ASNT Level III Consulting — Your Outside NDT Level 3 Consultant for Written Practices, Procedures and Audits

What is an outsourced NDT Level III?

An outsourced NDT Level III is an ASNT Level III engaged from outside your company, an outside agency Level III, who carries out the Level III duties your written practice assigns: approving procedures and techniques, preparing and grading examinations, and overseeing personnel qualification. Your company remains the certifying employer.

Either way the arrangement is written into the employer's written practice, which names what the outside Level III signs.

What stays with your company: the written practice itself, the decision to certify, the certificates and the records. What the outside agency Level III brings: the technical approval, the examinations and the audit-ready paperwork behind each certification.

Atlantis's Level III work is led by founder Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III in five methods (UT, RT, MT, PT, VT), with 11+ years of international NDT field experience. A Level III approves only within the methods they hold, so every proposal names the methods it covers. About the founder.

What our NDT Level III consulting covers

Written practices to ASNT SNT-TC-1A and ANSI/ASNT CP-189; NDT procedures and technique sheets approved within the Level III's certified methods; personnel qualification, examinations and vision-test records; and audit preparation and responses for customer, supplier and ISO-style audits. Aerospace written practices built on SNT-TC-1A and aligned to customer flow-down and Nadcap AC7114 are covered by our ASNT NDT Level III consulting, described further down this page.

See also: NDT consulting services, written-practice development, free written-practice template, ASNT certification guide.

Your NDT Level 3 consultant: Anoop Rayavarapu

Level III work at Atlantis NDT is led by founder Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III in UT, RT, MT, PT and VT, with 11+ years of international NDT field experience. A Level III approves only within the methods held, so every proposal names the methods it covers.

You can confirm a current ASNT certification yourself in ASNT's certificant directory. See also about the founder.

What a Level III engagement delivers

How a Level III engagement runs

1. Scope. Agree the methods, levels, codes and customer specifications in scope, and who signs certifications for your company.
2. Review. Read your written practice, procedures and technician files against SNT-TC-1A or CP-189 and your customer requirements.
3. Draft and approve. Issue drafts with every open question marked, then approve the final written practice, procedures and technique sheets.
4. Examine. Prepare and grade the examinations; your company then certifies its people against the approved written practice.
5. Stay on record. Remain your outside agency Level III for audits, procedure revisions and recertification, if you want that cover.

Each proposal sets its own timeline, because it rests on the scope and on how quickly records are available.

How to choose an outside Level III

Five questions settle most of the decision:

• Which methods do you hold ASNT NDT Level III in, and can I check them? A Level III approves only within those methods.
• Have you written practices and procedures for our codes and customer specifications, such as ASME Section V, AWS D1.1 or a client's own standard?
• What do you sign, and what stays with us? Certification stays with the employer; the outside Level III signs what the written practice assigns.
• How will you treat our existing procedures: rewrite them, review them, or approve them as written?

The four signatures an auditor traces

An auditor does not assess your Level III in the abstract. The auditor picks a technician's certificate and walks backwards through four signatures, stopping at the first one that is missing, unsigned, out of method scope or out of date: written practice approval, procedure approval, examination approval and grading, and the qualification recommendation behind the certificate.

SNT-TC-1A anchors the first and the third: the employer's written practice is on file and approved by the employer's Level III, and the Level III approves and grades the examinations given for certification. ASME Section V, Article 1 (T-150) anchors the second where the referencing Code Section requires examinations to a written procedure. The fourth is the one firms get wrong: an outside Level III recommends qualification, and the certifying signature belongs to the employer. NDT written practice development covers the document at the top of the chain.

Method scope: the limit on every signature

Every one of those signatures is bounded by method. Certification is granted method by method, so a Level III certified in UT and PT approves UT and PT procedures and grades UT and PT examinations, and cannot reach other methods with the same signature. Seniority does not extend scope, and neither does a customer's willingness to accept it at the time.

Two controls keep an arrangement inside its scope. The scope statement lists the methods covered, the scheme each was certified under and the certification expiry; ASNT NDT Level III certification renews on a five-year cycle. And adding a method triggers a scope review before the first procedure in it is written. See what an outside Level III can and cannot sign.

A short tour of Atlantis NDT

A short tour of Atlantis NDT: the ERP workflow configurator, a sample digital twin inspection report, the browser-based ultrasonic A-scan demo, NDT training pathways, Level III consulting and the inspection quotation form. Digital twin data shown is labelled sample data.

Free documents to start from

Most outsourced Level III engagements begin with a written practice and a training and experience plan. You can see the shape of both before you talk to us.

• NDT written practice template (SNT-TC-1A structure)
• Training requirements matrix by method and level
• SNT-TC-1A hours planner: classroom and OJT hours left per technician
• Running an SNT-TC-1A programme as an employer: the four findings auditors write

Frequently asked questions

Can an outside Level III sign our written practice?

Yes, and it is one of the main reasons firms engage one. SNT-TC-1A requires the written practice to be on file and approved by the employer's Level III, and an outside agency Level III designated in that document satisfies the requirement. An auditor checks two things: that the person holds current certification in the relevant methods, and that the involvement is genuine and documented rather than a name on a cover sheet.

Can an outside agency certify my NDT employees?

No. Under SNT-TC-1A certification is employer-based, so your company issues and signs the certificates. An outside Level III supplies the approving authority: written practice, examinations, procedure approval and oversight. The certifying employer remains you.

Which methods can be covered?

UT (including the phased array and TOFD techniques), RT, MT, PT and VT, the five methods in which the founder holds ASNT NDT Level III certification. Other methods need a Level III certified in them; that is raised at scoping and named in the proposal, never covered by extending a signature beyond its scope.

Our Level III resigned: what happens to our certifications?

Existing certifications remain valid, but the authority that approved them has gone. Until a replacement Level III is designated, no new personnel can be qualified, no procedure can be approved, and the next audit will ask who currently holds that authority. Designating an interim outside Level III closes the gap; see what to do when your Level III resigns.

Is an outside Level III cheaper than hiring one?

Usually, when your Level III work is intermittent: a staff Level III is a full salary against demand that comes in cycles of written practice reviews, procedure approvals, examinations and audits. The comparison turns on how often you qualify people and approve procedures rather than on headcount alone, and the proposal is quoted on that scope.

Which scheme applies: SNT-TC-1A or CP-189?

Your customer contract decides. Contracts specifying ANSI/ASNT CP-189 impose a standard using "shall" rather than a recommended practice. Absent either, SNT-TC-1A employer-based certification is the default across US industrial work.

Does an outside Level III cover a Nadcap audit?

A designated Responsible Level 3 satisfies the personnel-authority requirement that AC7114 assesses against prime flow-down and the employer’s written practice. It does not by itself close the record findings that generate most Nadcap results: vision test currency, OJT documentation and retained examination papers remain the employer's responsibility.

Can a fractional Level III sign off on new inspection procedures?

Yes. Procedure and technique approval is core to the Level III role whether the engagement is full-time or outsourced; what changes with a fractional arrangement is the review cadence, not the signature authority. The approval stays within the methods the Level III holds.

What does an NDT Level III consultant do?

An NDT Level III consultant writes and approves the documents your NDT programme runs on (the written practice, procedures and technique sheets), administers and grades the qualification examinations, interprets codes and standards, and supports audits. The consultant acts for your company; your company remains the employer that certifies its technicians.

Will our customers accept a procedure approved by an outsourced Level III?

Generally yes, when the outside Level III is named in your written practice, holds the method certification and the approval is documented. Some aerospace primes and operators require their own approval of outside Level IIIs, so check each customer's requirements before relying on it.

Speak to an ASNT NDT Level III

Atlantis NDT provides ASNT Level III consulting, NDT training to ASNT SNT-TC-1A, inspection management software and independent report validation. Request a free consultation and we will return a tailored quote — affordable, accessible and fully customizable to your programme.