Composed by Kathleen Macknight on June 7 th 2006

Fourteen people, a lady and thirteen gentlemen, comprising of non destructive testing engineers, welders, researchers, and quality control inspectors who are all citizens of the GSPLAJ met together at PTQI on May 28 2006. They had gathered to attend a Radiographic Interpretation course. This was delivered over the next ten days by visiting lecturer Mr Richard Robinson PCN Level 3 & ASNT Level III who is the Overseas Training Manager for the British based company Argyll-Ruane Ltd.

Mr Robinson and PTQI were pleased to welcome the students who came from Central Research Laboratories, Eni Oil Company, Zawia Oil Company, The Advanced Centre of Technology, and National Oil Wells Drilling Company who were joined on the course by two members of PTQI staff.

The course content demanded that students acquired a high degree of ability in reading and reporting radiographs that had been taken by both Gamma and X-Ray of welds in both light and dense metals. Throughout the lectures a wide range of specific and general information related to radiographic science and technology was detailed. Students learned how to recognise and report any faults such as cracks, slag, inclusions, porosity and lack of penetration in welds as revealed by radiographs.

All course participants cooperated with the lecturer by successfully completing all course assignments. All students took the end of course exam and applied to take the PCN Radiographic Interpretation Examination. On 7th and 8th of June Mrs Kathleen Macknight, a PCN Examination Invigilator from England supervised examinations for the fourteen candidates, under the internationally recognised PCN Certification Scheme. PCN is administered by the British Institute of Non Destructive Testing and meets ISO 9712 and EN473 standards.

In a ground breaking move PTQI have invited Richard Robinson of Argyll-Ruane Ltd to deliver the first ever PCN Level 1 Welding Inspector course in Libya. On 10th June eighteen PTQI Welding Diploma graduates will commence training and will take the PCN Level 1 examination the following week. In January of this year Argyll-Ruane Ltd successfully delivered a PCN Welding Inspection Level 2 course and examinations at PTQI. All twelve exam candidates achieved passes in either all or the majority of examination modules. Building on these achievements PTQI and Argyll-Ruane Ltd intend to offer another PCN Welding Inspection Level 2 course and examinations in August, to be followed by Radiographic Interpretation again in December.
An ICorr Paint Inspection course is to be scheduled later this year. Mr Richard Robinson was impressed that students have demonstrated such ability in courses and examinations. Both must be conducted in English in order to comply with the requirements of international certification schemes. Argyll-Ruane Ltd and PTQI look forward to congratulating many more successfully qualified PCN Inspectors in the future.