DarthSoilGuy
Both documents (CP 189 and SNT-TC-1A) cover NDT personnel certification via an employer-based system, that is there are no requirments to be trained at an approved training centre, examined at an authorised test centre and certified by a centralised personnel certification scheme. These latter, e.g. ACCP and European EN 473-compliant national schemes are either administered or authorised by an approved technical/professional body e.g. ASNT in the USA, BINDT innthe UK. There are positives and negatives about both systems. A major difference is that generally with employer-based schemes the qualification is NOT portable (once the employee leaves the employ the certifcate is revoked whereas generally the central certificate is issued to the technician and as long as s/he complies with the continuing conditions of the certifiation scheme s/he remains qualified after leaving the employment.
The major difference between CP-189 and SNT-TC-1A is that, if quoted in the contract or specification, ALL of the requirements of the former are mandatory whereas if the contract or specification calls for personnel qualification to the latter then it is purely a RECOMMENDED practice and the organisation can run it as they wish. One essential of both documents is a "Written Practice" (WP)which should fully describe the certification process of the organisation. This document should be reviewed by potential users of the NDT services as a check of how NDT personnel are qualified and certified. The WP may show that all qualification and certification activities are carried out "in-house" or that all or some of the activities are contracted out to an outside agency. The Company Level III is central to the operation of the system and again may be an employee, even an employee not particularly involved in daily NDT activities or may be a consultant.
As usual "caveat emptor". I hope this helps.
Regarding UT equipment - the original thrust of this thread - there are many manufacturers of good UT equipment all over the world. India is a big producer and I should imagine China as well. Whereas 20 or 30 years ago the portable UT flaw detector was the mainstay of the manufacturer in order to have a market they now need to produce and sell more sophisiticated pieces of kit - some general, some specialised applications. Phased Array equipment with full data capture and archiving for later review are now becoming the commonplace.
Nigel Armstrong
Karachaganak Petroleum
Kazakhstan