UKRAINIAN SOCIETY

FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING

2007 Year News Archives

Certification Center at USNDT is officially recognized in Ukraine

In keeping with the legislation currently in force in Ukraine, the Certification Center (CC) at USNDT in the period between September 2006 to July 2007 has gone through the procedure of accreditation at the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine (NAAU) as a non-departmental independent body on personnel certification in the field of NDT in keeping with the requirements of the International Standard ISO/IEC 17024:2003. Schematic and procedures of personnel certification in the field of NDT have been defined in keeping with the requirements of DSTU EN 473-2001.

The scope of accreditation of CC at USNDT includes such NDT techniques as ultrasonic, radiographic, magnetic, penetrant, visual, eddy current, leak, acoustic emission, thermal and vibrodiagnostic testing. The system of personal certification of CC at USNDT includes five training centers, three examination centers and the head examination center, involved in personnel training and certification.

Bulgarian NDT Society is 45 years

In 2007 the Bulgarian Society for Non-Destructive Testing (BG S NDT) is celebrating the 45^th anniversary of its foundation.

The Society was founded in 1962 by Prof. Slavcho Popov (Society President up to 1982) for uniting Bulgarian specialists working in the NDT field and representing their interests. From 1982 till 2001 BG S NDT was headed by Alexander Skordev, and from 2001 by Prof. Mitko Mihovski, Dr. of Sci.  

Prof. Mitko Mihovski	Dr. Alexander Skordev

The main areas of the Society activity are:

• introduction of a system of European (EN) and international (ISO) standardization in the field of NDT in Bulgaria;

• NDT training by ICNDT programs, in keeping with the requirements of EN 473, ISO 9712, EN 4712 standards, etc.;

• certification of NDT laboratories to meet the requirements of the European standards;

• conducting conferences and seminars on NDT;

• organization of the participation of Bulgarian specialists on NDT in international conferences.

Training of scientific and engineering personnel in NDT field in Bulgaria is performed by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia Technical University, Varna Technical University. Quite a large number of Bulgarian specialists received their professional education in Russia and Ukraine (at the Chair of Acoustics and Ultrasonic Equipment of the NTUU “Kiev Polytechnic Institute”). Some Bulgarian specialists on NDT are now working in the scientific and engineering centers of the USA, Spain and Russia. 

In 1966 the Society established the Certification Center for NDT personnel, accredited in 2001 by the National Accreditation Body. Starting from 2004 the Center has been functioning in keeping with the requirements of EN ISO/IEC 17024. 

Starting from 1990 BG S NDT started publishing their Bulletin two times a year. 

The Society is a member of EFNDT from the moment of its foundation in 1989 and ICNDT member starting from 1973. Bilateral agreements on professional co-operation have been signed with the related societies and associations of Belarus, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Canada, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA, Turkey, Croatia, Czechia, and Ukraine.

NDT specialists of Ukraine are expressing their sincere greetings to their Bulgarian colleagues with the memorable date and wishes of prosperity to the Bulgarian NDT Society, creative and production successes to all the Bulgarian specialists working in the field of NDT.

Brief report on the visit of specialists of the E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute of the NAS of Ukraine to the Institute of Mechanics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

In the period from June 15 to 21 specialists of the E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute of the NAS of Ukraine visited the Institute of Mechanics of BAS to perform joint work on the project “Investigation of the methods of evaluation of discontinuity dimensions using diffracted waves” and discussion of possible area of mutually beneficial co-operation between the Institute of Mechanics of BAS and the E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute of NASU.

During the visit working meetings with Dr.E.Manoach, Senior Staff Scientist, Director of the Institute of Mechanics of BAS, Prof.M.Mihovski, Dr. of Sci. (Eng.), Senior Staff Scientist of the Ist degree, Head of Laboratory of “Mechanics, Diagnostics and Nondestructive Testing” of the Institute of Mechanics of BAS, President of Bulgarian Society of NDT, Dr.Al.Skordev, Senior Staff Scientist, Head of the Certification Body for NDT personnel. A scientific seminar with participation of specialists of the Institute of Mechanics of BAS was conducted.

Ukrainian specialists were familiarized with the research work conducted by Institute of Mechanics of BAS in the field of NDT: 

• development of the technology of ultrasonic testing of thin-walled pipes and plates by normal waves to reveal corrosion damage;

• methods of measurement of contact stresses developing at different methods of part joining;

• use of Barkhausen effect to determine the mechanical properties of surface layers of items;

• development of computer programs for no-standard setting-up and evaluation of ultrasonic testing results;

• investigation and simulation of reflective properties of various kinds of reflectors with different orientation and dimensions.

The Bulgarian side was informed of the main directions of activity of the E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute of NASU in the field of welding and allied technologies. Main attention was paid to the following directions of research on NDT:

• investigation of the methods of evaluation of the geometrical dimensions of cracklike discontinuities, using diffracted ultrasonic waves for conducting technical diagnostics of technological equipment;

• long-range ultrasonic testing of extended objects with limited access to their surface;

• contactless EMA-method of ultrasonic wave excitation and its application in flaw detection and thickness measurement;

• development of technologies and automated systems of ultrasonic testing of large-diameter pipes;

• development of computerized methods of X-ray image treatment;

•  investigations in the field of ultrasonic testing of polyethylene pipes;

• magnetometric method of testing of the stress-strain state of ferromagnetic objects; methods of computer analysis of defect traces in capillary flaw detection;

• investigations in the field of magnetooptical method of nondestructive testing for defect detection and local deformation visualization.

A.Shekero, E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute of the NAS of Ukraine

Al.Alexiev, Institute of Mechanics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Scientific-Methodological Seminar

“Advanced methods of NDT of welded joints in metal structures”

On June 12-13, 2007 a Scientific-Methodological Seminar “Advanced methods of NDT of welded joints in metal structures” was held at the E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute of the NAS of Ukraine. The Seminar was organized by the Ukrainian Society for NDT (USNDT) and Company “Diagnostic Devices” (Kiev).

The seminar program included the following issues:

1. A breakthrough in radiography – digital technologies:

    - digital filmfree radiography and systems for its implementation;

    - practical application of digital filmfree radiography.

2. Digital technologies and equipment of “KODAK” Company in RT.

3. Computer systems of radiographic film processing.

4. Magnetometric testing (“magnetic memory” method).

5. Accurate sizing of inner defects by the diffracted wave method.

6. Low-frequency ultrasonic testing of extended objects in long-term service.

More than 60 people from the enterprises and organizations from different regions of Ukraine participated in the Seminar.

Scientific-Practical Seminar in Kiev

“Modern Technologies of NDT of Critical Industrial Objects”

Scientific-Practical Seminar on “Modern Technologies of NDT of Critical Industrial Objects” was conducted as part of the 5^th International Industrial Forum which was held in Kiev (Ukraine) at the site of the International Exhibition Center on November 28 – December 1, 2006.

Seminar was organized by the Ukrainian Society for NDT (USNDT). In the seminar 13 papers were made on the following subjects:

• Long-range UT of extended objects with limited access to the surface.

• Features of EMA-technologies and equipment for UT of welded joints.

• Application of filmfree digital technologies and equipment in radiography.

• Advanced materials for magnetic and liquid-penetrant testing.

• Metrological support of the means and advanced technologies of NDT.

More than 80 specialists from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Armenia, Great Britain and Germany participated in the seminar. 

Prof. V.Troitskiy, USNDT President, made an overview presentation of the advanced methods and technologies of NDT of metal structures, and provided detailed information for seminar participants on the outcome of the 9^th European Conference on NDT held in Berlin on September 25 – 29, 2006.

Presentation by Dr. P.Mudge (TWI, Cambridge, UK) on “Principles of long-range ultrasonic testing by directional waves” attracted special interest. In his paper Dr.Mudge gave a detailed description of the physical principles of propagation of low-frequency ultrasonic waves in extended objects (pipelines), principle of operation of TELETEST system, developed by Plant Integrity Ltd, for diagnostics of the technical condition of the main pipelines for oil and gas transportation and possibility of its application for diagnostics of other extended objects. After the theoretical part of the seminar was over, operation of TELETEST system was demonstrated to seminar participants on a mock-up of 50 m long pipeline with 14 m outer diameter mounted at the NDT Department of the E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute of NAS of Ukraine.

A new magnetooptical method of flaw detection in subsurface layers of ferromagnetic items was the subject of the paper by Yu.Agalidi (Ukraine). Method and hardware developed on its basis are widely applied at non-destructive testing of the relief and structural inhomogeneities of the surface layer of ferromagnetic items during crime detection investigations to determine whether the car identification numbers are original.

Seminar participants showed considerable interest in the papers on the technology of digital processing of X-ray films and filmfree radiography. Papers on these subjects were made in the seminar by reporters from Russia, Ukraine and Germany. Seminar participants were able to see the system of digital processing of radiograms in operation in USNDT booth.

Presentation on the features of application of EMA-technologies at ultrasonic testing of welded joints attracted great interest.

On the whole the scientific level of the seminar was high, and it attracted considerable interest of the participants.

The Forum is traditionally organized by the Ministry of Industrial Policy of Ukraine, State Committee of Ukraine on technical control and consumer policy, State Committee of Ukraine on industrial safety, labour safety and mining inspection.

This year the Industrial Forum occupied the territory of 16000 m². More than 500 companies from 24 countries of the world presented their most recent products and developments.

The next 6^th International Industrial Forum - 2007 will be held on November 27 – 30, 2007.

Alexander Bondarenko, E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute

An Agreement on professional cooperation was signed between

Ukrainian Society for NDT and Bulgarian Society for NDT

under which the Parties have agreed, in particular, on the following:

• exchange their periodicals and information materials;

• notify each other about conferences, seminars, exhibitions, meetings, and exchange news on mutually interesting problems;

• exchange training materials for improvement of the quality of training NDT specialists in both countries;

• publish their materials in the publications of the other Society under preferential terms;

• ensure preferential terms for each other for participation in conference, seminars and training programs;

• invite the other Party representatives to participate in meetings which are of mutual interest.

The Agreement was signed for the 5^th year period by Prof. V.Troitskiy, President of the Ukrainian Society for NDT, and Prof. M.Mikhovkii, President of the Bulgarian Society for NDT.

One more significant event in the NDT world was held on September 25 to 29, 2006 in Berlin. About 1700 official participants from all the continents gathered together in the 9^th European Conference on NDT to hear the presentations of specialists and speak about their achievements on the urgent problems and new avenues of development of NDT techniques, see the latest developments of NDT instruments and materials, meet with colleagues and establish new business contacts.

Four years of intensive activity of the German Society for NDT (DGZfP) on organizing the Conference were crowed by a magnificent finale, which was held at Estrel Convention Center – one of Europe’s largest exhibition centers.

507 oral and 216 poster presentations were made in 116 sessions, which ran in parallel in eight halls. The presentation subjects dealt with theoretical aspects of NDT techniques (ultrasonic, acoustic emission, computer tomography, digital radiography, magnetic and electromagnetic, infrared, liquid-penetrant, leak testing, vibration analysis, visual) and their practical application.

It has already become a good tradition for Ukrainian Society for NDT (USNDT) to organize participation of Ukrainian specialists – representatives of the Society collective members in the European and World Conferences on NDT. USNDT delegations participated in the 7^th (Copenhagen, 1998), and 8^th (Barcelona, 2002) European, as well as 15^th (Rome, 2000), and 16^th (Montreal, 2004) World NDT Conferences.

This time again the USNDT arranged a trip to the 9^th European Conference for a delegation of 49 specialists from 13 cities of Ukraine, who represented 28 enterprises and organizations.

Taking the occasion, we would like on behalf of the Ukrainian Society for NDT to once more express our appreciation to the Conference organizers, and personally to Steffi Schaske, Dorte Schnitger, Hannelore Wessel, who did everything possible to provide visa support and receiving our delegation.  

 

The Conference official opening ceremony was held in the large hall of the Congress Center on September 25.

Our first meetings with colleagues from other countries (see photo) were traditionally conducted in the hall before the opening of the session. Among them were Vladimir Kluev, President of the Russian NDT&TD Society, Giuseppe Nardoni, President of the Italian Society for NDT, Mike Farley, President of EFNDT and British Society for NDT, Douglas Marshall, President of ICNDT and Canadian Society for NDT, Mitko Mikhovski, President of Bulgarian Society for NDT, Pavel Mazal, President of Czech Society for NDT, Vjera Krsteji, President of Croatian Society for NDT, Jesus Serrano, Vice-President of Spanish NDT Society, Andrey Tkachenko, President of Moldavian Society for NDT, Nikolay Migun, President of Byelorussian Society for NDT&TD, and others.

 

In the Conference opening ceremony speeches were made by Volkmar Strauch – Staff Secretary on Economy and Environment of Berlin City Administration, under the auspices of which the Conference was held; Jorg Volker, DGZfP President, Mike Farley, President of European Federation on NDT (EFNDT), Douglas Marshall, President of the International Committee on NDT  (ICNDT).

After opening ceremony the Conference meetings were held in the subject sessions.    

 

Ukrainian scientists and specialists submitted to the Conference 18 papers all together, of them 5 were oral and 13 were poster presentations. In addition, they were co-authors of 3 more oral presentations submitted by Germany and Russia.

Among the authors we should personally mention G.Bezlyudko, Director of Company “SNR” – author of 4 presentations together with his colleagues from Ukraine and Russia, as well as V.Uchanin – Senior Staff Scientist of G.V.Karpenko FMI, Director of “Leotest-Medium” Center, - author of 3 presentations (one of then co-authored with German scientists).

Among the organizations the E.O.Paton Electric Welding Institute of the NAS of Ukraine should be specially mentioned, the specialists of which prepared 5 papers and the already mentioned Company “SNR” (4 papers) and G.V.Karpenko Physico-Mechanical Institute (3 presentations).  

In parallel to the session meetings, about 100 exhibitor presented their developments in the Exhibition arranged in several halls of Estrel Convention Center in the booths of the total area of 1500 m², the most outstanding of which were “Sonatest NDE Group” (UK), “Olympus NDT” (USA), “GE Inspection Technologies” (USA), “YXLON International X-Ray GmbH” (Germany), “RTD Group” (The Netherlands), “Kodak” GmbH” (Germany), “Fuji Photofilm (Europe) GmbH” (Germany).

In addition to products presented in the booths of these companies, the control means presented by the following companies, traditionally generated a lot of interest of the visitors: “FORCE Technology” (Denmark), “TWI Ltd.” (UK),  “ZETEC Inc.” (USA) and others.

Let us give several more facts. The most numerous (almost 50% of exhibition area) was the display of the German companies (hosts of the European Conference). Almost one quarter of the booths (23 companies) were taken up by Great Britain and France. The rest 25% were distributed among the other participants.

 

As it is always done in the European and World Conferences, a separate section of the Exhibition presented the national NDT Societies of Austria, USA, Byelorussia, Bulgaria, Brazil, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, China, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Rumania, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, and, certainly, Ukraine, as well as organizations combining them – The European Federation on NDT (EFNDT) and International Committee on NDT (ICNDT).

Following the tradition for such Forums, EFNDT and ICNDT meetings were held within the framework of the 9^th European Conference.

 

An official reception was organized for Conference participants, which was held in the Estrel Convention Center with a theatrical show program in the style of Berlin of the 20ties and chamber music concert in Berlin cathedral.

When closing the Conference, Jorg Volker, Chairman of the 9^th European Conference on NDT said he was sure that all those presentations and discussions, meetings of the representatives of various organizations, of international organizations on NDT conducted during this week in Berlin will provide a new impetus to development of NDT all over the world. Mike Farley, EFNDT President, said that the Conference success surpassed all his expectations and summed up his impression by one word: «perfect».

14^th International Conference and Exhibition

“Modern Methods and Means of NDT and Technical Diagnostics”

This conference was held in Yalta (Ukraine) from October 16 to 20, 2006. The Conference was organized with the support of Ukrainian, Russian and Byelorussian NDT Societies.

132 specialists from Ukraine, Russia, Byelaruss Republic, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Germany participated in the Conference. 10 plenary, 26 session and 21 poster presentations were made in the Conference, the authors of which reported on the results of their investigations and developments in a broad range of NDT techniques, methods of diagnostics and prediction of the residual life of structures; evaluation of the physico-mechanical characteristics of materials and some other areas related to NDT and TD.

A.Mozgovoj, Vice-Chairman of USNDT reported on the main results of activity in 2006 and main goals of the Ukrainian NDT Society in 2007. The year was highly saturated: organizing and conducting the 5^th National Conference “Non-Destructive Testing and Technical Diagnostics” and participation of a large delegation of Ukrainian specialists in the 9^th European Conference on NDT, regional seminars, numerous exhibitions and many other interesting events.

Conference participants warmly greeted the foreign guests. Interesting presentations about the most recent achievements of organizations represented by them were made by:

• Prof. M. Krening (Germany) spoke about the new developments of Fraunhofer IZFP, which, in his opinion, are of indubitable interest for the Ukrainian enterprises, and expressed his interest in cooperation also in other areas, namely conducting joint research, sending over students and post-graduates for doing research projects, and specialist exchange.

• a detailed report of R.Gize (Germany), was devoted to the issues related to X-ray testing method and success achieved by “GE Inspection Technology” Company, USA in this area.

• I.Shimkunas, Director-General of Engineering Supervision Body of Lithuania, shared the experience of conducting NDT&E in EC environment, and as an organization accredited in the respective EC bodies, suggested his services to Ukrainian enterprises making products under contracts with European countries.

• N.Medvedevskykh (Byelorussia) shared the experience of activity of their examination center in the structure of the Slovak Industrial Institute of Welding and NDT Personnel Certification Body and insisted that Ukrainian Certification Centers follow their example, as this is the fastest and the most cost-effective method for our specialists to obtain certificates recognized in Europe.

An Exhibition of NDT means was organized as part of the Conference with more than 20 companies participating in it as exponents.

Despite the fact that the Conference dates were somewhat shifted compared to the traditional ones, as well as the unexpected cold spell, all the participants were of the common opinion that the Conference turned out to be interesting, representative and highly useful both in terms of science and business.

Looking forward to meeting with you again in Yalta at the 15^th Conference from October 1 to 5, 2007.