I am a Senior Ultrasonic Technician with over 30 years experience, in ultrasonic non-destructive testing. I have worked across every continent in the northern hemisphere on many major projects and have been employed by some of the world’s largest companies. During my career I have noticed that many technicians are able to repeat what they have been taught but it is evident they have never really understood what they have been taught. The standard ultrasonic textbooks suffer a similar problem in being over complicated and full of theoretical information that is never used in the field. At the same time, I also paid attention to whether the data I was seeing corresponded with everything I was taught during my training in the UK. I was surprised to find that the ultrasonic effects that I saw every day were often never mentioned, and were even contradicted by the accepted texts and tutorials. I have written ‘The Practical Guide To Ultrasonic Testing In The Real World’, a workplace skills manual for technicians and QA/QC Departments, to explain the theory in simple terms together with the use of diagrams, to show some ‘tricks’ and original alternative techniques that I believe, improve accuracy and results while keeping the job simple and efficient.
It is not a pretentious regurgitation of lots of mathematical formulas and complicated scientific explanation, but instead it aims to be clear, concise and simple in its explanation without losing its integrity. It shows various techniques and exercises that I have developed to help recognize, size and position defects with greater accuracy thus reducing false calls and the wasting of time and consumables.Parts of this book may sound controversial, but these techniques have been the mainstay of my daily work and have been backed up by many years of experience and experiment. My intent is for this book to be used by qualified technicians to improve their skills, the quality of their results and their efficiency in the daily challenges to be met by the NDT industry. It is essential reading for all technicians prior to learning automated and computerized techniques such as phased array and TOFD. Due to some of its controversial content, I must caution that it is not recommended for exam preparation. I have endeavoured to make this manual clear, concise and user-friendly. I hope you find this book useful and that it allows you to challenge the more traditional and orthodox techniques we were all taught to enable us to qualify. Please let me know if you disagree or would like to question anything I have written.
-Andrew Cunningham
