Does anyone have any experience using Mobius ilearnVibration and/or ilearnInterpreter? Any feedback on the quality and usefulness? Have you done the distance learning with them? If so, is it comparable with classroom instruction in terms of content and usefulness back "at the office"?

D.Denny

The Ilearn cd's are a pretty good refresher resource for those who have minimal experience and a good training tool for the beginner. I prefer "classroom" training though. If you don't understand something you can ask for a better explanation plus I tend to get a little "heavy eyed" sitting in front of a pc for to long.

I'm a big fan of the iLearnVibration series. Wish I had a copy of it now. Haven't used it since I left the mill but back in January some of the guys I used to work with called me. Seems they got new PCs and iLearn wasn't re-installed. They asked me to call the IT folks and get it straightened out.

Ilearn cd's are an excellent resource for both beginners and experienced users. I have all and it seems like I'm always uncovering something new.

Visiting their website, http://www.mobiusinstitute.org/ we can see than now, using their material, we can also go for ISO certification category I-II and III passing the exam trough your computer. I find it a good improvment as it is a good cost saving when you don't have to pay for travel and hotel.
They also offer a certification for another standard that I don't know, the ASNT SNT-TC-1A:2001. I never went into any certification process because, working in an in-house program, I never saw any added value to justify the cost of it. But the way Mobius offer training an examination process, I will highly consider it.
J-Marc

Interesting! Do they actually say that they give ISO certification? What I saw was the following:

quote:

Courses and certification follow ISO 18436.2 Category I, II & III and ASNT Level I & II.

For me it is clear that they do offer ISO certification exams. Follow that link http://www.mobiusinstitute.org/dl/index.html and scroll down to "key number nine" where they explain it. Or ask them directly. What I did not find is the cost of it for each category (training material and exam).
J-Marc

I have had the fortunate opportunity to meet Jason Tranter and use the Mobius ilearn software. Jason is very Knowledgeable in the area of vibration. I highly recommend this software for beginners and novice alike. There is something in it for everyone.

I found the information under a FAQ.

quote:

Am I being certified by the International Standards Organization (ISO)?
No, you are being certified by Mobius Institute; the International Standards Organization (ISO) does not provide training or certification. We have followed the guidelines set out in the standard 18436.2:2002 to provide the examination and training topics that you require. There is no way, at this time, to be certified by the ISO.

My understanding is that you can get ISO certification through member countries recognized certification organizations, perhaps not all member countries as of yet.

But is it a certification from ISO or from the company issuing the test?

Look at VI's site. It says something similar.

And how does ASNT figure into this?

I don't think that ISO gives certification for any of the standards. They give accreditation to companies and these companies can give ISO certification according to a specific standard.
That's what I think but I can be wrong.
J-Marc

ISO member bodies give the accreditation. Are you saying that Mobius is accredited by some countries member body to ISO?

At present, no one is accredited by ISO for training and certification in condition monitoring and diagnostics. ISO 18436-2 sets forth the criteria for training and testing to one of the four categories. All Moibus (and VI) are stating is that their curriculum is in accordance with the specific criteria of this standard. The ISO subcommittee hopes to get the document on accrediation smoothed out in December at our next meeting. It must also be noted that there are differences between what ASNT requires and what ISO requires. Diagnostics and prognostics are part of the ISO requirement in addition to the math, physics and pattern recognition.


Ken Culverson

So, is it better to wait before spend money in any certification process ?
J-Marc

Ken,

I thought I a company in the UK advertisingthat had accreditation.

VENDOR WARNING

Hi,

I am Jason Tranter; the developer of the training system - so what I am about to say will hopefully explain the ISO 18436 standard, but it will also mention some commercial aspects.

First of all, I want to thank all of the people who made the positive comments about my training system. When you work so hard on a system like iLearnVibration, it is heart warming when people offer compliments. I have actually just returned from a vibration conference in New Zealand where I had the pleasure of meeting a number of customers. Again, it was very pleasing to hear from people about how they have benefited from the system.

As for the ISO standard; I think that over the next couple of years we will all learn far more about this standard, and other ISO standards. I think the new ISO standards will potentially dictate everything from training through to the delivery of reports by consultants. Thanks to litigation and the need for corporations to standardize and ensure compliance, I think there will be some changes in the world of condition monitoring; especially in North America.

The ISO 18436 relates to "condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines" - (part 2 focuses on vibration training, other parts relate to other CM technologies). Right at this moment the ISO 18436 standard is incomplete.

Part 2 of the standard has been released. It relates to vibration training topics, examination, and basically all of the detail required to design and deliver a course, and to write an exam. The training has been divided into four levels, or categories (to use the ISO terminology).

+ Category I is fairly basic; it is designed for the person who collects data, and has limited access to the data. It is not mandatory to complete this level.

+ Category II steps up to full analysis (vibration principles, data acquisition, fault analysis, corrective action, etc.).

+ Category III is more advanced; complete fault analysis using all vibration tools; more on corrective action.

+ Category IV is very advanced - not many people will go there.

If you would like, I could write more detailed information.

For what it is worth, I believe Category II misses a few topics; they are reserved for Category III. For example, time waveform analysis and demod (enveloping) is reserved for Category III, but I teach it at Category II level (I do not include it in the exam).

In summary, Category II will suit most people who would consider themselves as beginners or intermediate vibration analysts. Category III will suit more advanced analysts. (You do not need to perform Category I before you go for Category II.)

Part 1 of the standard (18436.1) covers the "Requirements for certifying bodies and the certification process".

Part 3 of the standard (not yet released) covers the "Requirements for training bodies".

When part 3 has been released and adopted by certification agencies, it will be possible for training organizations to have their training material and personnel accredited, and for people to be officially certified. The intent is that you will be trained by an accredited training company, but certified by a separate organization.

So, the challenge is, what do we do between now and then? It will take time before all of this is up and running.

At this stage the BINDT (British Institute for Non Destructive Testing) has created a certification and accreditation process for Category I and they are working on Category II. Now, I may get some dirty e-mails for saying this, but BINDT have made a number of changes to the standard, so you are not actually being certified to ISO 18436.2, you are being certified to their standard.

What we have done, and what other organizations like Vibration Institute (USA) have done, is develop/re-organize material and exams to follow the standard. You will often see wording such as "the training follows ISO 18436.2", but the certificate is issued by Mobius Institute or Vibration Institute. Other training companies still have their own "levels" and examination processes which do not comply.

Now for some commercial comments:

I have taken my iLearnVibration material and structured it into a Category I, II and III course (I have developed a lot of new material). You can take the course via your computer in a structured sequence, and you take the exam online (it is very secure, with Web cameras, etc.). We have people who provide technical assistance during the course. We call this our “Instructor led distance learning course”.

I literally just received a testimonial from a distance learning customer. I think it says it all:

"I have recently finished iLearn Vibrations Level 2 training. I would recommend this to anyone as training that is REAL value for money. I have done a lot of training in my working life of 24 years and this is by far the best. Let me qualify "best". I say best in particular to the computer based type of training. Traditionally we train in a classroom/conference room for 3-4 days where we are saturated with knowledge. Realistically we cannot remember it all and herein lies iLearnVibration’s biggest advantage. I am able, and I do, go back to the training time and again to clarify points that I hadn't grasped. I paid for 8 weeks training, the reality is I can attend that 8 weeks a 100 times over, (or portions of it ), and pay no more. I did the training at a pace I could cope with and stopped the lecturer frequently, and got him to repeat a whole lesson - you can't do that at a traditional session!

This is the face of modern training, forget traditional training and spend your training budget on ilearn, I did and I doubt you'll regret it if you do.

Paul Bing (NZ)"

But I have learned that some people would like to be trained in a classroom, so I now wish to deliver the best of both worlds; classroom training with a CD that provides ongoing training and reference. I have just completed the development of a huge set of training slides (like Power Point, but in Flash), and a large number of new simulators. The training follows the ISO 18436.2 standard. I am now looking for qualified Instructors to deliver the training.

I hope I have not overstepped the line by adding these comments. I hope they have been helpful.

Thanks again for the positive comments, and rest assured that I am always improving the product – if only there were more hours in a day…

Jason Tranter
Mobius
www.ilearninteractive.com
jason@ilearninteractive.com