Section News
Read Section News every month to see what
types of programs and activities ASNT Sections have held recently or
to catch up on what your Section has been doing. These postings for
July will also be published in the August issue of Materials Evaluation.
Photographs
Charlotte (North Carolina) [ Photograph
]
The Charlotte Section's final meeting of the season was Member Appreciation
Night, held on 4 May at Dave & Buster's in Concord, North Carolina.
Eighteen members attended and enjoyed the dinner. During the meeting,
the Section members reviewed the past season's meetings and discussed
ideas for the upcoming season. The Section also elected new officers
and board of director members for the 2009-2010 season. The new officers
are Jeff Milligan (chair), Perry Anderson (vice chair), Tom McConomy
(secretary) and Erik Lombardo (treasurer), and the board of director
members are John Turner, Paul Zayicek, Bob Smilie, Jim Neidorfer and
Gerald Russomanno. The Charlotte Section looks forward to another great
season that will begin with its 12th Annual Shrimp Boil, at FlawTech,
on 24 September. This event will be preceded that day by the 2nd Annual
George Pherigo Golf Tournament, sponsored by the NDT students at Central
Piedmont Community College.
Chicago (Illinois) [ Photograph
]
The Chicago Section welcomed Terry Tamutus, of Physical Acoustics Corporation,
to its 13 April meeting to speak about new technology involving automated
ultrasonic testing. Tamutus discussed the evolution of array transducers
and how multiple transducers can be used to test many areas of interest
in short amounts of time with high reliability. Several systems were
examined that had increased speeds and returned much more data than
the conventional "scrubbing" techniques in the field. These
automated systems vary in size and capabilities using array technology.
The data acquisition is a critical part of the testing; however, it
is useless without proper signal generation. Tamutus generated much
interest when he discussed some of the speeds and capabilities of these
systems. He was greeted by 23 Chicago Section members and guests and
was presented with gifts in appreciation of the time and effort he put
into the presentation.
Cleveland (Ohio)
The 18 May meeting of the Cleveland Section was attended by 17 members
and guests. The guest speaker for this event was Jack Fitzgerald, of
Goodrich Landing Gear. Fitzgerald, a failure analysis engineer, discussed
the ability to detect thermal damage in ferrous materials via the Barkhausen
technique, a very curious methodology that has been in existence for
many years. He discussed the ability of this technique to allow for
consistent detection of thermal damage of ferrous materials, particularly
of detection of overheated substrate through abusively ground chrome
plating.
The 50/50 drawing winners for the evening were Bob Rainone and Carl
Becker, Jr. This being the last meeting before the summer break, the
group was reminded of the upcoming Golf Outing to be held on 21 August
at Brandywine Golf Course.
Greater Houston (Texas) [ Photograph
]
The Greater Houston Section hosted 40 members and guests at its 13
May meeting at Brady's Landing restaurant. Section Chair John Iman welcomed
everyone and recognized the meeting sponsors: DTM Enterprises, GE Sensing
& Inspection Technologies and Physical Acoustics. Meeting announcements
included thanking Bob Dunn and Dwayne Witter for their roles in the
Golf Outing and Vendors Night, respectively. Both were spectacular events.
Bill Cotter reported on a successful Spring Educational on 2 May with
18 attendees for the all-day session devoted to visual testing. Iman
also recognized Lloyd Graham, Ron Hayden and Keith Wilson for their
part in a special NDT Career Day at Pasadena Memorial High School.
In other Section news, Bob Cameron was the Member of the Month for
May. TechCorr hosted an open house and BBQ lunch at their new facility
on 15 May. The ICPIIT-XI conference opened on 3 June at the Houston
Marriott North at Greenspoint.
The speaker for the evening was Whitney Strickland, vice president
and chief marketing officer of RepconStrickland. His topic was "Construction,
Maintenance and Integrity Trends in the Downstream Oil and Gas Market,"
and his presentation was a sobering look at the impact of the global
economic crisis on the Gulf Coast region. Graphs of rig counts and inventories
all pointed to a troubled future, especially for the independent refiners.
You could have heard a pin drop in the room. This was not good news,
but he was able to help the Section understand the current state of
the market. It was an excellent presentation and generated a lot of
questions. Iman thanked Strickland on behalf of the Section.
Section Vice Chair Witter presented Iman with a certificate of recognition
for serving as the Section chair for the 2008-2009 season. The Executive
Committee presented Iman with a Section chair lapel pin earlier in the
evening.
New Orleans (Louisiana)
The New Orleans Section held its 9th Annual Hands-On NDE Workshop on
21-22 May. This unique workshop allows participants from all industries
the opportunity to test various types of anomalous specimens, such as
welded plates, pipe welds, structural members, corrosion and downhole
oil country tubular goods. Participants received instruction from ASNT
NDT Level III instructors, instructors from various NDT companies, and
equipment manufacturers and suppliers. Instructors were set up at individual
tables (instructor stations) with their equipment and specimens. Participants
then spent two days rotating through each station, receiving hands-on
training on how to use the equipment and perform various NDT techniques.
Individual guidance on the various types of equipment met the objective
of the workshop, which is to improve each participant's overall testing
skills.
Equipment at individual training stations included ultrasonic phased
array and mono-probe equipment, in addition to various other UT instruments.
For the first time the workshop also included eddy current, infrared,
alternating current field measurement, visual testing and acoustic pulse
reflectometry equipment, used by various major instrument manufacturers
and suppliers. Over the years, the Workshop has been fortunate to have
very small instructor to student ratios. The Workshop was again hosted
by Source Production & Equipment Company, Inc. (SPEC), a manufacturer
of radioisotope source equipment and materials, at their training center
in St. Rose, Louisiana. However, next year the NDE Workshop will have
a new home at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Center For NDE. The
New Orleans Section will partner with the mechanical engineering department
to promote NDT education.
Because so many instructors donate their time, the cost of the entire
Workshop, which includes lunch and the evening Section meeting, is kept
to a minimum. Non-members are requested to pay an additional fee for
an annual ASNT membership, thus the Section gains many new members.
The Section is grateful to the Education Committee, Victor Hernandez,
of SBM Atlantia, David Mandina, of Mandina's Inspection, Dwight Witter,
of CAN-USA, Carlos Quintana, of Northrop Grumman and Charlie Speed,
of Materials, Corrosion & Inspection Consultants, for organizing
the event. The New Orleans Section is especially grateful to Tony Bustillo
and Kevin Schehr, of SPEC, for hosting the event for the last nine years.
The monies generated by this workshop promote future Section educational
events and annual Section scholarships.
Speed, Section educational chair, who began the Workshop in 2000, believes
that the 2010 event at the LSU Center For NDE will be bigger than ever.
For more information on ASNT educational opportunities in the South
Louisiana area, contact Speed at (504) 400-7878; e-mail charliefspeed@gmail.com;
Web site www.asntneworleans.org.
Nigeria (Warri, Delta)
The newly established Nigeria Section held its annual election on 30
May in Effurun. The Section is located in the Warri, Delta area and
is in Region 18. The newly elected Section chair is Aliu Ayotunde, who
replaces Outgoing Chair Festus Mrakpor, who is now a director of the
Section. Henry Chimezie was elected as secretary, and Mike Ugbaeide
replaced Aire Joseph as treasurer. The ASNT Board of Directors had approved
the Section's charter last year, and ASNT members in the area are invited
and encouraged to affiliate with the new Section. Contact ASNT Member
Services to join the Nigeria Section. For information on upcoming meeting
dates, contact Section Secretary Chimezie at 234 8052161735 or e-mail
him at henchn2yk@yahoo.co.uk.
Saudi Arabian (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) [ Photograph
]
The Saudi Arabian Section held its eleventh meeting of the 2008-2009
season on 25 May at the Dhahran Palace Hotel. The meeting was attended
by 85 members and guests. The presenter for the evening was Mohammad
A. Abu Four, Section treasurer, and the topic was "The Future of
the NDT Technician." At the end of presentation, a prize distribution
ceremony was held and some door prizes were given to winners by raffle.
After the prize ceremony, the attendees retired to have an excellent
buffet dinner served by the Dhahran Palace Hotel staff.
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Section news reports and photographs are published from submissions
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