The globalization of manufacturing and construction markets is broadening the range of inspection standards that might be specified for a product, and we should prepare by learning more about the various organizations that develop such standards. This paper describes the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), several other national and international standards organizations, and their interactions during the development and revision of standards for nondestructive testing (NDT).

ISO interacts with the various countries in the world through other standards organizations. For the US, these other organizations include national coordinators, such as the American National Standards Institute (administrator and coordinator of the US private sector voluntary standardization system); national standards bodies such as the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (an authorized drafting body for ISO standards); and individual technical advisory groups (TAGs) which develop national consensus responses to ISO ballots. ISO also interacts with other international standards bodies, such as the International Institute of Welding and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) which develops regional international standards, primarily for Europe.

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"Welding serves as a good example to show how inspection shows up in many different quality management elements."

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Welding serves as a good example to show how inspection shows up in many different quality management elements that span the life of a structure, from the initial planning and contract review up to record retention for the life of the structure. A recent survey of ISO welding standards ("Concept for Quality Management," IIW Document V-1099-97, available from the American Council at the American Welding Society) lists 64 standards that apply directly to the inspection issues of welded structures and that are distributed among the 22 management elements that comprise the life of a structure. New standards for these various tasks in the management elements and revisions to existing standards are currently under review by the US TAGs.

Information on these standards organizations is all available (in varying degrees) in electronic form. You can get more information on these organizations by using the Web addresses listed after their mention.

 

International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Web site www.iso.ch, is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies, one from each of approximately 100 countries. It is a nongovernmental organization established in 1947. Its mission is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world. Perhaps the most misunderstood part of ISO is that many people assume that the term ISO is an abbreviation; it is not. The ISO Web site states that ISO is a word, derived from the Greek isos, meaning equal. It is a short official title, not an acronym for the long official title, International Organization for Standardization.

ISO believes that standardization on the international level facilitates trade and technology transfer. This occurs through enhancing product quality and reliability at a reasonable price; improving health, safety, and environmental protection; reducing waste; promoting greater compatibility and interoperability of goods and services; simplifying products for improved usability; reducing the number of models, thus reducing costs; and increasing distribution efficiency and ease of maintenance.

Conversely, nonharmonized standards for similar technologies contribute to technical barriers to trade. Export minded industries want to rationalize the international trading process. This was reason that ISO was established.

Member bodies of ISO are defined as the national body "most representative of standardization in its country." Only one such body for each country is accepted for membership. These member bodies have four principal tasks:

• informing interested parties of international standardization opportunities

• developing a national position and representing it during international negotiation of standards  agreements

• ensuring that a secretariat is provided for ISO technical committees of interest

• providing their country's share of ISO membership dues.

The technical work of ISO is carried out in a hierarchy of approximately 2700 technical committees, subcommittees and working groups. In these committees, qualified representatives of organizations from all over the world come together as equal partners in the resolution of global standardization problems.

The major responsibility for administering a standards committee is accepted by one of the national standards bodies that make up the ISO membership - AFNOR, ANSI, BSI, CSBTS, DIN, SIS, etc. The member body holding the secretariat of a standards committee normally appoints one or two persons to do the technical and administrative work. A committee chairman assists committee members in reaching consensus. Generally, a consensus will mean that a particular solution to the problem at hand is the best possible one for international application at that time.

The ISO Central Secretariat in Geneva acts to ensure the flow of documentation in all directions, to clarify technical points with secretariats and chairs, and to ensure that the agreements approved by the technical committees are edited, printed, submitted as draft international standards (DIS) to ISO member bodies for voting, and published. Meetings of technical committees and subcommittees are convened by the Central Secretariat, which coordinates all such meetings with the committee secretariats before setting the date and place. Although the greater part of the ISO technical work is done by correspondence, there are, on average, a dozen ISO meetings taking place somewhere in the world every working day of the year.

Examples of ISO standards that you may have used (but may not have recognized as ISO standards) include:

• ISO international codes for country names, currencies, and languages

• ISO film speed code

ISO standards have three major characteristics:

• Consensual - The views of all interests are taken into consideration.

• Industry-wide - The standards are global solutions to satisfy industries and customers worldwide.

• Voluntary - The use of these standards is based on the voluntary involvement of the buyers and sellers.

 

ISO Technical Committee 135
Perhaps the technical committee of most interest to the NDT community is TC 135, Nondestructive Testing. The secretariat is run by H. Hatano of the Japanese Iron and Steel Committee and the chair is M. Takagi, also from Japan. The scope of the committee is standardization, covering nondestructive testing as applied generally to construction materials, components, and assemblies. The range of standards includes a glossary of terms, methods of testing, and performance specifications for testing equipment and ancillary apparatus. The standards that they do not consider are quality (which is covered by other committees) and NDT specifications for electrical equipment and apparatus (which are the responsibility of the International Electrotechnical Commission, a sister agency to ISO but with responsibility for electrotechnical topics).

The number of ISO standards and draft international standards (DIS) that are the responsibility of TC 135 and its subcommittees is 32. Thirty countries participate in TC 135 as members and another 35 as observers. The Committee has liaisons with other ISO Technical Committees (11, 17, 20, 26, 42, 44, 58, 67, 79, 85, 107, 112, 119, 155, 158) and with IEC Technical Committee 87.

The activities of Technical Committee 135 are divided by topic among six subcommittees - SC 2 on Surface Methods, SC 3 on Acoustical Methods, SC 4 on Eddy Current Methods, SC 5 on Radiation Methods, SC 6 on Leak Detection Methods, SC 7 on Personnel Qualification, and SC 8 on Infrared Thermography.

While any of the subcommittees might be used to illustrate the activities at the lower level, SC 3 on Acoustical Methods is particularly appropriate because the secretariat is held by the US In this case the secretariat is ANSI (L. Mordfin) and the chair is D. Eitzen, also from the US.

In turn, the activities of Subcommittee 3 are divided among Working Group (WG) 1 on Ultrasonic Inspection - Reference blocks (reached through ANSI) and WG 2 on Terminology (reached through JISC).

Standards of TC 135 / SC 3 include:

• ISO/DIS 5577 Nondestructive testing - Ultrasonic inspection - Vocabulary

• ISO 10375:1997 Nondestructive testing - Ultrasonic inspection - Characterization of search unit and sound field

• ISO/DIS 12709 Nondestructive testing - Ultrasonic inspection - Detection and evaluation of discontinuities by the immersed pulse-echo ultrasonic method

• ISO/DIS 12710 Nondestructive testing - Ultrasonic inspection - Evaluation of electronic characteristics of instruments

• ISO/FDIS 12713 Nondestructive testing - Acoustic emission inspection - Primary calibration of transducers

• ISO/DIS 12714 Nondestructive testing - Secondary calibration of acoustic emission transducers

• ISO/DIS 12715 Nondestructive testing - Ultrasonic inspection - Reference blocks and test procedures for the characterization of contact search unit beam profiles

• ISO/DIS 12716 Nondestructive testing - Acoustic emission inspection - Vocabulary

If you have more questions about the activities of the Committee or a Subcommittee, you can find contact information on the ISO Web site.

 

American National Standards Institute
The American National Standards Institute Web site web.ansi.org/default_js.htm, has been administrator and coordinator of the US private sector voluntary standardization system for 80 years. ANSI promotes the use of US standards internationally, advocates US policy and technical positions in international and regional standards organizations, and encourages the adoption of international standards as national standards where these meet the needs of the user community.

Its primary goal is the enhancement of global competitiveness of US business by promoting voluntary consensus standards. The Institute represents the interests of its nearly 1400 company, organization, government agency, institutional, and international members.

1. US National Standards
   ANSI does not itself develop American National Standards (ANSs); rather it facilitates development by establishing consensus among 175 qualified groups. These groups include standards bodies dedicated to NDT (such as the American Society for Nondestructive Testing) and those who have some interest in NDT (such as the American Welding Society). In 1996 alone, the number of American National Standards increased by nearly four percent to a new total of 13 056 approved ANSs.

2. International Standards
   ANSI is the sole US representative and dues paying member of the two major nontreaty international standards organizations, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and, through the US National Committee (USNC), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). ANSI was a founding member of the ISO and plays an active role in its governance. ANSI is one of five permanent members to the governing ISO Council, and one of four permanent members of ISO's Technical Management Board.

Through ANSI, the US has immediate access to the ISO and IEC standards development. ANSI participates in almost the entire technical program of both the ISO (78 percent of all ISO technical committees) and the IEC (91 percent of all IEC technical committees) and administers many key committees and subgroups (16 percent in the ISO; 17 percent in the IEC). As part of its responsibilities as the US member body to the ISO and the IEC, ANSI accredits US Technical Advisory Groups (US TAGs) or USNC Technical Advisors (TAs). The US TAGs' (or TAs') primary purpose is to develop and transmit, through ANSI, US positions on activities and ballots of the international technical committees.

In many instances, US standards are taken forward, through ANSI or its USNC, to the ISO or IEC, where they are adopted in whole or in part as international standards. Since the work of international technical committees is carried out by volunteers from industry and government, not ANSI staff, the success of these efforts often depends upon the willingness of US industry and the US government to commit the resources required to ensure strong US technical participation in international standards.

 

European Committee for Standardization
The objectives of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), Web site www.cenorm.be, are to draw up voluntary European Standards and promote corresponding conformity of products and services in areas other than electrotechnical and telecommunications. In particular, it has an agreement for technical cooperation (the Vienna Agreement) with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). (There is controversy over whether the CEN standards are voluntary; however, the web page characterizes them as voluntary.)

The CEN members are: Austria (ON), Belgium (IBN/BIN), Czech Republic (COSMT), Denmark (DS), Finland (SFS), France (AFNOR), Germany (DIN), Greece (ELOT), Iceland (STRê), Ireland (NSAI), Italy (UNI), Luxembourg (SEE), Netherlands (NNI), Norway (NSF), Portugal (IPQ), Spain (AENOR), Sweden (SIS), Switzerland (SNV), and the United Kingdom (BSI). The CEN affiliates are: Albania (DSC); Bulgaria (CSM); Croatia (DZNM); Cyprus (CYS); Estonia (EVS); Hungary (MSZH); Latvia (Department of Quality Management and Structure Development); Lithuania (LST); Malta (Malta Standardization Authority); Poland (PKN); Romania (IRS); Slovakia (UNMS); Slovenia (SMIS); and Turkey (TSE). In addition, CEN has the following corresponding organizations: EOS (Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality Control); SABS (South African Bureau of Standards); DSTU (State Committee of Ukraine for Standardization, Metrology and Certification); and SZS (Yugoslavian Federal Institution for Standardization).

 

International Institute of Welding
The International Institute of Welding (IIW), Web site www.aws.org/iiw.htm, was founded in 1948 by the welding institutes or societies in 13 countries to promote international collaboration in welding. With 43 member countries today, the objectives of the organization are:

• to promote the development of welding and to provide for the exchange of scientific and technical information on welding research and education

• to assist in the formulation of international standards for welding in collaboration with ISO

• to promote the organization of national welding associations.

The IIW has over 20 international groups of specialists that meet at least yearly on the invitation of one of the member countries. Besides hosting an international conference on some aspect of welding, three days are spent in parallel sessions for meeting of the various commissions and other working groups. The commissions and other working groups are organized by topic, with Commission V dedicated to quality control and quality assurance of welded products. The yearly meetings (as well as intermediate meetings) are used to stimulate research and to disseminate information on welding processes, their application (including inspection), and other associated subjects. Each year about 400 papers emanate from the IIW working units, of which some are published in the IIW journal Welding in the World, while others become books dealing with recommended practices.

These technical discussions often form the technical basis for standards, and have supplied the basis for the great majority of the welding standards issued by the ISO over the past 30 years. Members of these working units and their employers therefore have a major influence over the content of such standards. Since 1989, the IIW has been authorized by ISO to prepare the final texts of international welding standards as an international standardizing organization. The first ISO standards produced entirely by the IIW were published in 1990.

Thus, participation in the IIW offers a method to gain early access to the development of an inspection standard, before ISO balloting sends the draft standard to the TAGs in the various countries. An example of how the process works is illustrated the current efforts on the design of the IIW ultrasonic inspection block and black light inspection of weldments at elevated temperature.

Commission V became aware of variations in IIW calibration blocks and issued a resolution in 1997:

• Commission V advises the other commissions that recent round robins have shown more than 12 dB variation in the sensitivity setting of IIW ultrasonic calibration blocks. Various institutes are now investigating this problem, with the goal of revising the standard (ISO 2400). Any organization interested in participating should contact Hermann Wustenberg at BAM in Berlin, Germany.
  
  Commission V has been investigating procedures for dye penetrant inspection of hot surfaces, under the leadership of the Italian delegation. At the 1998 Assembly, F. Peri offered a draft standard for ISO and the supporting documentation. The Commission passed two resolutions:

• Resolution 5: Commission V forwards Document V-1112-98 "Non-Destructive Testing - Characterization of Penetrants for Hot Surfaces in Weld Inspection" to ISO through Route 1.

• Resolution 6: Commission V forwards Document V-1113-98 "Penetrants for Hot Surfaces in Welding Inspection: Experimental Work and First Results" for publication in Welding in the World.

Access to the IIW is through the American Council of the IIW at AWS.

 

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing
The American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), Web site www.asnt.org, plays a major role in the certification and qualification of NDT personnel by developing and maintaining Recommended Practice No. SNT-TC-1A, known throughout the world as the principal guideline for NDT personnel qualification, and ANSI/ASNT CP-189-1991, the ASNT Standard for Qualification and Certification of Nondestructive Testing Personnel. The Society serves as the major international source for NDT Level III certification by examination; with nearly 3400 NDT professionals in 40 countries holding valid ASNT NDT Level III certificates. ASNT also offers the Industrial Radiography Radiation Safety Personnel (IRRSP) certification program, instituted in cooperation with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which provides a third party national safety program for industrial radiographers. To date, more than 600 radiographers have been ASNT certified by the program. In November 1996, examinations began for ACCP, the ASNT Central Certification Program, a new, independent, portable NDT certification by examination.

In the area of publications, ASNT maintains the world's largest catalog of NDT education and reference materials, providing information on virtually every aspect of NDT. Publications produced by the Society include Materials Evaluation, the Society's archived monthly technical journal, featuring the latest NDT and ASNT news; Research in Nondestructive Evaluation, a quarterly journal publishing original research in all areas of NDT; and the Nondestructive Testing Handbook, recognized worldwide as the definitive NDT reference source, plus Level III Study Guides, the Q&A series, and many key educational materials. The Society also operates the ASNT Information Center, which provides a central archive and retrieval point for NDT related information. Literature searches and document delivery are among the Information Center's key services.

 

American Society for Testing and Materials
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Web site www.astm. org, is a not-for-profit organization that provides a forum for producers, users, ultimate consumers, and others having a general interest (representatives of government and academia) to meet on common ground and write standards for materials, products, systems, and services. Organized in 1898, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has grown into one of the largest voluntary standards development systems in the world. From the work of 132 standards writing committees, ASTM publishes standard test methods, specifications, practices, guides, classifications, and terminology. ASTM's standards development activities encompass metals, paints, plastics, textiles, petroleum, construction, energy, the environment, consumer products, medical services and devices, computerized systems, electronics, and many other areas. ASTM Headquarters has no technical research or testing facilities; such work is done voluntarily by 35 000 technically qualified ASTM members located throughout the world.

More than 10 000 ASTM standards are published each year in the 72 volumes of the Annual Book of ASTM Standards. These standards and related information are sold throughout the world.

ASTM technical committees are the specific arenas in which ASTM standards are developed. There are 132 ASTM main technical committees and each is divided into subcommittees. The subcommittee is the primary unit in ASTM's standards development system, as it comprises the highest degree of expertise in a given area. Subcommittees are further subdivided into task groups. Task group members do not have to be ASTM members; many task groups seek non-ASTM members to provide special expertise in a given area.

Most of the inspection topics are handled by Committee E-7, Nondestructive Testing. Its work is divided by topic among the following subcommittees

• E07.01 Radiology (X and Gamma) Method

• E07.02 Reference Radiological Images

• E07.03 Liquid Penetrant and Magnetic Particle Methods

• E07.04 Acoustic Emission Method

• E07.05 Radiology (Neutron) Method

• E07.06 Ultrasonic Method

• E07.07 Electromagnetic Method

• E07.08 Leak Testing Method

• E07.09 Nondestructive Testing Agencies

• E07.10 Emerging NDT Methods

• E07.91 USA Participation in ISO TC193/

• and some administrative subcommittees.

The standards produced and maintained by this committee are included in Volume 3.03, Nondestructive Testing, of the Annual Book of ASTM Standards. This volume presently contains 129 standards.

 

American Welding Society
One area of interest of the American Welding Society (AWS), Web site www.aws. org, is how nondestructive testing is applied in welding. Two aspects of this are through its interactions with the NDT interests in the IIW (particularly Commission V) and in the area of certification of personnel.

AWS is designated by the IIW as the main member society for the US (which includes duties on the transmission of IIW documents to the IIW Delegates and Experts in the US), and serves as the secretariat for the American Council of the IIW. The American Council of the IIW has served to bring together the various welding interests in the US, including those within both AWS and the Welding Research Council, to select the official representatives for the various IIW working parties, and to promote the transfer of information between US experts and those in other countries. R. French is the secretary of the American Council and can be reached at the e-mail address listed in the IIW Web site.

The other AWS interest is in the certification of weld inspection personnel. While much weld inspection is visual, various other technologies are also applied. AWS offers certification for the following different levels: Certified Associate Welding Inspector, Certified Welding Inspector, Senior Certified Welding Inspector, and NDT Inspector-Radiographic Interpretation.

 

American Society for Quality
The ISO 9000 standards apply to quality management systems. The ISO 14000 standards apply to environmental management systems. Note that these standards do not apply to products but to management systems. The QS-9000 requirements developed by the Big Three automakers are based on the ISO 9000 standards.

As the secretariat for the American National Standards Institute's (ANSI) ASC Z-1 Committee on Quality Assurance, the American Society for Quality (ASQ), Web site www.asqc.org/standcert.html, provides direction on and builds consensus for national and international standards. ASQ volunteers play key roles in developing the ISO 9000 series standards, originally adopted nationally as the Q90 series standards and recently revised and redesignated as the Q9000 series standards. They do so through their involvement in the US Technical Advisory Group for ISO Technical Committee 176, administered by ASQ on behalf of ANSI.

 

Some Current Trends

• The number of international NDT standards is expected to continue to grow as standards are written to cover new techniques and variations, and as standard developers fill in the gaps in the 22 elements of ISO 3834.

• The use of international standards will grow as international trade increases.

• Competition is growing in NDT certification programs, with new or expanded programs competing with existing programs such as Certification Scheme for Welding and Inspection Personnel (CSWIP), Worldwide Radiographic Inspector Approval per ISO 9712 (NDT-RI), ASNT Central Certification Program (ACCP), the ASNT guideline for NDT personnel qualification (SNT-TC-1A), and the ASNT Standard for Qualification and Certification of Nondestructive Testing Personnel (ANSI/ASNT CP-189-1991).

 

For More Information About Activities in International Standards
Participate in a TAG

• ASTM Committee E07.91 - US TAG to ISO TC 135

• AWS - US TAG to ISO TC 44

• ASQ - US TAG to ISO TC 176 (ISO 9000 series)

Read Reports of International Meetings

• Annual Reports of Commission V (covering the NDT issues in welding) of the International Institute of Welding, in Materials Evaluation (For the latest report, see the May 1999 issue, pp. 494-498).

• European-American Workshop: Determination of Reliability and Validation Methods for NDT - Berlin, Germany, June 18-20, 1997. A second workshop was held September 21 to 24 in Boulder, Colorado.  A report should be available soon.

Attend International Meetings Held in the US

• Meetings of ISO TC 164 were hosted by NIST in Colorado during July 1998.

• An international workshop on NDT Standards was held in conjunction with the ASNT Spring Meeting in Orlando, Florida on March 24, 1999, and was followed by meetings of the International Institute of Welding Subcommissions on NDT techniques on March 25. Future meetings may be held in the country if we find a convenient location and a reason for the foreign delegates to travel to this country. Watch the ASNT Calendar for further details or changes to these dates.

Attend International Committee Meetings

• The best way to represent a position is in person. Sometimes written comments are not persuasive because the committee is unclear on some aspect. Yes, it is hard to justify the costs of trips to these meetings, but being there in person allows you to respond to questions and clarify a point of view. Contact the US delegate, Richard French, to learn the rules. He can be reached at (800) 443-9353, or e-mail rfrench@aws.org.

*   National Institute of Standards and Technology, Materials Reliability Division, MC 853, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303-3328; (303) 497-3523; fax (303) 497-5030; siewert@nist.gov.

Copyright © 1999 by the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

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Copyright © 2010 by the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Inc. ASNT is not responsible for the authenticity or accuracy of information herein. Published opinions and statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ASNT. Products or services that are advertised or mentioned do not carry the endorsement or recommendation of ASNT.

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