Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

A multi-ethnic group of professionals raised the flag of the UAE at a recent international convention in the US when it bagged the highest award at the “ASNT Annual Conference” in Houston, Texas.

“ASNT” stands for American Society for Non-Destructive Testing, Inc. It is a “technical society for non-destructive testing professionals, the original organization of which were the American Industrial Radium and the X-Ray Society founded in 1941.”

ASNT-UAE Chapter president/ASNT Region 19 (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Turkey, India) regional director Marwan Basrawi, delegation head, said the industries that need the expertise of non-destructive testing professionals (NDTP) such as the industrial radiographer are oil and gas, petrochemicals, refineries, aircraft manufacture and maintenance, shipbuilding, and space exploration.

An industrial radiographer “makes a radiograph of welds (the fusing or bonding of steel/aluminum/brass/plastics welds) to check and see if there were defects.”

“NDT is the testing of an object without causing any damage to it; similar to how ultrasound is used to see the baby in the wound without causing any harm to it. The NDTP guarantees safety and quality assurance.” ASNT-UAE Chapter was among the 35 ASNT members from the US, Germany, UK, Canada, Oman, South Africa, India, Turkey, Kuwait, and China which competed for the President’s Award Programme at the Houston conference.

The award is “based on point values assigned to various management or operation categories which reflect the activities of each chapter or section and the society” with Gold at 10,501 to 14,750 points; Silver, 8,001 to 10,500 points; Bronze, 5,500 to 8,000 points. ASNT-UAE Chapter “crossed the threshold of 10,501 points.”

Jury was the International Service Centre, the record keeper of all the activities of each chapter-member. It is based in Ohio.

Basrawi said, “The win is an impressive accomplishment for the ASNT-UAE. We started to actively compete in this ASNT President’s Award Programme since it was reformed in 2015 to bring ASNT, the world’s largest professional society for non-destructive testing to the UAE.