Written by Keith Cain

Eish talks about Process control

Process control is an essential ingredient in achieving consistent and reliable results with NDT inspections. A well regimented NDT process control program will not allow conditions to develop that render inspection methods as a source of misinformation. This misinformation may take two forms:

1) When NDT determines a part is defective, when in truth it is not, resulting in a false call. This is a waste of resources and an unnecessary reduction in mission capability.

2) Even more dangerous is determining a part to be serviceable when in fact it is defective resulting in a missed call. Both forms of misinformation can be minimized through the implementation of effective process control.

All aspects of these categories are interrelated. They have to be tuned to each other to achieve valid inspection results. If any one of these requirements is altered, the final outcome of the inspection will change, regardless of the inspector’s proficiency.

Process control is a general term used to encompass the actions and documentation required by established directives and logic.

Areas that fall within the scope of process control are as follows:

– Training and the demonstrated practical skills of inspectors.
– Inspection environment. (e.g., temperature, specific type and levels of light, safety, and human engineering.)
– Material control. (e.g., serviceability of ultrasonic transducers, eddy current probes, penetrant materials, X-ray film and chemicals, and magnetic particle suspensions.)
– Equipment control. (e.g., operational and performance capability or Test Measurement Diagnostic Equipment (TMDE)/user calibration.)
– Written inspection instructions.
– Adherence to written inspection instructions. (e.g., distinguishing requirements dictated by specific NDI procedures versus commonly accepted basic NDI practices.)

Eish asks….

Are you in control?

#saint #inspeish #doyourprocesscontrols