Inspection Trends

Calvin E. Pepper Earns the CWI Lifetime Achievement Award

Calvin E. Pepper received the AWS Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) Lifetime Achievement Award at the AWS 103^rd Annual Business Meeting during FABTECH, Atlanta, Ga. He was inducted with a plaque and medallion.

Pepper was recognized for his work in promoting welding inspection in the industrial sector as well as in education at the secondary, technical college, and university level. He has taught at many local colleges and universities and initiated welding technology and inspection courses at each of the institutions.

He developed a device for the inspection of flow restrictions in lead transfer pipelines for a tetraethyl lead process unit at the ExxonMobil refinery in Baton Rouge, La.; expanded underwater welding inspection techniques for underwater pipelines used in offshore crude and gas gathering systems; and formulated a technique for inspecting joints in fiberglass and solid polymer piping systems. He has also been a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy and various energy companies for underwater welding and inspection techniques and procedures.

Additionally, Pepper has been a member of the AWS Qualification and Certification Committee for 35 years, including eight years as chair. He has also been a member of the Welding Handbook Committee for 22 years, serving as committee and chapter chair. He was an AWS director-at-large from 1996 to 1999 and currently serves as District 9 director. He has been awarded two AWS Lifetime Memberships.

ASNT Announces Winners for First UT Competition

The winner of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing’s (ASNT’s) first Ultrasonic Testing (UT) Competition was Aaron Guidry of Versa Integrity Group, Sulphur, La. He took home the top prize of $500. Guidry is certified through ASNT’s Industry Section Qualification for Oil & Gas (ISQ – O&G) program in ultrasonic thickness testing and ultrasonic shear wave testing. Tim Everhart of MISTRAS Group, Heath, Ohio, placed second, winning a prize of $250.

The competition was held November 1, 2022, during ASNT 2022: The Annual Conference in the exhibit hall of the event. Six Level II personnel from five different states and Peru had 30 minutes at each of five stations to standardize the equipment, conduct the test, and evaluate the sample.

Each sample offered a different challenge for competitors: carbon steel corrosion, carbon steel single-V plate weld, carbon steel pipe weld, and carbon steel double-V plate as well as a mystery sample in the shape of Texas. Naming each sample after a different horror movie added to the fun of the event.

The point system for scoring was based on the accuracy of the flaw reporting, and the winner was determined by a group of ASNT Level III subject matter experts.

“These six Level IIs were brave enough to try their hand at some very difficult corrosion and weld samples supplied by Materials Research & Technology,” said Brian Frye, ASNT ISQ program manager. “The competition was amazingly close, and the entire group finished within ten points of each other. If I were starting a UT department, I would hire all of them.” ­— Courtesy of ASNT.

InterTest and Cavitar Partner in Weld Inspection Divisions

InterTest Inc., Columbia, N.J., a remote visual inspection and nondestructive examination equipment provider, and Cavitar Ltd., Tampere, Finland, a manufacturer of diode laser illumination technology, are partnering to bolster their weld-viewing technology divisions. The agreement will increase Cavitar Welding Camera production and bring its technology to InterTest’s customer base of weld quality assurance and inspection groups within North American manufacturing, aerospace, and automotive industries.

“[Cavitar] technology, along with our distribution channels, experience, and support, will allow customers to view more welding applications and increase their productivity by reducing manufacturing scrap and human risk,” said Thomas Daly, president and owner of InterTest.

The camera uses proprietary bandpass filtering and laser illumination, allowing users to see through the bright welding arc in real time. It produces a clear image of the welding torch, weld pool, and base metals so operators can monitor, record, and adjust their welding process from a distance, reducing human safety risk and scrap on long automated production runs.

EinSource Cofounder Receives NDE Award

Ripi Singh, cofounder and chief innovation officer of EinSource, Ellington, Conn., earned the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Robert C. McMaster Gold Medal Award for outstanding contributions to the nondestructive examination (NDE) profession. The award was presented at the annual ASNT Conference, which was held in Nashville, Tenn., October 31–November 3, 2022.

“I’m grateful to the ASNT for recognizing our efforts to digitally transform the inspection industry,” Singh said. “And I’m equally grateful to my partner and coauthor of the book The World of NDE 4.0: Let the Journey Begin, Dr. Johannes Vrana. The award could have gone to either of us. I happened to be the fortunate one this year. I was happy to share the credit with him in Nashville.”

Singh is a U.S. delegate to ISO 56000 on Innovation Management Guidance; chair of NDE 4.0 for ASNT; a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering; guest editor for Springer on NDE 4.0; and a member of industrial advisory boards at the University of New Haven, the University of Hartford, Tsinghua University, and the International Association of Innovation Professionals.