(bear in mind, my comments above were in regards to shots in the singular)
Thats a lot of questions with multiple variables.
Question 1: two man crew in the field doing what? Shooting coupons, pipeline, working a nuclear outage, a turnaround, boiler tube job, platform, fabshop vessels, tanks??
Question 2: Rate at the lab doing what and with what? Heavy wall navsea links, plate coupons, pipe coupons, mil std work, aerospace work, piece work, etc, and with x ray tube or source, and if source which one, CR plates, material to be shot, thickness, film quality requirements and a host of other factors that have to be accounted for to make a realistic quote.
Question 3: I am assuming when you say x ray that it is with a tube, as with a source it's called radiography. 3ma constant current, probably somewhere in the 180 to 220kv range about 5 minutes to shoot it with class II film. (been about 4 years since I've shot with a tube, so forgive the lack of specific shot parameters) then there is the potential for shooting this with a computed radiography system, or the need for digital archiving depending on the referencing code such as Section XI which would require particular care and longer time to run the film and a higher grade of care in general.
Question 4: I am assuming since it's field work, it's a source. A lot of people have been leaning towards selenium 75 lately due to it's increased economic value derived from a longer half life and reduced source size, which allows a shorter shot distance while maintaining required geometric unsharpness. Shot time will be longer, and is dependant on plate thickness/material/referencing code required radiographic quality/archiving etc. If it is thick coupons, it will likely require iridium192, and thicker still cobalt. So again, you have to define these variables for a proper answer.
Question 6: Back in the day when I was younger and dumber, with a 100ci iridium source, shooting 1/2" D1.1 plates, I could pull about 30 plates an hour shooting multiple plates per crank, Class II film, with an additional 1/2 hour for dry and read. (3 to a rack, 10 racks, 5 racks at a time running). This was 15 years ago.
Bumping to modern day:
Hourly rate;
chemicals these days wear out in the first 200 sheets. Some people stretch that to 400 by adding solution (not a good quality practice) for those same plates the film/processing charge should be 2 per sheet, time should be 125 and hour (southeast more or less depending on area of the country your in), min 2 hours, and mileage charge. If they are charging less than that they are cheating themselves.
If the client wants a piece rate, they are cheating themselves. It's far more efficient to stack up a group and get them shot at one time if possible. If it were me, I'd charge the same rates + consumables and rig charges be it 1 plate or 50.
When I was speaking of Rate I meant the per hour charge. I know the amount of RT can change considerably for each type of work and therefore individual shot charges may differ greatly. I think we were looking at things from two different views. The crews I have worked with just have an hourly rate and therefore we get welder quals done when they came in for production RT.
"I think we were looking at things from two different views. "
I think that would be an accurate statement.
I dont know were you are getting crews for a 2 hour minimum, guaranteed I would not even bother to show up if all i was guaranteed was 2 hours. The 125 sounds about, the prices here in NM range from 113 to 186 per hour, and it comes with an 8 hour minimum. Shooting plates you can do about 30 an hour with another 20 minutes to process film after that. If you are looking for prices by the weld they range from 35 to 100 a weld usually with a 25 to 60 weld minimum.
Gerald,
I will give some answers based on what I am exposed to (pardon the pun) in the intermountain west.
1) What is a standard rate in your experience for a 2 man Crew in the field? ($125 to $140 per hour, 8 hour minimum)
2) What is a good rate per hour at the Lab? (same rates as above, 4 hour minimum)
3) How long does it take to shoot a 1/2" plate to ASME Sec IX with XRay in the lab? (The shops here don't offer x-ray, but using a mid size gamma source, the exposure time should be no more than 3 or 4 minutes)
4) How many test plates can a two man crew shoot, process and read in an hour, two hours etc? (A safe guess would be allowing up to 30 minutes to set-up equipment and safety boundaries, and one hour for one development/interpretation session for of all the coupons....So, in one hour a crew can shoot at least 6 coupons, but should be able to get closer to 10.)
I have no RT experience other than dealing with them on outages and in fab shops from a customer side.
I have seen a crew setup and shoot 8-10 weld test plates in 30 minutes and then run the film. while processing other film. (that is pretty fast)
6) How much would those plates cost each in your experience? (The going rate per/coupon I see quoted is $75 to $85).
~thirdeye~
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