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NDT Developments

Dr E H Blacklay28th October 2015

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NDT Personnel Competency Determination

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Part 145145.A.30 Personnel Requirements

145.A.30(f)

The organisation shall ensure that personnel who carry out and/or control continued airworthiness NDT of aircraft structures and/or components are appropriately qualified for the particular non-destructive test in accordance with the European or equivalent Standard recognised by the Agency. ……..

AMC 145.A.30(f)……

2. Appropriately qualified means to Level 1, 2 or 3 as defined by the European Standard EN 4179 dependant upon thenon destructive testing function to be carried out.

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EN 4179Aerospace Series - Qualification and Approval of Personnel for Non-Destructive Testing

Drafted and maintained by the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe – Standardisation (ASD-STAN)

European Commission approve through CEN (central European norms)

Issued by European National Standards organisations, for example, BSI

Identical to US standard NAS410 or should be

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EN 4179 & NAS410

In the late 1990’s ASD-STAN started to work with the US standards body AIA to harmonise EN4179 with its American equivalent. EN 4179:2009 and NAS410 Revision 3 dated March 2008 were fully harmonised.

December 2014 AIA published NAS410 Revision 4 coincidently ASD-STAN published prEN4179 edition P5.

ASD-STAN has not as yet submitted prEN4179 edition P5 to the European Commission for approval, thus it is still technically a draft standard and so there is dis-harmonisation between the officially recognised US and European standards.

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UK NAndtB Advisory AD-009

In order to ensure that the UK remains compliant with the harmonised versions of EN4179 and NAS410, at a meeting of the UK NANDTB on 10 March 2015, it was unanimously agreed that prEN4179 edition P5 December 2014 shall be the recognised standard for Qualification and Approval of NDT personnel applicable within the United Kingdom.

The UK NANDTB has agreed a period of six months from 10 March 2015 to make prEN4179 edition P5 effective.

Personnel certified to previous revisions of EN4179 need not recertify to the requirement of prEN4179 edition P5 until their current certification expires.

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Significant Changes

Re-definition of the role of Responsible Level 3 and National Aerospace NDT Board (NAndtB).

Removal of the reference to NAndtB in many sections of the standard.

Division of Radiographic Testing into Film and Non-Film Radiography. Vision requirements. Reduction in the experience hours for Eddy Current, Ultra-Sonic and

Radiography. Requirement for “annual maintenance”.

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Responsible Level 3 & NAndtB

The following text has been add to the Responsible Level 3 role definition:- “Responsible Level 3 shall be responsible for implementation of this standard and the overall administration of the qualification and certification programme”.

145.A.30(f) requires:Qualification of personnel undertaking continued airworthiness NDT to be under the general control of a European Union State NAndtB, which means in the UK the UK NAndtB.

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Film and Non-Film Radiography

Specific training hours and experience hours requirements have been introduced for Film and Non-Film Radiography when qualification and certification is sort jointly and separately.

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Vision Requirements

Tumbling E in accordance with ISO 18490, or20/25 (Snellen) at 16" (40.64 cm) ) +/- 1" (2.54 cm), orJaeger No. 1 at not less than 12” (30.48 cm)

Although the standard allows Jaeger and Snellen test methodologies the UK NAndtB policy is that all near vision examination must be in accordance with ISO 18490 - Tumbling E.

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Experience Hours

The experience hours for Eddy Current, Ultra-Sonic and Radiography have been halved.

However the allowance to reduce the experience hours when concurrently under training in multiple methods has been removed.

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Annual Maintenance

The employer shall develop & implement a documented annual process to verify technical proficiency for each method during the certification cycle for all the levels of personnel processing or inspecting hardware.

This effectively brings EN4179 in line with 145.A.30(e) which requires all maintenance staff to be assessed for competence before unsupervised work commences and competence is controlled on a continuous basis.

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Recent NDT Developments and Associated Risks

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Aqueous Degreasing

Aqueous Degreasing has been qualified and introduced as a replacement for degreasing processes using Trichloroethylene due to REACH.

The Authority has recently been made aware that some aqueous degreasing solutions can deposit silicates on to the component surface. Occurrences have been observed when the degreasing has been performed outside the equipment manufacturers operationally guidelines.

(Temperature and/or solution concentration)

If a silicate film is formed on the surface of a component that surface will not wet, thus effective penetrant or magnetic particle inspections can not be performed.

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LED UV Lamps

The use of LED UV Lamps either mains or battery powered is more prevalent in penetrant and magnetic particle inspections.

Currently there is no recognised national or international standard for these lamps.

The Authority concerns are:Wavelength of light,Working distance,Output Stability over the life of the source and life of the battery,Beam Uniformity and Beam Pattern.

A number of the OEMs have produced specification for these lamps and an international standard is being developed.

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Thank You for Your Attention

Any Questions