As many of you will be aware,some years ago Standards Australia commenced a process of reviewing aged Australian Standards. This process involved reviewing NDT standards for which the AINDT Federal Council unanimously recommended that many of the aging s ted.
The Standards Australia committee whom have been charged with the review process is MT007. This group, which includes broad industry representation, accepted the AINDT recommendation some 8 years ago. As this process has been underway for many years, the AINDT has kept industry updated and tried to prepare all users for the transition though our various media outlets on a regular basis with the assistance of the committee Chairman Mr Angelo Zaccari, whom has been a great ambassador for the remainder of MT007 and AINDT, but has had the unenviable task of leading this project as best he could.
MT007 has now decided to reinstate a range of the aging Australian Standards without any revision. This decision has been taken without consultation of the AINDT as the peak membership and NDT certification body in Australia, or factoring the disadvantages to industry, training, certification, and the implementation of current or future technologies for the relevant methods.
The AINDT had at this point already implemented ISO references within the examinations and has requested all AINDT approved training bodies to review the training material used and replace any references to AS standards for the relevant methods. This process has been completed and the AINDT will continue to use ISO based examinations for the relevant methods
which would have replaced the aged AS standards.
Unfortunately, whilst the decisions of some members of MT007 may have resulted in a delay in the adoption of ISO standards, this process will need to be moved on at some stage given the rapid advancement of technologies which currently don’t form part of the aged standards but do form part of the proposed ISO standards.
The AINDT strongly endorsed the adoption of ISO standards and does not endorse the reinstatement of the aged Australian Standards.