u/OkEmployee68

Someone reached out to me today who manufactures large cylinders (ranging from 80"-100" ID, 1-2" thick). The company bends the steel round, and then welds a seam to hold it together. They first weld the ID, then back-gouge from the OD, and weld the OD.

The previous NDT company they hired kept missing lack of fusion and inclusions on the ID weld (they performed UT shearwave on the OD), so I am trying to figure out the best way to find those issues. Since the lack of fusion/slag is appearing in the ID, would it be a good idea to perform something like Magnetic Particle Testing once they back-gouge the OD? I am, of course, open to any other suggestions.

I am currently working for a smaller outfit in the United States (I am a certified Level II meeting requirements established by ASNT-SNT-TC-1A & CP-189 and my company's written practice) where most, if not all of our inspections fall under AWS D1.1 & D1.5. Primarily I am performing MT, PT, UT, and VT inspections at fab shops, machine shops, and in the field. Our internal procedures and written practice have been approved by numerous larger companies and government bodies.

The company had the same Level III on-board for 20 years but they recently retired, so they hired on a new one. I was curious on a few things with the new Level III, if he is just trying to make his mark on the company, or if the previous Level III was just too lax.

The new Level III is not only stripping down and re-writing our written practice and every single one of our inspection method procedures, but they are telling us that for each inspection we do, we should have a testing procedure/technique written.

Now I can understand this for certain situations as called out under D1.1 or D1.5, but for standard inspections (lets say performing MT on plate to plate welds as requested by the end client), is it really necessary to write individual specs/procedures/techniques for every job or part that we inspect?

If our procedures reference relevant standard and codes, is that not sufficient enough for these inspections?

Additionally, sometimes we will have customers that want an "information only" type of inspection where they want to see if an existing weld is cracked due to stress, or want information on plate thicknesses only, and the customer references no code or standard for the inspection, is complying with our internal procedures good enough for these situations?

Thanks for any input on this, and I can certainly provide more information if needed!