Weld Inspection Simulator: the Welding Workshop Workplace

The welding workshop puts weld coupons and fabrication joints in front of the trainee, inspected the way a shop quality-control technician would. It is the workplace for angle-beam ultrasonics through the plate, phased array and TOFD on welds, weld radiography, magnetic particle and penetrant examination of weld surfaces, and visual examination of the weld itself.

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What the workshop stages

  • Weld coupons and fabrication joints, with ten weld specimen datasets in the UT runtime alone.
  • Angle-beam UT that unfolds the first, second and third legs through the plate; choose a normal-beam probe for a weld work order and the action is refused with the reason.
  • Phased array sectorial or linear scans with an element check, skew and an encoder datum, and TOFD with a probe-centre separation you set.
  • Weld radiography by single wall single image, double wall single image or double wall double image, with IQI placement and image review.
  • MT with a yoke in two directions, PT through the full clean, dwell, remove and develop sequence, and visual examination with gauges.

What weld inspection is looking for

Shop weld inspection is about the discontinuities welding produces: lack of fusion and incomplete penetration, porosity and inclusions, cracks in the weld and the heat-affected zone, and profile problems such as undercut and excess reinforcement. Each method sees some of them well and others poorly, which is why a weld procedure often calls for more than one. Practising several methods on the same kind of joint is how a technician learns which method answers which question, and why a planar flaw that one technique misses can be obvious to another.

From the weld booth to the inspection bench

Many technicians come into inspection from welding, and the workshop is the natural bridge: the joints are familiar, and what changes is how they are examined and documented. The welder to NDT technician path usually starts with visual and surface methods; the visual, magnetic particle and penetrant jobs come first, followed by the ultrasonic, phased array, TOFD and radiography jobs on the same welds.

One technique, many joints

Practicals are organised as 33 practical lessons, each a technique profile, and the catalogue generates its 473 jobs by applying each technique to different specimens and workplaces. In practice a technique first met on a bench block in the NDT lab comes back here on a weld coupon, with real joint geometry around it: a root, a cap, a bevel and a heat-affected zone. Running one technique on several joints is how a technician learns what belongs to the weld and what belongs to the technique.

What the instructor sees after a weld practical

A weld practical produces a learner record in HTML, JSON and PDF: the pinned revisions, the equipment and settings, the calibration values, the checks and each observation with its coordinates. That changes the debrief. Instead of remembering what a trainee did at the bench, the instructor can see which settings were used, where coverage fell short and which checks were repeated and why, and spend the session on the judgement calls a weld presents rather than on reconstructing the set-up. The record states that it is a training record only, not an inspection certificate, qualification or code acceptance decision.

What the workshop jobs reference

The jobs follow the platform's twelve-step training procedure and carry syllabus references and pinned revisions. They do not evaluate acceptance against the construction code your shop works to: the training report says that code acceptance is not evaluated and that interpretation requires instructor review. Applying acceptance criteria to a real weld is part of the course and of supervised work.

What the virtual workshop cannot reproduce

Real welds have spatter, ripple, a cap that lifts a probe and a root you cannot see, and real shops have heat, noise and production pressure. A screen cannot give you the feel of scanning over a weld cap or the judgement between a real indication and a geometric reflector from the root or the toe. That judgement is built on real joints, in person, after the procedure has become habit in the simulator.

Frequently asked questions

Which methods can I practise on welds?

Angle-beam UT, phased array, TOFD, radiography, magnetic particle, penetrant and visual examination, each on weld coupons and fabrication joints.

Does the simulator judge a weld against a code?

No. The training report states that code acceptance is not evaluated; interpretation is reviewed by the instructor.

Is the welding workshop a good start for a welder moving into inspection?

Often, because the joints are familiar. Start with the visual, magnetic particle and penetrant jobs, then move to the volumetric methods on the same welds.

Next steps

Practical NDT is a training simulation, not a validated engineering tool. It runs in a standard browser, works offline once downloaded, extends to standalone headsets and is integrated with the Atlantis LMS and ERP, so learners reach it from the client portal with one sign-in. Practice in it does not replace the practical examination or the experience hours your written practice requires.

Speak to an ASNT NDT Level III

Discuss your inspection requirements with Atlantis NDT. Include the asset, method, location and documents you need reviewed.