In contrast to the well-known certification of NDE personnel in Germany by an independent certification body based on ISO 9712 (such as DGZfP, SECTOR Cert or TÜV Nord), international regulations and specifications such as:
- the ASME BPVC (American Society of Mechanical Engineers - Boiler Pressure Vessel Code)
- and also most of API Standards (American Petroleum Institute),
- ASTM Standards (American Society for Testing and Materials)
- and the AWS Codes (American Welding Society)
requires the certification by the employer of the NDE-Personnel.
This personnel certification is tailored to the specific examination requirements of the employer and, in contrast to independent certification, establishes a real link to the actual examination task at the workplace.
The applicable regulations are the Recommended Practice No. SNT-TC-1A of the ASNT (American Society for Nondestructive Testing) or CP-189 in conjunction with ASME BPVC V, Art. 1.
Our astablished Qualification-System for your NDE-Personnel is based on the acceptance of already existing ISO-Certificates for the general written examination part because the physical basics of the different Examination Methods are the same all over the world.
We perform the qualification of your personnel from this basis. That means that an additional specific written examination and also a practical examination shall be passed by the Level I and Level II personnel. The necessary training and examination will be executed by VP at your location.
With regard to Level III qualification, however, there are considerable differences between the requirements of ISO 9712 and SNT-TC-1A or ASME BPVC V, Art. 1. The BASIC exam according to ISO 9712 is already not comparable to SNT-TC-1A. The contents of the method exam according to ISO 9712 also do not fully meet the requirements of SNT-TC-1A and the company-specific exam does not take place in ISO 9712.
This means that for holders of a level 3 certificate in accordance with ISO 9712, missing parts of the examination can be made up on the basis of the written practice applicable in your company in order to fulfill the requirements of SNT-TC-1A and ASME BPVC V. The number of exam parts and questions depends on the ISO 9712 exams already completed.
We would be happy to support you in implementing the employer certification system in your company. Just get in touch with us!