Building a US NDT Crew From Scratch — The Certification Sequence That Works

What order should a new inspection company certify its crew in?

Level III authority first, surface methods second, volumetric methods third — and sequenced against supervision capacity rather than against budget. Companies that start by sending several people on a UT course usually stall, because nothing they do can be certified until somebody has the authority to certify it.

Step one: the authority to certify anybody at all

Under SNT-TC-1A the employer certifies its own people, and a Level III must own the Written Practice, approve examinations and sign certifications. Without that, training hours accumulate and produce no certified technician. A new company has two routes: develop a Level III internally, which is slower but builds a permanent asset, or contract the function while the internal candidate qualifies. Most companies that grow successfully do both — contract first so work can start, develop in parallel so the dependency ends.

Step two: surface methods, because they build the base

MT and PT are the sensible first certifications. They cover a large share of routine scope, the practical examinations are more forgiving, and they let a new crew accumulate genuine documented experience quickly. VT belongs here too and is undervalued — it is the examination that decides where every other method gets deployed, and a crew strong in visual inspection wastes far less volumetric time.

Step three: volumetric, where the contracts are

UT is where inspection contracts are actually won, and it is also where practical examinations fail most often. It needs the most supervised repetition, which is why it comes after the crew has a supervision base rather than before. RT brings a whole additional layer — radiation safety, source logistics, exclusion zones and regulatory obligations that exist for no other method — so treat it as a business decision about whether to offer it at all, not simply the next certification.

Advanced techniques such as phased array come after conventional UT is genuinely solid. They are a technique layered on top of the method, and a crew that is shaky on conventional ultrasonics will not be rescued by better equipment.

What actually sets the timeline

Not money — documented experience hours under supervision. Those cannot be compressed, and every candidate accumulating them consumes a certified person's attention. Two candidates against one supervisor is workable; five is a queue. The single most common planning error is budgeting for five courses and discovering the company can only supervise two people at once.

Getting the paperwork right from day one

Write the Written Practice before certifying anybody, and write it to match what the company will actually do rather than copying a template wholesale — every hour and every requirement in it becomes binding on you. Keep personnel records complete from the first candidate: training, experience, examinations, vision tests. Retrofitting records for an early crew before a first client audit is miserable work, and it is why growing contractors move certification tracking into a system early.

Atlantis trains new crews on-site and supports the programme behind them. Talk to us about a crew development plan.