNDTJournal is available
for downloading fromwww.icndt.org

Published three times per year.
Editorial contributions are welcomed.
Articles should be sent to the Publisher at the above address.

Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the International Committee for
Non-Destructive Testing.
No liability is accepted whatsoever for errors or omissions.
ICNDT Member Societies are authorised to distribute this newsletter and/or its contents, however
permission should be obtained for reproduction of individual articles and extracts.

The next ICNDT Journal will be published in March 2009Material should be sent to the Publisher at the above address by 30 January 2009

ICNDT Workshop on
Harmonisation of
third-party NDTPersonnel Certification
to ISO9712 and aligned
standards
27 October 2008 – 09h00-12h00
Shanghai, China
The Workshop will
following questions:

explorethe

1. What do industry, regulators, and
NDT personnel need from thirdparty certification schemes?
2. What are the key differences
between ISO9712, EN473 andCP106? Why do they exist?
3. How can these differences be
resolved? By choosing a preferredalternative, by compromise, or byallowing options?
andisintendedtodeliverrecommendations
toStandards
Committees and Certification bodies.

2

Dr Baldev Raj chosen
for Distinguished Alumni
Award of the Indian
Institute of ScienceP

ast
Chairmanand
Honorary
Memberof
ICNDT Dr Baldev Raj,Distinguished Scientist &Director, Indira Gandhi
Centrefor
AtomicResearch, Kalpakkam,
steers the Fast Reactor
Science & Technology
programmes in India and is a specialist
in materials science and engineering.
He has been elected a Member of theGerman National Academy of Sciences, aunique distinction for his contributions toscience-based technologies and passion in
nurturing of young scientists and engineers
in the country and the world.
He was selected for the Distinguished
Alumni Award of the Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, for the year 2007, for
his contributions to science and technology
of non-destructive evaluation of highperformance materials and structures. His
work on developing a robust fast reactor
and associated fuel cycle technologies
in India, which is paving the way for largescale energy production through indigenous
uranium resources in India, is recognisedby the Indian Institute of Science.

Pawlowski Award – For Major Contribution
to Promotion of NDT InternationalAward winners: Gerhard Aufricht (Austria)
and Anthony Sonneveld (Australia)
Other nominee: Xu Yongchang (China)
Roentgen Award – For Major Contribution
to Science and Technology of NDTAward winner: Prof Vladimir L Chakhlov(Russia)
Other nominees: CIVA the NDT Simulation
Software (France), Drs V Vengrinovich and
V Artemjev (Belarus)
Havercroft Award – For Major Contribution
to NDT Education, Training and Certification
Award winners: Zemfira S Nikiforova,
Svetlana A Popoudina, Svetlana I Zinovjeva,
Vera V Levkovich (Belarus)
Other nominee: Dr Biryukova Nadezhda
Petrovna (Russia)
Sokolov Award – For Major Contribution to
NDT ResearchAward winner: Rong S Geng (China)
Other nominee: Gorkunov Eduard
Stepanovich (Russia)
Young Achiever Award – For Achievementof Young People in NDTAward winner: Andrey Evgenievich Bazulin

Continued from page 1
Special thanks to the following members of
ICNDT who have dedicated endless timeand resources on our behalf.
ICNDT Executive Members:
Chairman
D Marshall
PGP Chairman
G Nardoni
WCNDT President
R GongGeneral Secretary
J M Farley
Membership
T Sonneveld
Treasurer
G Aufricht
MemberR LinkSecretary
S BondICNDT Policy and General Purpose
Committee Members (in addition to theabove):
Regional Members
F Herelli
M Shafy
L DickM OokaV Krstelj
E Romero
J ConteW Holliday
Honorary Members
C Guo
V Klyuev
H Kopineck
M OnoeH Theiretzbacher
S Vahaviolos
ICNDT Journal
ICNDT website

D Gilbert – BINDTG Nardoni
S BondS Culman –German Society

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

3

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
The Chairman spreading the word (1992 – 2008)

Austria (2007)

Egypt (2006)

Rome (2000)
Scotland (2007)

Berlin (2006)

Korea (2003)

Tunisia (2008)

4

Berlin (2006)

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

Korea APCNDTMorocco (2001)

Brazil 13th WCNDT (1992)

India (2002)
Brazil 3rd PANNDTEngland (2000)

USA (Anaheim)

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

Australia APCNDTNew Zealand (2007)

Germany

5Regional Report

Contact:
L Dick – ljdick@ndt.co.nz
O-Y Kwon – okwon@inha.ac.kr

ASIA-PACIFIC
News from Malaysia (MSNT)
1st Technical Working Group (TWG) of Malaysian Inspection Body
Accreditation Scheme (MIBAS), 5 March 2008 Training Courses
on ISO 17024
In responding to the need for the NDT laboratories to be accredited
in accordance with ISO 17020, Malaysian Accreditation body,
namely the Development of Standard, has established a TWG.
The Group comprises representatives from Malaysia Nuclear
Agency (nuclear Malaysia), PETRONAS, Construction Industry
Development Board (CIDB), Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB),
Malaysian Society for NDT (MSNT), Tenaga National Berhad
Research (TNBR), Intestmal and SIRIM Bhd. The Development ofStandard acts as secretariat for this group.
The TWG had its first meeting on 5 March at the Developmentof Standard, Putrajaya. It is expected that the Group will produce
a supplementary document, which will be used by Malaysian
members of the NDT community in conjunction with ISO 17020
documents in their effort to get them accredited.
Contact: The Malaysian Society for Non Destructive Testing(MSNT), Industrial Technology Division (BTI), Malaysian Nuclear
Agency (Nuclear Malaysia), Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor.
Tel: +60-3-8925-0510; Fax: +60-3-8925-0907; E-mail: nassir@
nuclearmalaysia.gov.myThe 2nd Workshop on NDTwith Asia-Pacific Countries
November 2008, Tokyo, JapanThe Japanese Society for Non-Destructive Inspection (JSNDI) has
been planning contributions to Asian countries for promoting
NDT technologies from the twenty-first century onward. IAEA had
been promoting NDT industrial application among the East Asian
countries in the last century. The future planning committee in
JSNDI took up this matter, and planned to hold a workshop as oneof its most important subjects for the purpose.
JSNDI held the workshop on NDT for enhancement ofcooperation with Asia-Pacific countries for three days at the JSNDI
Office in Tokyo from 5-7 November 2007. A number of resolutions
were adopted at the end of this workshop. The workshop was
finished with great mutual understanding among the participating
countries for the first time trial.
The 2nd Workshop on NDT with Asia-Pacific countries will beheld from 13 to 15 November 2008 with the aim of improving
cooperation between Asia-Pacific countries.

Plenary Lectures at APCNDT 2009
The 13th Asia-Pacific Conference on Non-Destructive Testing(APCNDT) Organising Committee picked up four plenary
lecturers, and received informal consent. Plenary lectures andits affiliations are shown below. Plenary lecture title and further

P

Plenary lectures
1. Speaker to be arranged
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc, Japan
2. Dr Glenn M LightSouthwest Research Institute, USA
3. Prof Joon Hyun Lee
Pusan National University, Korea
4. Dr Ibrahim Abd Nassir
Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Malaysia

Sponsorship opportunities at APCNDT 2009
If you are interested in being a sponsor of APCNDT 2009, pleasecontact the following conference secretariat.

Major sponsor
As a major sponsor you will receive the following benefits:
q 18 square metres of premium exhibition spaceq One complementary registration including attendance at all
conference sessions, lunches, morning and afternoon teas andsocial events, including the conference dinnerq Company logo and acknowledgement as a Major Sponsor inall printed materials
q Company logo and acknowledgement as a Major Sponsor on
the conference website with hyperlink from your logo to yourown website
q Introduction as a major sponsor at opening ceremony
q Full-page colour advertisement in the conference proceedings
q The opportunity to include promotional materials in thesatchelsq A list of participants (full contact details of those participants
who have agreed to name disclosure) at the conclusion of theconferenceSponsorAs a sponsor you will receive the following benefits:
q 9 square metres of premium exhibition spaceq Company logo and acknowledgement as a sponsor in all
printed materials
q Company logo and acknowledgement as a sponsor on theconference website
q ½ page colour advertisement in the conference proceedingsq A list of participants (full contact details of those participants
who have agreed to name disclosure) at the conclusion of theconference
The Japanese Society for Non-Destructive Inspection (JSNDI),
MBR99 Building, 67, Kanda-sakumagashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo,
101-0026 Japan. Tel: +81-3-5821-5105; Fax: +81-3-3863-6524;
E-mail: apcndt2009@jsndi.or.jp; website: http://www.apcndt2009.
com

International Conference on Operating Pressure Equipment

ressure vessels and pipework are the heart of most industrial
activities. They are costly and complex pieces of infrastructure,
which need to be designed, built, operated, inspected,
repaired and decommissioned to the highest standards.
The demands on technology are high.
A conference, to be held 26-28 August 2009 on the vibrant andexciting Gold Coast of Australia, will aim to update and expand
research cooperation and industrial knowledge in the wide areaof piping, pressure vessels, valves and non-destructive testing andengineering analysis.
The conference has a tradition of industry/research interaction
with important international contributions and an emphasis onpractical applications.

6

information will be updated on the APCNDT 2009 website (http://
www.apcndt2009.com) soon.

Papers are thus invited for the Ninth International Conference
on Operating Pressure Equipment (OPE) incorporating the Biennial
AINDT Conference.
Papers will be accepted in two categories: research/technicaland industrial/management areas.
An abstract of 100 words, outlining the content and conclusions,should be e-mailed to the Conference Secretariat: events@
materialsaustralia.com.au or register your interest and abstract
on-line at www.materialsaustralia.com.au/OPE09
For further information, contact Materials Australia, Suite 205,
21 Bedford Street, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051, Australia.
Tel: +61 3 9326 7266; Fax: +61 2 9326 7272; E-mail: events@
materialsaustralia.com.au

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

Regional Report

Contact:
E Romero – informacion@aend.org
V Krstelj – vjera.krstelj@fsb.hr

EUROPEEFNDT recognise voluntary effort
in NDTE

FNDT wishes to recognise the work of individuals andorganisations who provide outstanding voluntary effort insupport of NDT Societies’ activities.
So, each year, member NDT Societies are invited to nominate
individuals or organisations they wish to be recognised.
On the occasion of the French Congress held in Toulouse in
May 2008, Jean Farré, Treasurer of the COFREND South West
Branch, was recognised for his continuous and voluntary action inpromotion of NDT at the regional level.
He received a letter and certificate from Rainer Link, Directorof EFNDT, on behalf of Mike Farley, EFNDT President.

R Link and J Farré

International Symposium on NDTin Aerospaceand ExhibitionT

3-5 December 2008
Stadthalle Fürth, Germany

his symposium, organised by DGZfP and Fraunhofer EZRT,
intends to address scientific issues in the field of NonDestructive Testing in Aerospace.
During the two days, different aspects and methods will bepresented and discussed. You will have the opportunity to attend
sessions addressing thermography, ultrasound, optics and all
aspects of X-ray testing as well as structural health monitoring,
reliability and adhesive bonding. Moreover, the latest results of the
project ‘ZeLuR’ specifically designed to address various aspects of
NDT in aerospace will be presented.
You will also have the opportunity to exhibit and present yourown NDT-related Research and Development results in a poster
session during the conference
For further information contact: Deutsche Gesellschaft fürZerstörungsfreie Prüfung eV, German Society for Nondestructive
Testing, Max-Planck-Strasse 6, 12489 Berlin, Germany. Tel: +49 30
67807-120; Fax: +49 30 67807-129; E-mail: tagungen@dgzfp.de;website: www.ndt-aerospace.fraunhofer.de

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

T

Slovenian Society to holdInternational Conference

he Slovenian Society for Non-Destructive Testing has issued
a Call for Papers for its 10th International Conference,‘Application of contemporary NDT in Engineering’, to beheld 1-3 September 2009 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Papers are invited on the following topics:
q Applications of non-destructive methods for testing of
constructions;q Control of materials and constructions with various nondestructive testing of materials and constructions;q Mathematical modelling in non-destructive testing;q Computer-aided methods for non-destructive examination ofmaterials and constructions;q Applications of various non-destructive methods for materials
testing in manufacturing and operation;
q Automation of non-destructive testing of materials andproducts in mass production;
q Innovations in non-destructive testing techniques;
q Evaluation in indications, reliability estimations andestimation of defect acceptability;q Training, personnel qualification and certification for nondestructive testing;q Facilities and equipment qualification and authorisation of
non-destructive testing;q Standards and application of standards in the fields of nondestructive testing.
Authors willing to participate in the conference with theircontribution should submit the title of the article, name of author(s)and name of the organisation/institution and a short one-page
abstract, including the conference heading and keywords before
15 November 2008.
The abstract, together with the announcement of participation
or registration form, should be sent to: Professor Janez Grum,
The Slovenian Society for Non-Destructive Testing, Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering, Aškerceva 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Tel: +386 1 4771 203; Fax: +386 1 4771 225; E-mail: ndtljubljana@fs.uni-lj.si

New President for Slovak SocietyAt an extraordinary meeting of the Slovak Society for NonDestructive Testing (SSNDT) that took place in June, Ing
Erich Eckhardt, a long-standing worker in the NDT field,
was appointed President and a new Committee elected.
President:
Tel:		
Address:
		
		
		
		
E-mail:Website:Ing Erich Eckhardt+421 918 859 407
VÚZ-PI SRSSNDTRacianska 71
SK-83259 Bratislava
Slovak Republic
ssndt@ssndt.sk
www.ssndt.sk

Materials Testing 2009 Exhibition
15-17 September 2009
Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool, UK
www.materialstesting.org
Organised by The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing7

Regional Report

Contact:
J Conte – abende@abende.org.br
W Holliday – wholliday@asnt.org

PAN-AMERICA

News from the Brazilian Society for NDE (ABENDE)
Bolivian Hydrocarbon Chamber (CBH) and
ABENDE will sign a cooperation agreement
The Bolivian Hydrocarbon Chamber – CBH – will implementwith ABENDE’s support personnel training activities in NDT in
Bolivia. This is the first step to implement the Bolivian personnel
certification system similar to the SNQC/END that will be
developed by IBNORCA, the technical standardisation body ofthe country. Activities will begin with a market survey in order
to identify the real needs in terms of staff demand. The aim is toimplement professional certification in several industry segments
as well as to provide qualification training and test in the entire
country. This subject was addressed by Engineer Yussef Akly,
Strategy Manager of CBH, during his recent visit to ABENDE.

International companies become membersof ABENDEABENDE has gained new members: the German Helling GmbHand the French M2M Phased Array Technologies. Bothcompanies work with non-destructive testing equipmentforparasitecurrent,
ultrasound,magnetic
particles,
radiography, eddy current and other methods; and phasedarray(ultrasoundandparasitecurrent)
respectively.
Companies interested in becoming an ABENDE member can go towww.abende.org.br/socios_fili_como.php?w=1920&h=1200 or
send an e-mail to socios@abende.org.br (Members’ Department).

International events
ABENDE is now publishing the calendar of international events
related to non-destructive testing and inspection on its website inaddition to the list of national events in the area. Visit http://www.
abende.org.br/down2/Calendar_Of_NDT_Events.pdf.

CONAEND&IEV2008
CONAEND&IEV2008 was a mega event and attracted people
from several industrial sectors. It had 130 presentations, amonglectures, technical papers and round tables and 35 exhibiting
companies. More than 600 people attended the event, interested
in information, technological novelties and NDT & Inspection
products and services. The technical part held several debateson the value of certification, NDT applied in several sectors suchas aeronautics, automotive, civil construction, basic sanitation,
nuclear and petrochemical, among others.
The National Congress on Non-Destructive Testing &Inspection and the 12th International Conference on Integrity
Assessment and Expanding the Lifetime of Industrial Equipment –CONAEND&IEV2008 – was held from 9-12 June in the city of São
Paulo.
Ther next events are: 3rd ENDutos, 6th NE meeting, 10th COTEQ
and the 2nd Forum on NDT Technology.

2nd National Meeting of NDT Certified
Professionals
During CONAEND&IEV2008, ABENDE organised a meetingexclusively for professionals certified by SNQC/END: the 2nd
National Meeting of NDT Certified Professionals. The purpose of
the meeting was to discuss the market, ethics, rules and needs ofcertification in Brazil, and novelties related to the sector, as wellas the importance of the professional to be aware of companies’
and market’s needs.

Explosive atmospheres
ABENDE,
ABP-Ex*andthe CB-03*, are working

8

COBEI*,
representativeofjointly to meet the needsofpersonnel
certificationinexplosive
atmospheres.
CB-03 is elaborating the draft for the PN03:031:01-006 standard,“Working Competence with electric equipment in explosive
atmospheres”, and ABENDE, with the collaboration of ABP-Ex,
will use the draft text to elaborate documents for the personnel
certification system of the segment.
The draft text of the standard is based on the document
ExMC/296/CD – Competencies for working with electricalequipment for hazardous area – adopted by 26 countries
and will be followed by Brazil. Competences in question
apply to any industry or company that has something
to do with the explosion protection in applicable areas.
*ABP-Ex – Brazilian Association of Explosion Prevention.
COBEI – Brazilian Committee of Electricity, Electronics, Lighting
and Telecommunications.
CB-03 – Brazilian Committee of ABNT dealing with Electricity.

Dimensional control
Starting this year, ABENDE will handle the entire process of
personnel certification on the Dimensional Control method. The
decision was made in an agreement with Petrobras. For more
information, contact the Certification sector at qualificacao@
abende.org.br

Re-establishment of the Parasite Current
Committee
The Parasite Current Committee was re-established on 28 April
with the attendance of representatives from Petrobras, Brasitest,
Inox Tubos, REM, Nacional Tubos and Persico. The commission
has already developed seven national standards (NBR), as
mentioned below, and is now working on the development ofstandards to be published in Mercosur, as well as the participationin the meetings of the ISO Parasite Current sub-committee.
The new working plan of the commission is under revision
with the standards NBR 8860 and NBR 8861, in addition to thedevelopment of standards based on ASTM E 309 and ASTM E 426.
The Parasite Current Commission, one of the oldest in the structureof the Standardisation Body (ONS 58) of ABENDE, aims at thedevelopment of national standards for this method as well as theparticipation in the elaboration of international standards (ISO).
It has already developed seven national standards (NBR). Thoseinterested in participating in the commission should contact theStandarisation Sector – normalizacao@abende.org.br
ISO – International Organization for Standardization. NBR
8860 – Steel Piping – Detection of discontinuities by Parasite
Current (eddy-current), with magnetic saturation NBR 8861 –Austenitic Stainless Steel Piping and similar alloys – Detectionof discontinuities by Parasite Current (Eddy Current), withoutmagnetic saturation. ASTM E 309 – Eddy Current Examination of
Steel Tubular Products using Magnetic Saturation. ASTM E 426– Electromagnetic (Eddy-Current), Examination of Seamless andWelded Tubular Products, Austenitic Stainless Steel and Similar
Alloys.

Manual and automated systems in thesteelworks sector
Recognition
Considered strong and in full expansion by experts, the Steelworks
sector needs support in inspection and quality activities.
Collaborating with this demand, the Steelworks Committee of
ABENDE recently approved the NA-005 and DC-020 documents,
aiming at the certification of professionals who work in this area.
The new qualification for automated systems will
help companies that have equipment installed in theirICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

PAN-AMERICA
production line. In addition, hands-on tests will be carriedout by the employer, under the responsibility of L3s.
The Association has already prepared the certification for
professionals that work with automated systems, and in the firstphase, recognises the Ultrasound L3, in accordance with theDC-020.
The Sectorial Steelworks Committee of ABENDE is building thedatabase with the questions for the ultrasound qualification test for
automated and semi-automated systems.
Today, the methods used in the sector for automated and semiautomated systems are parasite current, magnetic flux leakage,
penetrating liquid, magnetic particles, radiographic essay andultrasound.
Edson Eufrásio, coordinator of the Steelworks Committee,
believes that this qualification will have the recognition of athird-party body, making the process transparent. He also adds:“Companies will have their professionals duly qualified and certified
according to the pre-established requirements. Professionals will
be recognised for the quality of the service provided and will meetthe specific market needs.”“In the NDT segment, qualification is synonym to a two-way
credibility road: on one hand, it gives managers tranquillity,
since processes depend on reports reliability and/or resultspresented by the inspectors and, on the other hand, to thecustomers who, when buying from a company with qualified
professionals, know that the risks are minimised,” states
the representative of Usimec and one of the collaboratorsin the Steelworks Committee, Joventino Pereira Rezende.
NA-005 – Qualification and Certification of NDT Personnel in
Automated Systems DC-020 – Recognition and Certification of
Level 3 Personnel in Automated Equipment
More information at: certificacao@abende.org.br

NDT Certification Programme in Mexico
Part 2. Developing written examinations
Introduction
To prepare the written examinations, the technical committee
prepared a specification to be followed by the working groups.
The specification consists of both the required body of knowledge
and the way in which the candidates are expected to be able touse that knowledge.
Usually a good exam must explore three aspects. The knowledge
itself, the understanding of its significance and their application tosolve a practical problem or situation, but not necessarily each on
the same degree.

The body of knowledge
The first step was to prepare the bodies of knowledge (BOK) of
each method to be certified and the statement about the degree ofcoverage of each topic of BOK and the degree to which each usageof that topic should be covered in the exam.
Taking into account the educational level of the NDTtechnicians in Mexico, our committee gave special attention andemphasis on the understanding and significance and how to use
the knowledge to solve a practical situations.
The examinations must contain a sufficient number of questions
to assure reliability of results. The working groups decided eachmethod must have a different quantity of questions. For VT, PT, andMT the examinations should have 60 to 90 questions and for RT
and UT they should have 120 to 160 questions. If an examination
has few questions, a candidate mistake could have an excessive
effect on the candidate’s rank in the group being examined.
Table 1 shows an example of the UT BOK; it gives 120
questions to evaluate the knowledge itself, its understanding and
its application.
Table 1. Example of BOK matrix, UT level II
BOK topic

Know

Understand

Apply

Introduction to NDT

2

2

3

Total
7

Advantages and limitations of NDT method

2

4

4

10

Physical principles

2

5

6

13

Equipment

2

5

5

12

Inspection procedures

5

5

9

19

Interpretation of indications

5

10

10

25

Evaluation of indications

5

10

10

25

Code and standards

3

4

3

9

Totals (questions)

26

45

49

120

The questionnaires
Preparing good multiple choice items really is a hard task even forexperienced people because it requires at least a large quantity of

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

time, creative ability, technical language skills, in-depth knowledgeof the examination subject and understanding of how the potential
examinees think.
A good item is about the important knowledge that most experts
agree that candidates should be expected to know, it is clear andunambiguous, sufficiently difficult, and sufficiently discriminating
to distinguish between weak candidates and strong candidates.
The challenge to prepare good test items has led many educators
to formulate some rules and suggestions to assist the process. They
are divided into general rules, rules for developing the stem of theitem, rules for developing responses and miscellaneous rules.
Some of the general rules are:q The test items should cover knowledge or problems specific to
the method.
q The test item should concern knowledge or deal with aproblem that most experts in the method would agree isimportant to the proper performance of that method.
q The test item must be expressed as clearly as possible.
q The test items should be independent of each other.
Some of the rules for developing the stem are:q An item is desirable that calls for understanding andapplication of facts and principles to typical job problems,
rather than those items requiring only knowledge of facts.
q In most cases, is preferable to state the question or problem
positively than negatively.
q The problem or question must be stated as clearly andspecifically as possible.
q The stem must have a definite correct answer that is unlikely
to be challenged by competent practitioners.
q The stem should include all the qualifying information needed
to allow selection of the correct response, or
q The information to answer a stem could be available inreference material to which the examinee has access.
Some of the rules to develop the responses are:q All the responses shall be grammatically correct with regard to
the stem of the item.
q All distracters (wrong responses) should be plausible.
q All distracters should be appropriate to the stem.
q Distracters should not confuse the competent examinee but
distract the weak one.
q Avoid the use of ambiguous words like “none”, “always”, “all”
or “never” and so on.
Some of the miscellaneous rules are:q Avoid questions that can be answered by simply locating thecorrect statement or value in the reference data.

9

PAN-AMERICAq Avoid negative questions and never use double negative
questionsq Avoid changing units of measure within an item or response.
An exception is if mixed units are commonly used in actual
practice (like in Mexico). In this case that particular mixture
could be used in an item of a specific method.
q It is desirable to use charts, graphics, monograms and tables,
but they must be clear, legible and complete. Instead, itshould be presented in the same way as it would be normallybe encountered in actual practice.

The question banks
To prepare the question bank of each method, it was divided by
topic, the items were loaded and reviewed as a block of topic
items.
The working groups interchanged the blocks and they werereviewed by at least two independent groups to reduce the “writer
blind”. The stem or the responses were reviewed or corrected if
necessary.
All the items were reviewed by a Spanish letters style corrector
with experience of NDT to be sure all the items and its responses
shall be grammatically correct with regard to the stem of the item.
The final items were loaded and prepared the first group of
examinations to validate the items and the exams.
The committee selected a computer programme to prepare theexams, print them and make the statistical analysis of each one.
Figure 1 shows an example of an exam item.

Figure 3. Printing menu and printing options

Figure 4. First page from a questionnaire

The questionnaire evaluation
Figure 1. Example of an exam item and responses

Figure 2 shows an example of BOK topics (chapters), thenumber of questions by topic

To administer the examinations, the committee preparedexamination instructions and trained the monitors, taking special
care on the selection of examination sites. All of these to simulate acertification examination, one problem detected with the applicants
was the previous information to be given to prepare their exam, thecommittee prepared some notebooks explaining the examination
procedure, the kind of questions in the exam and gave some tips toprepare and answer successfully the questionnaires. This info was
helpful for the volunteers who took the examinations.
The evaluation of examination results was made using anothercomputer programme and at the same time the examinee comments
were analysed to detect and correct the mistakes.

The statistic analysis
Figure 2. BOK topics and number of questions on each topic

The items were evaluated preparing some questionnaires with
only 60 questions each. The items were selected randomly using
the computer programme and it has the option to prepare up to
15 versions from the same items selection, an example is shownin Figure 3.
Figure 4 shows the first page of one questionnaire.

10

Two general types of statistics are usually studied when evaluating
examination results, one is the item analysis and the other is theoverall statistics.
The item evaluation includes the item difficulty, the item
discrimination and the effectiveness of each response.
The overall examination attributes that are usually evaluatedincludes the number of examinees attaining each score or grade,the distribution of the scores and the mean, median and mode of
the scores.

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

PAN-AMERICA
The validity and reliability are the two Table 4. Statistics report by item
most important characteristics of the results of
examinations.
The validity concerns the appropriateness ofthe evaluations made of the candidates by the
analysis of the results of the examination. And it
requires an examination to measure the required
knowledge and understanding to produce scores,
which measure these without giving advantage
or disadvantage to any group of candidates. The
validity depends on the test reliability.
Test reliability concerns the consistency of
the results of the examination each time it isadministered. It means no matter how valid themeasurement should be, if equally competentcandidates do not obtain similar scores, or thesame candidate does not obtain similar scores on
repeated exams, the test is unreliable.
There are statistical methods for analysing theresults of a single examination that yield a good
estimate of reliability from a reasonable number ofcandidates and a reasonable number of test items.
The most widely used is the “Kuder Richardson 20”
With the statistics report the committee prepares a revision
or KR20 coefficient, also called index of reliability.
in deep to adjust the items difficulty, either changing the level of
The KR20 is useful as an overall measure of the test quality. A
knowledge required or refining the responses. Select the items
high KR20 value indicates that the examination results or scoreswith a good discrimination index, if all the better performers
are relatively free from error; theoretically, a KR20 around 0.90
correctly answered an item while none of the poorer performers
is the best, but in practice and taking special care controlling
did so, the item has a discrimination value of 1.0, but if none of theexamination content, the difficulty and the discrimination, it could
strong candidates answered correctly while all the weak ones did
be possible to attain values around 0.80.
it correctly then the item discrimination is -1.0; the discrimination
Finally, the standard error of measurement provides a means ofvalue proposed is 0.3 to 0.5.
estimating what the variability of a candidate’s score would be if
Lower values indicate the item could be too easy, higher
he took the same examination repeatedly.
values indicate the item could be extremely difficult. To
establish the desirable average item difficulty, the items with
The resultsdifficulty between 0.60 and 0.65 were selected. After thisitem evaluation, more than 35% of them must be reviewed,
The results obtained with a demo test, are shown in the following
some on their stem, some others on their responses andtables. The sample is 8 examinees.
some rejected. Second and third rounds were made to evaluate
Table 2. Grade report by student
the corrected items to have the final question bank on eachmethod.

Conclusions

Table 3. Overall statistic report

Table 2 shows thestudents’ statistics report.
The green lines indicate
the candidate passed
the exam, the red one
indicates the candidate
failed. The benchmark is
70% (42 or more correct
answers).
Table 3 shows thetest statistics report, itshows the score data,
test statistics, percentiles,
confidence intervals andtest reliability.
Table 4 shows thestatistic report by item;
it shows the questions,summary
statistics,
descriptive statistics, andpercentiles.

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008

Preparation of a good examination is a difficult demanding task,
especially if is for a NDT national certification programme, evenfor those with experience in such work.
The determination of what constitutes a good examination
requires careful consideration of the validity and reliability of theexamination. A good examination requires well-phrased questions
about the body of knowledge and it means a large investment oftime, economical and human resources, and patience to finish thetask.
The multiple-choice questions provide the most objective andreliable results.
Well-prepared multiple-choice questions can be designed toevaluate the knowledge as well its understanding and its application
to solve practical problems. These kinds of question are objective,
easy to administer, and can be graded by mechanical or electronicmeans and are easy to evaluate statistically.
Statistical data obtained from questionnaire results, readily
detect errors, ambiguities and weakness in items, the understanding
and use of statistics make it easier to improve the questions andthe examinations.
It is important that examinations must be prepared, administeredand graded with scrupulous attention to their honesty, and fairness
in addition to their validity and reliability.
The final part of this report is the practical examination
samples.

11

CALENDAR OF NDT EVENTS
MonthOctober
2008

Date

Venue

14-16

MunichGermany

MAINTAIN: International Trade Fair for
Industrial Maintenance

21-23

GdanskPoland37th Polish National Conferenceodk.simp@neostrada.pl
www.odksimp-szczecin.neostrada.pl

25-28

ShanghaiChina

17th World Conference on NDT

ichsndt@public2.sta.net.cn
chsndt2008@163.com
www.17wcndt.com

4-6
November
2008

Event

Brno
38th International Conference and NDTCzech Republic Exhibition, DEFEKTOSKOPIE 2008

Contact
info@maintain-europe.com
www.maintain-europe.com

cndt@cndt.cz
www.cndt.cz

10-14

Charleston
USA

ASNT Fall Conference and Quality Testing
Show

3-5

Fürth
Germany

International Symposium and Exhibition on
NDT in Aerospacetagungen@dgzfp.de
www.ndt-aerospace.fraunhofer.de

4-6

Varanasi
India

17th National Symposium on
Ultrasonics 2008

rksingh_17@rediffmail.com
rajan@bhu.ac.in
www.bhu.ac.in
www.ultrasonicsindia.com

9-12

Kyoto
Japan

19th International Acoustic Emission
Symposium

acd@jsndi.or.jp

March
2009

18-20

Moscow
Russia8th International Exhibition and
Conference for NDT and Technical
Diagnostics

artemiev@spectr.ru

August2009

26-28

Gold Coast
Australia

International Conference on Operating
Pressure Equipment

events@materialsaustralia.com.au
www.materialsaustralia.com.au/OPE09

1-3

Ljubljana
Slovenia

10th International Conference –‘Application of contemporary NDT in
Engineering’

ndt-ljubljana@fs.uni-lj.si

14-19

Essen
Germany

3rd Quality Testing International Exhibition
2009

info@messe-essen.dewww.messe-essen.de

15-17Blackpool
UK

Materials Testing 2009 and NDT 2009
Conference

November
2009

8-13

YokohamaJapan

13th Asia-Pacific Conference on
Non-Destructive Testing 2009

June
2010

7-11

Moscow
Russia10th European Conference on NDT

April
2012

18-20

DurbanSouth Africa

December
2008

September
2009

12

18th World Conference on NDT

conferences@asnt.org
www.asnt.org

karen.cambridge@bindt.org
www.materialstesting.org
www.bindt.org
apcndt2009@jsndi.or.jp
www.apcndt2009.com
spektr@co.ru
www.rsnttd.ru
saint@acenet.co.za
www.saint.org.za

ICNDT Journal Vol 7 No 11 October 2008