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The Pan American Conference has a long and prolific background, starting in 1984. In October 2011, AGR Field Operations attended the 5th Pan American Conference, which was held in Cancún, Mexico, one of the most internationally known tourist capitals in the world.

The effective detection and sizing of defects in structures is an important part of ensuring compliance to standards or developing remedial repair actions. The capability of the ACFM technique, in the right hands, to detect defects, even under layers of paint, has long been understood and TWI has been active in both research and training in this area of NDT for many years.

At the NEC, Birmingham, on 25 and 26 November 2011, students, graduates and skilled professionals can visit the Professional Development Hub to meet representatives from the Engineering Council and other institutions to obtain advice on their professional career progression and to see how getting professionally qualified can boost their career prospects.

Over 100 delegates from 28 countries attended the GE X-Ray Forum, which took place in Berlin from 29 August to 1 September 2011.

September 2011 was a busy month for all at ETher NDE. The whole team was extremely eager to get to Materials Testing 2011 as it meant the unveiling of three brand new products: the ‘SigmaCheck’ and the ‘ETi’, as well as placing the ‘Vantage’ within the market.

The Technology Strategy Board has declared the first Technology and Innovation Centre in high value manufacturing (HVM) open for business. The Board will be investing £140 million over a six-year period, which will stimulate manufacturing in the UK, reduce the risk of innovation for new and established UK manufacturing businesses and attract international business to the UK.

In response to increased demand, UV Light Technology Limited of Birmingham has added more dates during 2012 for its unique and specialist training course: ‘Risk management of UV light exposure in the workplace’.

Time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) has established itself as a widely used tool for flaw detection in welds and is an accurate and effective NDT technique to determine defect height. This unique ultrasonic method offers significant advantages in the speed and detection of defects and combines a high detection rate with extremely good reliability for both pre-service and in-service inspections.

The Chief Executive of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear, Jean Llewellyn OBE, welcomed the publication of the UK’s Chief Nuclear Inspector Dr Mike Weightman’s final report on the lessons to be learned from the Fukushima Dai-ichi incident.

Peak NDT marked the presentation of its Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2011 with a celebration and workshop held over two days in October at its premises in Derby and Derbyshire County Cricket Club.