AWS Radiograph Interpreter Certification

Date 07-11-2003 14:21

The summer 2003 Inspection Trends magazine has an interesting article titles, "AWS Radiographic Interpreter Certification to Debut Soon". By the end of the year, the American Welding Society plans to offer a prep course and examination for individuals interested in becoming a Certified Radiographic Interpreter (RI). According to the article, the course will be for CWIs and inspection personnel. For those of you who have read the article, what are your thoughts? I think it is a great idea.
Jinx

By TimGary (****)

Date 07-11-2003 15:22

It sounds like a good idea to me!
One job I worked on a couple years ago was inspecting welded pressure vessels as per ASME. The sub-contrated RT personnel kept interpreting the film to the wrong specs in the code. As the company CWI, I had to interpret the film to the correct specs myself. The situation difficulty was magnified by the 40% failure rate.
I wish that I had received the detailed interpretation training prior to that fiasco.
Tim

By DGXL

Date 07-11-2003 15:42

http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?id=1235

Check out the above link from a few years back.

By NDTIII

Date 07-11-2003 22:10

This is not something new. I took the course and exam back in 2000. It was sponsored by AWS but conducted by Hellier Associates. The course was very informative. I thought I knew everything about film interpretation, but they opened my eyes. I found the cert to be very beneficial. There is a lot more to interpretation than indentifying indications and indication accepatability. You must also judge film quality. That is a big problem in the industry. You must also, as an interpreter tell the radiographers how to improve their technique to improve film quality, when necessary. Increase exposure time, source to film distance, etc., just to name a few. Also if there is a dispute regarding sensitivity, how do you resolve it? I highly recommend you take the course. Being a CWI does not qualify you as a film interpreter. Sorry, I know you CWI's don't want to hear that, but it is a fact! It helps, but does not qualify you alone. Understanding welding and understanding radiation are two different things.
I am a CWI, by the way. But it doesn't qualify me as an interpeter.
The cert also lends credibilty when resolving disputes regarding film interpretation.

By bmaas1

Date 07-12-2003 15:16

Is this course comprehensive or does it just touvh on the basics?
I am very interested.

Brian Maas
CWI

By NDTIII

Date 07-13-2003 04:37

Well, you have to already have a background in RT and film interpretation, but it is a very informative course. It touches on more than just the basics. I highly recommend it. The reason, I believe it hasn't taken off yet is because of the lack of participation.