用中文寫部落? Using Chinese to write blog?

As an old style Hong Kong born Chinese, it is always easier to use English than Chinese. I am very weak in typing Chinese words. Although there are lots of grammatical mistakes in my English, I still prefer to use English in my Blog.

香港人用中文? 打中文字好難呀......

Still alive.....

I cannot imagine that my previous post was in 2008.

Of course, it is not easy to keep the Blog updated for a lazy person like me. However, I still like my Blog very much. Anyway, I do enjoy posting here without any commitment.

In the past 3 years, my life has totally changed. I married my girlfriend in 2008 winter. I have my first kid in 2009 and with my second kid in 2011. Now, I have my own family and more responsibilities. I have been so busy during the period, both at home and at work, which made me cannot spare any time to do what I really want.

I wish that I can spend more time with this Blog.

NDT re-certification

It has been a long time since my last post. I am still working for the same company. It is true that my organization structure has finally changed by reported to a new boss and our team is almost the same, except our friend "Big C" had left and joined another company in April 08.

I still remember that I started this blog before I attended my AWS CWI examination in 2006. At that time I was still preparing for the exam. Now, I am just sitting at home and preparing for my ASNT re-certification exam.

Sometimes, I think NDT is a tough industry because all the inspectors need to have so many examinations in their careers. But this is also why people respect us as a professional, sometimes even better than a chartered engineer!

This time I have to re-certificate my VT, UT, PT & MT qualification. I have to take all three papers of each method. I hope that I can have a good result in those examinations.

BS 4870, 4871 & 4872?

"You can't allow him to weld! He's not a qualified welder!" shouted Ring.

"But he has a welder certificate." said Bryan.

"What is going on?" I came to them and wanted to find out why they argued early in the morning.

"Come and see. This welder is certified to BS 4872 part 1 in overhead weld. This job is just a flat position weldment, I don't know why Ring against me."

"I don't intend to argue with you. Do you know what is BS 4872?" Ring was clam down while I joined them.

BS 4872 is "APPROVAL TESTING OF WELDERS WHEN WELDING PROCEDURE APPROVAL IS NOT REQUIRED". Part 1 is Fusion Welding of Steel and Part 2 is TIC & MIG Welding of Aluminium & its alloy. The last est revision is 1982 & 1976 for part 1 & part 2 respectively. It is a very old standard and almost nobody using it to qualify welder now. Normally for each welding job, no matter we are using AWS or BSEN standard, it is necessary to qualify both procedure and welder. However, BS 4872 do not need to have a qualified procedure. It doesn't require any approved procedures to test the skill of welder. BS 4870 is used to qualify procedure and BS 4871 is "APPROVAL TESTING OF WELDERS WORKING TO APPROVED WELDING PROCEDURES".

Now, BS 4871 (part 1 & 2 only)is replaced by BSEN 287 "QUALIFICATION TEST OF WELDERS" and BS 4870 (part 1, 2 & 3) is replaced by BSEN 288 "SPECIFICATION AND APPROVAL OF WELDING PROCEDURES FOR METALLIC MATERIALS". For arc welding of steel, BSEN 288 part 3 "WELDING PROCEDURE TESTS FOR THE ARC WELDING OF STEELS" is superseded by BS EN ISO 15614-1.

"No......but it should be a recognized standard....isn't it?"

"Well, it is a very long story to decribe the change of standards. But I think BS 4872 is not good enough to qualify this welder for this job. Bryan, would you please ask him to test again with the qualify welding procedure? It would be safer for all of us." I said finally.

Add Visitor Counter & Fasterner Tensioning

I've added a visitor counter to my bolg. Although I always think that I am the only one who enter this blog, it is still good to know that if there is someone else here. To write this bolg, I think the main purpose is to drop down some notes to myself. There are so many things in my mind, no matter job related or not, and this is a good time for me to sit down and re-organise the stuffs.

Recently, I am checking some information on bolt tightening. Bolting & Welding are two most popular methods to join machanical parts. As an inspector, some times we need to inspect the condition of bolts. When bolts are tightened, they become stressed in tension. Analysis shows that for a dry (means no lubricant, thread locker, or thread sealant) steel fastener, approximately 50% of the tightening torque applied is needed to overcome friction between nut turning against the joint surface. Another 40% is consumed overcoming friction between the mating threads. The remaining 10% develops useful tension in bolt. This is very interesting. That means if you add some lubrication on the mating threads and joint surface, a same given torque can produce greater preload stress in the fastener. On the other hand, if the joint preparation is not satisfactory and induce more friction, there will be insufficient clamping force on the joint.

Improperly tightened bolts may loosen under vibration, thermal cycles, or other in-service conditions. Such joints can also slip, generating undesirable load paths. It can also cause fastener tension to vary more widely under cyclic loads, leading to early fatigue failure.

What is going on? Still no formal announcement

It has been a tough period for me. There is still no formal annoucement on the organization structure change. My boss is very busy in this period and trying to get as many information as he can. But nobody knows would that be useful if the change is unreal. For me, I have done nothing to prepare for the change. If the change is confirmed, I would stay and wait for the new arrangement. I don't think I am going to accept any unreasonable arrangement.

Life is difficult

The management structure of our department has been kept on changing during this year. Some people left the company for a better opportunity and some people have been promoted to replace the vacancy. Of course, promotion is not related to the working performance but the relationship with the management level. This induces a big problem, as the person being promoted is not really up to standard and does not have the capability to perform his/her duties. Work under such person is a nightmare.

In lunch time, While I was tasting my pork rice, I heard from Auther that our team will report to another Manager because our boss will be promoted and supervise a bigger team. The new Manager is being promoted recently from his damn engineer position and now supervising the engineer team. Our team does not have a good relationship with the engineer team but the new arrangement will put us under the engineers.

May be this is the time for me to seek for a better opportunity......

What is QA/QC?

Well, I am working for the QA/QC team of my company. However, I never know the real meaning of this name. I know QA is quality assurance and QC is quality control, but what is the difference between them? Do we need both of them? Can we just simply call ourselves QA or QC? I never try to find out the definition.

Recently, I had read a NDT handbook from ASNT and it gives me the answer. Quality assurance is the establishment of a program to guarantee the desired quality level of a product from raw materials through fabrication, assembly and delivery. Quality control is the physical and administrative actions required to ensure compliance with the quality assurance program. So, that means as an inspector, I am responsible for the part in quality control but not quality assurance.

If there is no QA program, we cannot carry out any QC inspection. So QA is to assure the quality of product to our client and QC is the procedure or action to ensure the standard provided in QA program is compiled. Therefore, to have a high quality product, both QA & QC are essential.