ELEVENTH WORLD CONFERENCE
ON NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A
17th MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE
November 3, 1985
List of Attendees
Juan N. Baez
Lyall S. Heard
O. Ganglbauer
Paul de Meester
Salete Brisighello
Dieter HanrathRenhui Chen
Frantisek Mysak
Svend A. Lund
Elisabeth Samusch
Juha Sillanpaa
Bertrand Vieillard-Baron
Winfried Morgner
Roy Sharpe
Tibor Konkoly
Rajoo C. Bhatt
G. Colombi
Noboru Niwa
G.M. van Dijk
Arnfinn Jensen
Zdzislaw Pawlowski
Manfred Johannes
Lee Se-Kyung
Jesus Serrano
Jan Klasson
Fredy Rohr
Vladimir Klyuev
William J. Kitson
Antun Fertilio

Argentina
Australia
Austria
BelgiumBrazilCanadaChina, PPR
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
FRG
FinlandFranceGDRGreat Britain
Hungary
India
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
NorwayPoland
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
USSR
United States
Yugoslavia

1. Welcome
Mr. Widner opened the meeting at 1:35 p.m. and welcomed thosedelegates present.

89Members were advised of the recent death of Israel Delegate Mr. Golan
and since the last ICNDT meeting, the death of Dr. Tenney, one of the foundingmembers of ICNDT. Members paid silent tribute to their two former colleagues.
2. Minutes of the 16th Meeting
The Italian delegate asked that paragraph 5 of item 2 be corrected to read“Mr. Colombi pointed out the objective of the WCNDT are also in establishingclose contacts and promoting friendship. He stated that conferences should beheld in all continents and in all countries and supports the Indian invitation.” The
minutes were approved as corrected.
3. Advisement of Country Representatives
The updated list of voting and non voting delegates had been circulatedprior to the meeting.
4. ICNDT Committee Report
Ms. Risinger gave an update on the present conference. There are 1230
registrants and 145 exhibiting companies. There will be 385 technicalpresentations and nearly 100 poster presentations. There will be approximately
3000 people attending the meetings and exhibition.
5. New Membership Applications
A letter was received on January 23, 1985 requesting that the NDTSociety in Taiwan be considered for membership. Dr. Cheng said that he
opposed the request and that it would not be proper to accept Taiwan underarticle 4.1. of the Terms of Reference since Taiwan does not have internationalrecognition as a separate nation. The Chinese Mechanical Engineering Societyis the National Body representing the whole of China, as accepted by the ICNDTin 1979. The NDT Society of Taiwan is an organization representing a local
region of China and thus is not qualified to be a member under the present
Terms of Reference of ICNDT.
Professor Pawlowski thought it might be useful for delegates to discuss
the ramifications of this issue outside of the meeting and defer the decision on
this question to the next meeting. A possible solution he felt might be for ICNDT
to accept as a new member China-Taiwan. This could be a solution to allow aregion operating separately to be accepted into the family of nondestructive
testing.
Mr. Sharpe hoped a solution might be found reflecting ICNDT’s overriding
apolitical objective in furthering NDT. He suggested that “country” in Article 4.1of the Terms of Reference might be defined as “any state”, kingdom, country orother identifiable region with its own professionally organized NDT infrastructure.
This would allow China-Taiwan or any similar geographical region to become

90eligible for membership if its technical standing in NDT was consideredappropriate. Mr. Hanrath stated that the Canadian government was one of many
that did not officially recognize Taiwan, and he would have to keep this point inmind if it came to a vote.
Mr. Klyuev, in examining the Taiwan request dispassionately, said that, in
his view, the technical content of their proposal probably did not meet thestandards expected for ICNDT membership. Having aired this issue in somedetail, it was moved from the Chair that a decision on this issue would be
deferred until the next meeting.
6. Working Group Report
Dr. Kopineck presented a report on the activities of the ICNDT Working
Group on Harmonization of Qualification and Training of NDT personnel, which
he chairs. He gave a short history by way of introduction; “We are living in aworld with close economic interrelations and with comparable industrial products.
Therefore, the procedures for nondestructive testing on these products is very
similar. This means that personnel performing these tests need a similar basic
knowledge and experience. All testers of a given level should have the same
basic knowledge in accordance with internationally agreed requirements,
irrespective of whether they have been trained in country A, B, or C. The
common goal of Harmonization can best be reached if the required minimum
level of knowledge is laid down internationally, that the levels are confirmed byan objective examination and documented by a testimony or certificate, which ismutually accepted and its equivalence recognized.
During the ICNDT meeting in Melbourne in 1979, we discussed how todetermine these points of commonality to arrive at an agreed common
denominator. ICNDT accepted to recommend the following 4 important points:a) Training and qualification should be related to testing methods.
b) Training and qualification should be divided into three levelsc) The framework of qualification demands a worldwide determinationand coordination of agreed levels of knowledge and skills called“minimum requirements”d) Qualifying examinations in individual countries should be carried out by
an independent body.
ICNDT accepted these recommendations. In Moscow, 1982, ICNDT
adopted the minimum requirements of knowledge for Ultrasonic testing and, afew months later, a letter ballot approved the minimum requirements forradiographic testing. We can now confirm that those accepted minimum
requirements are in good agreement with training guidelines already establishedin many countries and bear a close relationship with present ASNT
recommendations. In Moscow, the ICNDT Working Group was asked tocontinue to work on two tasks and to report progress at this ICNDT meeting;91a) Determining and establishing minimum requirements for the othertesting methods (eddy current testing, magnetic particle testing, liquid
penetrant testing and leak testing)b) Establishing a model agreement on the mutual recognition of NDT
personnel qualification.
From task a. we now have six minimum requirements documents, two are
already accepted and the other four have been circulated in draft form.
Responding to task b. there is a new document (ICNDT WH23-85). It is basedon the draft format presented in Moscow.
Based on the model, bi-lateral agreements have already been signed
between NDT societies or committees in Austria, Federal Republic of Germany,Hungary, Poland and Switzerland. Minimum requirements are very important not
only for industrial countries but, perhaps equally important for countries starting
their NDT educational programs.
The Working Group thought it helpful to give some indication on the total
times for training and the percentage of time appropriate to the different topics
identified in the minimum requirement documents.
This document (ICNDT WH 22-85) has been circulated.
To demonstrate these recommendations to member societies, anintroductory paper was prepared by a sub-group of the Working party under thetitle (Basic Requirements for National Personnel Qualification and CertificationSchemes). This paper contains more than has previously been stated and isintended to introduce ICNDT recommendations into present schemes or newly
emerging schemes.
The Committee was asked to adopt the four new minimum requirement
documents, the model agreement document and the new basic introduction
paper. Dr. Kopineck also proposed, on behalf of his working party, that ICNDT
approve the following statement:” The ICNDT has prepared internationallyharmonized basic requirements and requests all affiliated national NDT societies
and committees to establish qualification and certification schemes according to
the recommendation, to conclude agreements on mutual recognition and torecognize all certificates which are issued under this prerequisite irrespective of
national source.”
In conclusion, Dr. Kopineck recommended that the working group should
continue its work to carry out revision of the minimum requirements documents
as and when required and to elaborate the requirements for the Level III program
concerning other testing methods. Dr. Kopineck tendered his resignation as
Chairman of the Working Group. President Widner proposed that a small group(Messrs. De Meester, Pawlowski, Nardoni, Sharpe, Wheeler, and Kopineck)should discuss the question of a new chairman during the next few days, whocould give continuity to the work so ably carried on under Dr. Kopineck’sguidance.
Australia thought that it was very desirable at this stage that ICNDT shouldwork very closely with ISO on this work. Dr. Kopineck agreed and said that he92

had given details of ICNDT progress to ISO Committee TC 135 SC7 at its
meeting in Paris in February.
MOTION: Motion by De Meester and seconded by Hanrath.
To adopt the four new minimum requirements and the final version of themodel agreement document be adopted in principle and final approval deferred
until the 18th ICNDT Meeting. Motion carried.
MOTION: Motion by Pawlowski and seconded by Bond
To accept document ICNDT WH 22-85 “Guidelines for Training Times”.
Motion carried. 26 for, 1 abstention (Argentina).
MOTION: Motion by Kopineck and seconded by Bond
To accept document WH 15-85 on “Basic Requirements for National
personnel qualification and certification schemes.” Motion carried. 24 for, 1abstention (Argentina)
MOTION: Motion by Kopineck and seconded by BondICNDT gives internationally harmonized basic requirements to all affiliatednational NDT societies and committees and requests them to establish training
and qualification schemes according to these recommendations. Motion carried.
20 for, 2 against, 1 abstention (Argentina)
MOTION: Motion by Kopineck and seconded by Van Dijk.
ICNDT presents internationally harmonized basic requirements to allaffiliated national NDT societies and committees and requests them to promoteagreements on mutual recognition. Motion carried. 20 for, 2 against, 2abstentions.
MOTION: Motion by Kopineck and seconded by Van Dijk
ICNDT presents internationally harmonized basic requirements to allaffiliated national NDT societies and committees and requests them to promoterecognition of all certificates which are issued under these prerequisites. Motion
carried. 24 for, 1 against, 1 abstention
Dr. Kopineck thanked all members of ICNDT for their support on thesemotions and hoped the Working Group would continue to operate successfully
under its new chairman.
7. Future International Conference Dates
Ms. Risinger requested that all countries submit their future conference
dates for distribution.
8. Proposal for the Next WCNDT93

President Widner advised members that the Netherlands had been given“approval in principle” for the12th WCNDT. He also stated that before themeeting he had received a formal request from Brazil also to host the 12thWCNDT.
Discussion ensued, and both the Netherlands and Brazil presented their
proposals.
Mr. Widner advised the delegates that a vote to decide the venue of thenext meeting would be taken at the 18th meeting of the ICNDT.
9. Old BusinessPresident Widner read a letter from Professor Mundry who was unable toattend. He sent his best wishes for a successful world conference.
10. New BusinessMr. De Meester proposed that the 18th agenda carry an item for a vote on
the next date for the ICNDT meeting as well as the site. Discussion started todevelop, but was terminated. The Netherlands advised of their proposed date:
April 1989. Brazil advised of their proposed dates: October 1988 or thebeginning of 1989.
11. Agenda Items for the 18th Meeting(see attached)
12. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned by President Widner at 5:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,

Beth Risinger
General Secretary194