I've found a number of places where I can get some training and take a ASNT certification exam. However, I always like to get the opinions of my professional counterparts. Who would you recommend?

Snell Infrared and FLIR both have, what I consider, the better training programs and certification process.

Howard

I took level 1&2 IR from Snell and was very impressed.

Don,

You say you want to take an ASNT certification exam. Understand that ASNT does not provide an examination for Level I and Level II, only for Level III. For Level I and Level II, to be ASNT certified, the employer must create a written practice in accordance with SNT-TC-1A, and must document the training, exam, and field experience hours of the employee that is being certified. ASNT Level I and Level II certification is by the employer. A Level III examination is given by ASNT, and certification to Level III can either be by the employer or through ASNT.

There are a number of good training organizations, with the 2 best being mentioned in Howard's post. Most IR training organizations will state that their courses are "in accordance with ASNT", which simply means that they have created a curriculum that follows the outlines in SNT-TC-1A. There is no ASNT "stamp of approval" for training.

We are currently establishing an employer ASNT certification for the National Institutes of Health. The department supervisor will implement the program and be responsible for it, and it will include an approved training curriculum which is based on SNT-TC-1A but customized to the facility's applications for IR. Level I also requires 210 hours of documented field experience under the supervision of a qualified Level I or higher certified thermographer. It is a strong commitment to certification that isn't often followed, but is necessary to be compliant with ASNT guidelines. This may or may not be what you had in mind by your question, but it's good to know what is meant by "ASNT certification".

Rich Wurzbach
ASNT PdM Certified Level III Infrared and Thermal Testing
Maintenance Reliability Group, LLC
rwurzbach@mrgcorp.com

ASNT Certification

Here is an excellent article on ASNT certification and what it means.

ASNT certification history pdf

I went thru AIRT Level 1 and 2. They indicated that I would be certified if
#1 - you pass their exam
#2 - you send them back a certain number of case histories including raw data, reports and analysis - along with written documentation from your supervisor that you have been working on thermography for so many hours.

The idea being that AIRT's level 3 would review your course and subsequent field work and bestow certification on you.

Also I think there may be some kind of yearly followup required as well.

That seems to conflict with what Rich is saying. I don't know which is right.

btw - I never did follow up with the paperwork. Not required for my job.

I thought AIRT was great for theory (how does the camera work, what factors affect the result and what are the limitations) and good for applications. From what I have seen of the Snell instructors on their bulleting board, I think Snell would have been better for applications.

Another thing to note there may be more than one instructor per school - some better than others.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: electricpete,

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your responses. As always, the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know. Like Rich stated, the class I'm scheduled for is "in accordance to ASNT standards". Out of curiosity, I looked closer at my vibration certifications. The curriculum and testing was done according to SNT-TC-1A stipulations, but that does not mean I'm ASNT certified. Rich, thank you for the links. I will be looking into this more closely.
Dr. Penrose, I've taken your advice and selected Snell as the training institute of choice.

Thanks
Don