REPORTICNDT Workshop on NDT Laboratory Accreditation& Personnel Certification
15th APCNDT, Singapore 16th November 2017
This workshop was intended to allow members of different NDT societies to share information on
their NDT laboratory accreditation schemes and to share the best practices in NDT Lab Accreditation
to ISO/ IEC 17025 or ISO/IEC 17020. The workshop also shared knowledge on the personnel
certification in the context of laboratory accreditation.

List of speakers and topics (with links to presentations)
1. Introduction & Scene Setting ( Need for reliability, quality chain, NDT infrastructure, role ofstandards, certification and accreditation)
Mike Farley
2. Accreditation of NDT Laboratories by SAC/ SINGLAS – A review of Experience in Singapore
Mr. Sze Thiam Siong
3. NDT Laboratory Accreditation to ISO / IEC 17025 – Australia Approach
Paul Grosser
4. Accreditation for NDT Laboratory by HKAS following HOKLAS Scheme & Expectations for
ISO/IEC 17025:2017
Sajeesh K Babu
5. Accreditation of NDT Laboratory – European Perspective
Mr. Bento Ottone Alves
6. Personnel Certification in India
D.Doshi
7. The current status of ISO/IEC 17024 set up in South Korea
Dr. Jongpo Lee and Kyungcho Kim
8. Recommendations by ICNDT WG1 for the upcoming changes in ISO 9712:2012
Dr. Alexander Mullin

Summary of Key Points and Topics for further discussion

In his opening remarks, Dr Mike Farley made the point that to achieve quality in NDT there needs tobe proper attention to all the links in the quality chain and this in his opinion seems to be recognised(at least in part) in the ISO standards for accreditation of NDT Laboratories and Inspection Bodies.
Sze Thiam Siong, Chairman of the Technical Committee for NDT of the Singapore Accreditation
Council, explained the extensive use of accredited NDT laboratories in Singapore - 44 in total -acrossall industries. He identified two major challenges in complying with ISO 17025 for NDT:i)Lack of proficiency testingii)
Difficulty in adopting measurement uncertainty requirements
He commented that neither are necessary if NDT is considered to be an “Inspection” activity (ISO17020) but both are mandatory if NDT is considered to be “Testing”. SAC have produced their own
Technical Note NDT 001 “Specific requirements for NDT Laboratories” to supplement/explain thestandard. Technical Note 002 “Guidelines for recognition of NDT Personnel” has very specificrequirements – the only Level 3’s that are accepted are ASNT, PCN, CSWIP and SSNDT.
Paul Grosser is President of AINDT and a member of the NATA Board. There ae 171 accredited NDTLaboratories in Australia and many standards used in the country mandate ISO 17025. He stressed anumber of specific requirements in Australia, which take account of the operations often being
remote from the headquarters NDT Laboratory:i)
Each NDT Laboratory must have nominated technical control(lers) who must be ISO
9712 L3 in the method. These may delegate to a local senior L2 or L3 in anothermethod.
ii)
The NDT Laboratory must have approved by the Level 3 and these must be
validated/technically verified if not against a specific code or standardiii)
Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty is mandatory when a client requires it,
when required by the product code, or when relevant to the validity of the result(hence MU is not necessary when reporting all cracks found in a weld but isnecessary if there is a quantitative acceptance standard!)iv)
An internal proficiency test is required if the NDT task to be carried out is outside
the scope of the individual’s certification. In practice this leads to each NDTtechnician having their own approval matrix.
v)
Annual field technical control/ surveillance for each major methodvi)
Five yearly documented proficiency test of each technician (some employers achieve
this by re-certification every five years as opposed to the ten permitted by ISO9712)
vii)
Biannual external proficiency test as a measure of the competence of a facility.
Sajeesh Kumar Babu covered NDT Laboratory accreditation in Hong Kong. He began by summarisingsome of the important changes in the 2017 version of ISO17025:i) Introduction of risk-based thinking – allowing for some reduction in the prescriptive
requirements, and replacement with performance-based requirementsii) Greater flexibility than previous edition in the requirements for processes, procedures,
documented information and organisational responsibilitiesiii) a ‘laboratory’ has been defined as a “body that performs one or more of the following
activities
 Testing Calibration Sampling, associated with subsequent testing or calibration”
He then provided some specific information on NDT Laboratory accreditation by HOKLAS:i)
The approved signatory with overall responsibility for the operation of theaccredited laboratories on NDT methods shall have the necessary

ii)

iii)

iv)
v)
vi)

vii)

viii)

ix)

qualifications, experience and technical knowledge to ensure that clients’,
testing standards, HKAS and HOKLAS requirements are met.(ie relevant ISO
9712 certification plus 4 years of experience of quality system)
Testing operators shall normally be supervised by a suitably qualified
supervisor having the necessary qualifications, experience and technicalknowledge. A person holding a valid certificate of Level 3 in applicable NDT
method(s) issued by a recognized certification scheme, in accordance withinternational standard (e.g. BS EN ISO 9712 or equivalent) satisfies theserequirements for MT, PT, RT and UT. The ratio of supervisor to testing
operators shall be not less than 1 to 19.
Testing operators shall have the necessary qualifications, experience andtechnical knowledge. A person holding a valid certificate of Level 2 inapplicable NDT method(s) issued by a recognized certification scheme (e.g.
PCN Level 2, ACCP Level 2 or equivalent in accordance with international
standard (e.g. BS EN ISO 9712 or equivalent) satisfies these requirements for
MT, PT, RT and UT. Laboratories are required to demonstrate that all
personnel hold appropriate personnel certificate(s) and have received
training in accordance with a documented programme, and that they
possess a current certificate demonstrating their competence.
There are very specific requirements on equipment calibration andverification
Measurement Uncertainty requirements of ISO 17025 are waived except for
UT thickness measurement and coating thickness measurement
Items to be tested shall be identified such that traceability is maintained
throughout the examination process. Identification shall be such that theareas specifically examined, (e.g. welded seams), can be identified against
the corresponding test results.
Approved signatories or supervisory staff shall ensure that the work capacity
is not exceeded on a day-to-day basis. If the actual amount of work
completed is higher than the capacity, the approved signatory shall providejustification that the quality of test results has not been compromised
before signing the test reports. The justification shall be recorded andrelevant supporting evidence shall be kept. The maximum acceptable rates
of NDT of welds are tabulated.
Supervision is of particular importance for work performed on sites remotefrom the laboratory, e.g., in the Mainland. Laboratory management shall
implement a system where HOKLAS approved signatories or other suitably
qualified supervisors will conduct frequent unannounced on-site visits tocheck the work of on-site staff. The frequency of unannounced on-site visits
shall be based on the quantities of site tests conducted. As a minimum,
every on-site testing operator shall be checked at least once a year.
It is the responsibility of the laboratory management to protect its operatorsfrom undue pressure intending to affect test results. A laboratory shall havedocumented arrangement to do so. During an assessment, the arrangement
and records of implementation will be critically examined.

Bento Alves who is convenor of the EFNDT WG4 which covers accreditation of NDT gave a European
perspective on the subject.
He opened by mentioning the new version of ISO 17025 (see also above). In Europe, this generalstandard for all types of laboratory is supplemented by an EA guidance document “EA-4/15
Guidance:2015 Accreditation for Non-Destructive Testing” and this will need to be updated to reflectthe new version of the standard. Input to this update from EFNDT/ICNDT would be valuable. There isalso now greater attention being paid to NDT accreditation at the international (as opposed toEuropean) level. The AIC (Accreditation Committee) and IC of ILAC (International Laboratory
Accreditation Cooperation) are thinking about creating a Working Group 5 specifically for NDTLaboratories and if they do Dr Alves recommended that EFNDT/ICNDT should participate.
In Europe, as in the Asia Pacific region (see above) there are difficulties in conforming to thestandard where it is not sympathetic to the specifics of NDT in the areas of “Validity of results”,”proficiency testing” and “measurement uncertainty”.
As a result of a survey in 2015, Dr Alves was able to give some indication of the numbers of NDTlaboratories in the different countries of Europe:
CountryCountryFrance
Italy
GreeceSwitzerland
SwedenUnited Kingdom
BelgiumNº of Accredited
NDT Labs(ISO 17025)
75 (600)
10>3002418<10 (34 Calibration,238
Testing,126
Inspection,70 Certif.)? (119)(109)
103
1954 (82)18

Croatia2

Denmark
PolandPortugal
RussiaSerbiaSpain
Austria

Czech Republic
Estonia
FinlandGermany
Lithuania
Luxembourg
LatviaNº of Accredited
NDT Labs(ISO 17025)
6116137
712

NorwaySlovakia
Slovenia
Macedonia
TurkeyMalta
Cyprus510611301

Czech Republic

6Finally, Dr Alves challenged ICNDT and EFNDT to clarify responsibilities and ensure proper
representation on the bodies creating standards and guidance in this area.
Dr Diwakar Joshi, Vice President, Indian Society for Nondestructive Testing (ISNT)
presented on topic “NDT Certification Practices in India & the Way Forward”.
Standard IS 13805 The Indian standard for qualification and certification is IS 13805: 2004, GeneralStandard for Qualification and Certification of Non-Destructive Testing Personnel — Specification
which superceded the version first released in 1993. A revised draft standard is ready now, more inline with the latest ISO 9712:2012.
ISNT-NCB (National Certifying Body) has its own Level – III certification program and more than450 candidates have been certified over the years. Considering all levels, more than 2500 candidates
have been certified till now. The NCB is in the final stage of submitting the application foraccreditation as per ISO 17024. There are three levels of qualification, Level-I, Level-II and Level-III.
Generally, the number of candidates going for Level-II certification are more. Local language Level-I
certifications are also taken. Verification of education, experience, training and vision test is carriedout by the training center and further verified by the examiner. Qualification examinations areconducted by NCB. There are 4 regional controllers of examinations all over India working underchief controller of examinations who reports directly to chairman NCB.
Special attention has been given to the training of trainers and to the challenges of dealing withpeople whose English is poor.
Kyungcho Kim presented on the current status of ISO/IEC 17024 set-up in South Korea.
The Korean Society for NDT has set up its own Certification Body to provide certification of NDT
personnel in accordance with ISO 9712. The scheme, known as KPCN, complies with ISO17024. It isaccredited by the Korean Accreditation Body and registered under the ICNDT Multilateral
Recognition Agreement for Personnel Certification Bodies. Mr Kim commented on the extension ofthe IAF Multi-Lateral Agreement to include bodies involved in certification of personnel and hopes
this will benefit the recognition of KPCN certification.
Alexander Mullin, Chair of ICNDT WG1, presented the Recommendations by ICNDT WG1 for theupcoming changes in ISO 9712:2012. The recommendations are based on several ICNDT WG1
projects over the last four years, the outcomes from the NDT Certification conference in Vienna in2017 and the submission of ICNDT to ISO TC135 SC7 at the commencement of the five year
systematic review of ISO9712.
Mike Farley in his concluding remarks thanked the speakers for their presentation s and theaudience for their participation in the discussions. He noted that the countries of Asia-pacific region
which had adopted accreditation had found some problems with the standard in areas such asmeasurement uncertainty but had built upon the standards in several important ways thought
important to ensure quality in NDT. He considered it essential that ICNDT and the regions become
more involved in the formulation of standards and guides relating to accreditation of NDTorganisations and inspection bodies.
Report by Mike Farley.