NDT Equipment and Calibration Management in the UK and Europe

NDT equipment by serial number: issue and return, reservations, calibration and maintenance history. Request a demo. Affordable. Accessible. Fully customizable. Quote on request.

Equipment control for UK and European NDT companies

European inspection companies tend to work to more equipment standards than anyone else, and to be audited on them more often. A UK firm might send a crew offshore from Aberdeen on Monday, support a power station outage in the Midlands on Wednesday and inspect pressure equipment for a fabricator working under the Pressure Equipment Directive on Friday. A Dutch or German company might split its week between a Rotterdam or Ludwigshafen chemical site, a rail workshop and an aerospace customer. Every one of those clients expects to see that the instrument used was verified, calibrated and in good condition.

The Asset Management app in Atlantis NDT ERP is the register behind that evidence. Flaw detectors, phased array and TOFD units, eddy current sets, probes and wedges, scanners, yokes, UV-A sources, light meters, densitometers, reference blocks, exposure devices and dose rate meters are each tracked by serial, with holder, condition, lifecycle stage, calibration and maintenance history.

It is not plant integrity software. It does not hold your clients' vessels, pipework or offshore structures, their inspection history or their inspection plans. It manages the equipment your company owns or rents. It is part of Atlantis NDT ERP, a pre-configured and customised Atlantis ERP system that Atlantis NDT sets up with you.

What the app tracks

Every serialised item records equipment type, serial number, asset tag, firmware version, accessories, assigned person, condition and lifecycle stage: new, active, in calibration, in repair, rented out, retired or disposed. Calibration frequency and status sit on the record, and rental rates can be recorded for kit you hire to other firms.

Equipment standards: characterisation, verification and daily checks

European NDT equipment standards separate what a lab does from what the operator does. For ultrasonics, EN ISO 22232 parts 1 to 3 cover characterisation and verification of instruments, probes and combined equipment, with periodic verification by the user between full characterisations. Magnetic particle equipment falls under EN ISO 9934-3, penetrant equipment under EN ISO 3452-4, and viewing conditions under EN ISO 3059, which is why UV-A and visible light meters appear on so many audit checklists. Technique standards such as EN ISO 17640 for weld ultrasonics and EN ISO 17636 for weld radiography then refer back to properly verified equipment.

The app gives each of these a place. A full characterisation by an external lab goes in as a calibration record with provider, certificate number, the standard referenced, range, result and next due date. Periodic user verification can be recorded against the same serial with its result, so an auditor sees both layers in one history. Your Level III sets frequencies per equipment type, and the register shows status without manual date checks.

A conditional result deserves attention in European work, where a verification might pass with a restriction on frequency range or probe type. Recording it as conditional keeps that restriction visible to whoever issues the kit next.

If your procedures need a particular daily or weekly check sheet laid out for a specific standard, that layout is configured during implementation.

Accredited calibration across the UK and EU

In the UK, calibration labs are accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 by UKAS. On the continent the national bodies include DAkkS in Germany, COFRAC in France, RvA in the Netherlands, ACCREDIA in Italy and ENAC in Spain, with mutual recognition through the European co-operation for Accreditation. Firms working across borders often use more than one lab, and some send instruments back to manufacturer service centres elsewhere in Europe.

The certificate register records the lab accreditation number for each certificate, and each calibration carries an accredited-lab flag. In Purchase, calibration labs are typed vendors with accreditation number and accreditation expiry, so a lab whose accreditation lapses is noticed before your next shipment. Purchase order lines link to the exact serial being sent, which keeps calibration spend per instrument visible.

Daily email alerts for calibration certificates are configured with recipients, look-ahead days and a resend interval. Alerts go to the people who can act, typically the equipment coordinator and QA manager, well before a certificate expires and an offshore mobilisation stalls on the quayside.

Radiography in the UK: IRR17, permits and transport

Industrial radiography in Great Britain works under the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017, with HSE registration or consent, a Radiation Protection Adviser, and radiation monitoring equipment that must be properly maintained and tested by a qualified person at suitable intervals. Holding sealed sources also needs environmental permits from the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales or, in Scotland, SEPA, with high-activity sealed source controls where they apply. Road transport falls under the Carriage of Dangerous Goods regulations implementing ADR. Across the EU, member states apply the Basic Safety Standards Directive 2013/59/Euratom through their own national rules.

The app covers the equipment side. Exposure devices, source containers, dose rate meters, electronic personal dosimeters, collimators and guide tubes each have a serial record. Monitor tests and calibrations go in as calibration records with due dates and alerts. Device inspection and servicing sit in the maintenance log. Issuing radiography equipment can require supervisor and manager approval, and movements show every trip between store, site and service provider. Source-carrying vehicles sit in Fleet, which records whether a vehicle can carry sources, the transport licence number and expiry, and its assignment to a project and driver.

Permit-format source records, HASS records, leak test logs and source activity calculations are not built in. If you want them in the ERP, they are scoped with your RPA and radiation protection supervisor during implementation.

Offshore work and the North Sea

Offshore work adds a layer of logistics. Equipment for a North Sea platform leaves an Aberdeen or Stavanger base, goes through a supply base or heliport, sits offshore for a trip and comes back weeks later, sometimes with a different technician. Hazardous-area instruments may need ATEX documentation, and operators expect the calibration certificate to travel with the kit.

Outbound and inbound movements record each leg. Reservations make sure the phased array set promised for a platform campaign is not also promised to an onshore job. Issue and return handles crew changes: the returning technician returns the kit with its condition, and the incoming technician is issued it, rather than it simply staying on the rig without a named holder. The issued equipment overdue KPI shows kit that should have come back after a trip.

ATEX certificate details and hazardous-area markings can be captured as additional fields or attachments configured during implementation. For marine and offshore reporting, the ERP's NDT Reports app has a marine mode that merges the class society certificate, the inspector's certificate and the calibration certificate into the report PDF, so the calibration evidence reaches the client with the report.

GDPR and technician data

Equipment records are not only about equipment. Issue records, approvals, condition notes and holders all name individual technicians, and under UK GDPR and the EU GDPR that is personal data. You need a clear purpose for holding it, sensible access control and a retention approach.

Atlantis ERP's access rights let you limit who sees what: storemen see equipment and holders, managers see approvals and damage notes, technicians see their own issued kit. Retention rules for issue history and where the system is hosted are agreed during implementation, so the setup fits your data protection policies. The same applies to technician qualification records held in the Certificates app, where PCN and EN ISO 9712 certificates are recorded alongside other schemes.

How it connects to the rest of the ERP

If your clients want inspection results on a 3D model of their asset, that is Atlantis's companion product, Digital Twin Reporting Software, which works alongside the ERP's NDT Reports app.

Setting it up for a UK or European company

We import your current register, including serials, types, asset tags, firmware, accessories, holders and lifecycle stages, and load current certificates with PDFs, lab accreditation numbers and due dates. Your Level III agrees frequencies for external calibration and user verification per equipment type. Managers agree approval steps for radiography and high-value equipment.

Multi-country firms can run separate companies or bases with their own stores and consumable reorder levels. Languages are set per user from Atlantis ERP's standard language packs. Alert recipients and intervals are configured, and anything client- or regulator-specific is agreed as customisation scope before work starts. Cost is quoted on request: affordable, accessible and fully customisable. Book an Asset Management demo.

Rail, aerospace and power: different audits, one register

Many European NDT companies serve sectors that audit equipment in very different ways. Rail maintenance depots expect ultrasonic inspection of wheelsets and axles with dedicated probes and reference blocks. Aerospace customers work to prime contractor specifications, with personnel qualified under EN 4179 and equipment control examined closely by customer and Nadcap auditors. Power generation outages, conventional and nuclear, bring client-specific equipment lists and firm expectations about which instrument and firmware version were used.

Running all of that from separate spreadsheets per sector is how a probe qualified for one client ends up on another client's job, or how a reference block is sent to a rail depot while the aerospace team is waiting for it. A single register avoids that. Each serial carries its accessories, so a probe, cable and wedge qualified together stay together. Firmware is recorded on the item and every update is logged, so you can say which version was used on a given date. Reservations stop two sector teams booking the same set for overlapping dates.

Calibration records and user verification results sit against the same serial, so whichever auditor arrives, the evidence looks the same. If one sector needs a particular equipment list or check sheet layout, for example a rail client's equipment schedule or an aerospace customer's daily check format, that is configured during implementation as part of the agreed customisation scope rather than assumed to be built in.

The Certificates app completes the picture on the people side, recording PCN, EN ISO 9712 and other certificates your technicians hold, so equipment and personnel evidence can be shown to the same auditor from the same system.

Moving kit between the UK and the EU

Since the UK left the EU, moving NDT equipment across the Channel or the North Sea is paperwork again. Instruments going to a job in the Netherlands, Norway or Germany, or coming back to the UK for calibration, pass through customs. Many companies use ATA carnets or other temporary export arrangements for professional equipment, and each one lists serials that must come back.

Outbound and inbound movement records give you the trail: which serials left, when, to which site or lab, and when they returned. If your team wants the carnet or customs reference stored on each movement, that field is added during implementation. The in-calibration and in-repair lifecycle stages show units away at a continental lab or manufacturer, and reservations stop planners committing them while they are still in transit.

Radiography equipment is a separate matter. Moving exposure devices and sources between countries needs its own authorisations and transport arrangements, handled by your radiation protection adviser and specialist carriers. The app records the equipment side of those trips, while the regulatory steps stay with the people responsible for them.

Group companies with entities in more than one country can run them as separate companies in the ERP, each with its own stores, consumables and VAT setup, while equipment moves between them with a movement record rather than an email.

Frequently asked questions

Can we record both lab characterisation and user verification?

Yes. Both go against the same serial with their own dates, results and references, so the full picture is in one history.

Does it record UKAS or other national accreditation numbers?

Yes. The certificate register stores the lab accreditation number, and lab vendors carry accreditation number and expiry.

Does it replace our IRR17 or permit records?

No. It manages radiography equipment, monitor calibrations and movements. Permit-format records are scoped during implementation if needed.

Can the ERP record PCN and ISO 9712 certificates?

Yes. The Certificates app records PCN and EN ISO 9712 certificates your technicians already hold. Atlantis NDT does not offer PCN or ISO 9712 training; its training is based on ASNT SNT-TC-1A only.

Is it for managing our clients' offshore assets?

No. It manages your company's NDT instruments, probes, blocks and consumables only.

Talk to us

Send us your equipment list and the countries you work in. Request an Asset Management quote and we will show you how it fits.

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Built for any business that runs on operations

Most companies do not fail at their craft. They lose time, margin and goodwill in the gaps between the tools they use to run the place — a quoting spreadsheet that does not talk to the job sheet, a job sheet that does not reach accounts, and a compliance folder nobody can search when a client asks. Atlantis closes those gaps by putting the whole operation on one platform, so information is entered once and everything downstream stays in step.

What you can run on it

  • Sales and CRM — leads, quotes, follow-ups and the pipeline that tells you what next month looks like.
  • Projects and job costing — plan the work, track the hours and materials against it, and see the margin while the job is still live rather than at final account.
  • Field and service teams — dispatch, schedules, mobile capture that works with no signal, and sign-off from site.
  • Inventory and purchasing — stock, suppliers, reorder points and goods receipt, joined to the jobs that consume them.
  • People — records, qualifications and licences with renewal reminders, timesheets, leave and payroll.
  • Quality and documents — procedures and forms under revision control, with the audit trail an inspection or accreditation body actually asks for.
  • Accounts — invoicing, expenses, multi-currency and the reporting your accountant stops chasing you for.

Affordable, accessible, fully customizable — and we mean each word

Affordable because the whole suite is included rather than sold to you a module at a time, and because implementation is done by people who have run operations rather than by a chain of subcontractors. Accessible because it runs in a browser and on a phone, works for a small team on day one, and does not need a specialist on staff to keep it alive. Fully customizable because your process is the thing that makes you competitive — the software should bend to it, not the other way round.

Industries we configure for

Service businesses and contractors, manufacturing and fabrication, trading and distribution, laboratories and testing houses, engineering consultancies, construction and facilities, and asset owners across energy, marine, aerospace and infrastructure. Inspection and testing is where we started, and it remains the sector we go deepest in — but the platform underneath is general-purpose, and most of what it does has nothing to do with inspection at all.

What happens when you get in touch

A short conversation, not a sales sequence. We ask how the business runs today and where it hurts, show you the platform doing that work, and send a written quote shaped to your region, your team size and the scope you actually need. No obligation, nothing to install first, and no pressure to decide on the call. Reach out and tell us what you are trying to fix.

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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.