NDT Simulator and Practical Training in Quebec City and Lévis

Look across the St. Lawrence from the old city of Quebec and you see the two industries that define inspection demand in this region. On the Lévis shore, a historic shipyard has begun building a heavy polar icebreaker for the Canadian Coast Guard under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, with steel cutting and a production-start ceremony in 2026. A little further along the same shore, one of Canada’s largest oil refineries receives crude by ship at its deepwater dock and turns it into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil. Add the Port of Québec, hydroelectric and industrial plants, and bridges such as the Pont de Québec, and you have a region where heavy welds, thick plate, corrosion and pressure equipment keep inspectors busy year-round. Atlantis built the first-ever online practical NDT simulation portal for practice and hands-on experience, and Practical NDT brings that practice to Quebec City inspectors in a browser or app: an immersive 3D, game-like environment where you handle a virtual phased array probe, yoke or penetrant kit, work a realistic weld or tank, find or miss the flaw and get scored feedback immediately. It is built for any level, from a welding student at a vocational school to a Level III supervising a shipyard or refinery inspection crew.

Why Hands-On NDT Practice Matters for Shipbuilding in Lévis

A large shipbuilding programme changes the inspection workload of a region almost overnight. A heavy icebreaker is built from thick, high-strength steel designed to handle ice loads, assembled into blocks and joined by kilometres of welds, many of them full-penetration joints that must be inspected volumetrically. Hull, deck, bulkhead and machinery foundation welds call for visual inspection and magnetic particle testing at the surface, with ultrasonic testing, phased array and in some cases radiography below it. Much of this work will fall on technicians who are new to the trade or new to shipbuilding, because a programme of this size draws new hires from across Quebec. Physical flawed weld specimens that show the right defects in the right thicknesses are expensive and scarce, and shipyards do not have spare production time for people to practise on them. That is where a simulator is useful. A trainee can build fundamentals on weld coupons in guided lessons before joining the block-assembly line. A working technician can rehearse lack of sidewall fusion, incomplete penetration, slag lines, porosity clusters and toe cracks on thick welds until recognition is automatic, and see exactly what was missed. A Level III can benchmark a growing crew objectively, because everyone sees the same defect in the same joint. In a cold climate where a lot of work happens in covered halls or in winter conditions, being able to practise in a warm office or at home is also a real advantage.

Matching Practical NDT Environments to Quebec City Work

Practical NDT is organised into five workplace environments, and in the Quebec City region the Welding Workshop leads. Its 52 jobs use weld coupons and fabrication joints, which is where technicians practise visual weld acceptance, magnetic particle on ferritic welds, angle-beam UT on full-penetration joints and the phased array and TOFD techniques used on thicker plate. For the Lévis refinery and the region’s process plants, the Oil & Gas Site environment is the next match: 73 jobs in a process plant covering weld inspection on piping, corrosion screening, IRIS internal rotary UT on heat-exchanger tubes, LRUT guided-wave screening on pipe runs and PMI alloy verification. The Storage Tank environment, with UT shell thickness surveys and MFL floor screening on a full-size tank, maps onto refinery tank farms and bulk storage at port terminals, where floor corrosion and shell thinning are recurring concerns. The NDT Lab environment, with 52 jobs on bench specimens and reference blocks, suits students and anyone refreshing calibration and signal interpretation. The Aircraft Hangar environment, with 54 jobs, supports aviation maintenance at the regional airport and anyone who wants eddy current practice. The simulator does not reproduce the Lévis shipyard, the refinery or any specific Quebec City facility, and we do not claim it replicates their procedures; its value is that the techniques practised are the ones local work uses.

Methods You Can Practise: Phased Array Simulator, TOFD and Ultrasonic Testing Simulator

Twelve methods are covered. For shipbuilding and heavy fabrication, the most relevant are the volumetric ones. The ultrasonic testing simulator makes you choose probe, angle and frequency, set range and sensitivity, scan welds with coverage and skew, and then locate and size reflectors. The phased array simulator adds sectorial and linear scans, focal-law thinking and interpretation of stacked views, which is how much modern weld inspection on thick plate is done. TOFD scenarios teach tip-diffraction signals for through-wall sizing, and RT scenarios train radiographic image interpretation for porosity, inclusions, lack of fusion and cracks without radiation exposure. Surface methods are PT, MT and VT: magnetic particle scenarios cover yoke placement and field direction on ferritic welds, penetrant scenarios enforce the full processing sequence on non-magnetic parts, and visual scenarios build systematic weld examination. Electromagnetic methods are ET and MFL, the latter used for tank floor screening. The specialised methods are LRUT guided-wave screening, IRIS for heat-exchanger and boiler tubes and PMI alloy verification, all core refinery skills. The simulator does not model ice-class hull structures or the particular steels used in a given ship; it models the inspection techniques. That distinction matters, because the shipyard’s own procedures and acceptance criteria will always govern the real work.

Built for Every Skill Level

Practical NDT has three broad paths. New trainees start with 33 guided lessons explaining what each method detects, how the equipment is set up and why a technique suits a particular joint or part, with practice jobs and immediate scoring after each lesson. That suits welding and metal-fabrication students, career changers joining a shipbuilding programme, and new hires on refinery inspection teams. Working technicians use the simulator for rare-defect refreshers between assignments, which matters in a region where work swings between shipbuilding milestones, refinery turnarounds and seasonal outages. If you have not sized a crack with TOFD in months, or have only ever seen lack of sidewall fusion in a textbook, those scenarios are there when you have time. Level IIIs and team leads can build and assign scenario sets, benchmark crews objectively and find coverage gaps, which is especially helpful when a crew is growing quickly and people arrive with very different backgrounds. Scoring shows what was found, what was missed and how sizing compared with the reference. The scenario library was designed by Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III and founder of Atlantis NDT, who also leads Atlantis training, so the defects, acceptance decisions and feedback reflect how a Level III actually evaluates inspection work.

How It Complements Formal Certification and ASNT Training

Practical NDT is a skills-practice and readiness tool. It is not a certification and does not replace the practical examination on real specimens. Under an employer’s ASNT SNT-TC-1A written practice, technicians must still pass a hands-on practical on real parts. In Canada, most industrial NDT personnel certification is issued by Natural Resources Canada’s NDT Certification Body under CAN/CGSB-48.9712, the Canadian adoption of ISO 9712; the Canadian General Standards Board ceased operations on 1 April 2026, while NRCan’s certification continues. Practical NDT is not recognised by NRCan or the former CGSB as training toward that scheme, and we do not present it that way. Shipbuilding work may also involve classification society and navy or coast guard requirements, and welding inspection in Canada is often tied to CSA W59 and CWB programmes; we mention those only as context for what local employers may require, not as schemes Atlantis trains toward or certifies. What Practical NDT offers is practice that helps whichever scheme applies. Atlantis’s own NDT training is built around ASNT SNT-TC-1A, and Practical NDT is the practice layer between classroom learning and hands-on work with real equipment. For radiography, gamma exposure device operation in Canada requires Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission certification as an Exposure Device Operator, which simulator practice does not count toward.

The Quebec City Region: Shipyard, Refinery, Port and a French-Language Workplace

The anchors of inspection demand here are specific, and are named as industry context only, not as customers or partners. In Lévis, Chantier Davie is building the Polar Max heavy icebreaker for the Canadian Coast Guard under a contract awarded in 2025, with construction under way in 2026, and the programme is expected to add jobs at the yard and among suppliers across Quebec. Also in Lévis, the Jean-Gaulin refinery receives crude oil by ship at its deepwater dock on the St. Lawrence and by pipeline, and produces gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil and fuel oil; refinery turnarounds bring surges of weld, corrosion, tube and tank inspection. The Port of Québec handles bulk liquids and dry bulk, with tank terminals and marine structures of its own. The Pont de Québec and other St. Lawrence crossings, hydroelectric installations and industrial plants round out the structural and pressure-equipment workload. Occupational health and safety in Quebec is overseen by the CNESST, and pressure equipment falls under the Régie du bâtiment du Québec. Language is a practical reality: French is the working language of most Quebec City workplaces, and French-language documentation, procedures, reports and client communication are common. Practical NDT is delivered by Atlantis, and we do not claim to offer French-language delivery; teams typically use the simulator alongside their own French-language procedures, and anyone planning a rollout should raise language requirements during the demo so we can discuss what is currently available.

Hands-On NDT Training Support and NDT Practical Exam Preparation in Quebec

For candidates preparing for a practical exam, the simulator is most valuable as structured rehearsal of the steps an examiner watches: choosing the technique, setting up and verifying equipment, scanning with full coverage, recording indications accurately and evaluating them against acceptance criteria. Those habits carry over whether your next exam is under NRCan’s CAN/CGSB-48.9712 scheme or an employer’s SNT-TC-1A written practice. The simulator does not use exam specimens and does not tell you what a specific exam contains, but repeated practice on realistic weld and plant scenarios makes the workflow automatic. A useful pattern is short daily sessions in the weeks before a scheduled exam, then the final days on real specimens with a qualified instructor. For shipyard supervisors, the same tools support fast onboarding: new hires learn the basics of MT, VT and UT on weld coupons before they reach the block-assembly line. For refinery contractors, the Oil & Gas Site and Storage Tank environments support turnaround preparation, so crews arrive with tube, corrosion and tank techniques fresh. Virtual NDT training does not replace real equipment; couplant, surface condition, probe wear and cold-weather handling are learned on the job. It does make hands-on time more productive. Atlantis consulting can help design a programme, and you can book a Quebec City demo to see the onboarding and exam-preparation workflows.

Bringing Practical NDT to Your Quebec City Team

Atlantis built the first-ever online practical NDT simulation portal for practice and hands-on experience, and a Quebec City rollout is designed to be simple. There is no hardware to install and no specimens to ship; technicians log in through a browser or the app. We usually start with a short demo that walks through the five environments and shows how the Welding Workshop, Oil & Gas Site and Storage Tank scenarios map to your work, whether that is shipbuilding and block fabrication, refinery maintenance and turnarounds, port terminal inspection or third-party inspection services. Your Level III or quality lead then chooses scenario sets for each group: fundamentals for new hires, rare-defect refreshers for experienced technicians and exam-preparation sequences for candidates. Progress tracking gives a record of practice and scores for audits and client reviews. Teams that want to connect practice records with certification tracking can use Atlantis ERP, and Digital Twins can tie inspection data to physical assets such as tanks and piping; neither is required. Pricing is quote on request, and the platform is designed to be affordable, accessible and fully customizable. Request a Practical NDT demo for Quebec City or write to info@atlantisndt.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Practical NDT replace the practical certification exam?

No. It is a practice and readiness tool. It does not replace the hands-on practical examination on real specimens required under an ASNT SNT-TC-1A written practice, and it does not replace the practical exams in NRCan’s CAN/CGSB-48.9712 scheme. It is not recognised by NRCan or the former CGSB as training toward that scheme.

What experience level is it for?

All levels. Trainees follow 33 guided lessons; working technicians refresh rare defect types between assignments; Level IIIs and leads build and assign scenario sets, benchmark crews and find coverage gaps.

Is it useful for new shipyard inspection hires?

Yes. The Welding Workshop environment lets new hires practise VT, MT, UT, phased array and TOFD on weld coupons and fabrication joints before production work. It does not model a specific ship or the shipyard’s own procedures, which always govern real inspections.

Is Practical NDT available in French?

We do not claim French-language delivery. French-language documentation is common in Quebec City workplaces, and teams generally use the simulator alongside their own French procedures. Raise language needs during the demo so we can discuss what is currently available.

Can refinery turnaround crews use it to prepare?

Yes. The Oil & Gas Site environment has 73 jobs covering weld, corrosion, tube (IRIS), LRUT screening and PMI practice, and the Storage Tank environment covers shell thickness surveys and MFL floor screening, so crews can refresh those skills before a turnaround starts.

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