NDT Developments
Dr E H Blacklay
28th October 2015
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NDT Personnel Competency
Determination
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Part 145
145.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 nondestructive 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 the
non destructive testing function to be carried out.
……
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EN 4179
Aerospace 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 ASDSTAN 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, or
20/25 (Snellen) at 16" (40.64 cm) ) +/- 1" (2.54 cm), or
Jaeger 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
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