CWI and RI concurrently?

Date 02-07-2007 17:16

i have not seen it as a requirement for any jobs. the cwi has no athority over accept or reject of ndt inspections, he can accept that the procedure was performed per requirements or not per requirements.

By CWI555

Date 02-15-2007 04:36

I can't think of a circumstance where a CWI will be able to over rule or otherwise change the call of a level II or III SNTC1A or ASNT level II or III. Some written practices may accept the RI certification as a central certification. You have to remember that acceptance or rejection of any given NDE test doesn't rest with just the Level II or III. An NDE company typically has the following: A quality assurance manual, A cognizant Level III in the method which is typically an ASNT centrally certified level III, certified and controlled (by the QAM) apparatus to perform the said test, and a written practice that details the criteria for the methodology/requirements for qualification and certification of NDE personnel. Without those factors as a minimum, I would be exceptionally surprised if anyone or company accepted the RI read on a film for an accept or reject of the piece in question. I think the furthest it could legitimately go is in regards to a third party. Even that, it would be on a concerns list rather than an accept or reject list.

By NDTIII

Date 02-17-2007 06:52

You should have an RT background to interpret film. Having welding experience alone is not enough in my opinion. You have to understand the principles of radiation and film characteristics to competently interpret radiographs.

If it's not a requirement, it should be. I had the AWS Radiographic Interpretation. It was good to have but was not a requirement.

By dbigkahunna (****)

Date 02-17-2007 15:59 Edited 02-17-2007 16:01

Unless you are qualified ASNT Level II radiographer, you cannot interpret radiographs. As a welding inspector you can qualify the film; density, pentameters, scratches, etc. I never over ride a Level II determination. While I can read film as well as or better than some Level II's that is not my job. If the film does not meet code, re-shoot the shot. If it does and the Level II calls IP and you see it as High/Low shadow, then call the radiography company Level III and have them make the call. If you over ride the determination, the Level II or III will put on the film reader sheet that the inspector determined the weld was acceptable/rejected. In an audit it will be you who has to explain why you overruled a qualified technician. This gets nasty on a DOTOPS audit.
Now if you can VISUALLY see and MEASURE the defect, the visual inspector can legally overrule the Level II. But again this will be documented on the film reader sheet. Surface gas pockets and undercut are two common calls by radiographers which can be overruled by the visual inspector. But again, all this will/must be documented.

By new tito (***)

Date 02-17-2007 16:37

This is a very interesting thread for me. I have been faced with this exact situation this past weekend, as well as a few months ago.

Here's what I have done (let me say that I work in the capacity of QC Manager) - The first instance a few months back, the Level II turned in the film with a great amount of rejects. This is unusual for my 3 welders (the maintain better than a 98% pass rate). I started looking at all the rejected indications, compared them to B31.3 criteria, and found that most indications were nowhere near the rejectable size limits. I did not make the call to accept them. I simply questioned the Level II about his reasoning, and brought to his attention the acceptance standards. Come to find out, he had been on a week long job grading to severe cyclic (more strict guidelines), and was in that state of mind. He accepted his screw up and went back and regraded and accepted the film.

The next situation - We shot 128 welds and when film and reader sheets were turned in, there were zero rejects. This struck me as odd. Thats a whole lot of welds, and to have zero rejects just didn't seem right to me. I got to looking at all the film, and there were a tremendous amount of reshoots due to poor quality film and bad handling. I also had "questions" to the acceptability of 7 welds. I called in another Level II to re-evaluate. Out of the 7, one ended up being rejectable. I did not agree with his evaluation of some of the indications (see my other post on RT indications; IP vs NF), however, I did not feel I was qualified enough to "argue" with him. I simply stated my reasoning for what I thought it was, and he did the same.

I kinda stuck on challenging the Level II's evaluation sometimes. I work as the QC Manager for the manufacturer, and I feel it is the manufacturers resposibilty for the quality level of the product. Level II's are human, so mistakes and bad judgements can be made. But I feel if I dont agree with the Level II, all that I should do is "question" his evaluation. At least untill I reciever further training in RT film interpretation. I would feel more comfortable calling a reject that a Level II has accepted, than to say a weld is accepted when the Level II has rejected it. But as I said, for now, all I will do is question.