I am just interested to know if there’s any other Welding/NDT or Coatings Inspectors living out here in Thailand. Are you still working and how far do you have to travel? Or you experiences with getting involved in the Thai inspection busy.

I am living in the Chiangmai area and up to about 18 months ago working at different locations in S E Asia, but never in Thailand, I knew of a few falang inspectors working here, but all out of the UK, on short term. I’m hopping the gas & oil industry will jump start soon so there may be some work here in Thailand, so I can stop rotating to work in Libya.

Any 3.1's out there?

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it.... Do's it make a sound? It would seem not!

"Table for one sir?"

There is a big NDT industry in the Map Ta Put / Rayong area with alot of farangs working. Given the law that you cannot do a job that a Thai can do, there is not much work for 3.1's or the like, as my company alone has over 50 Thai level 2's who are all multi disciplined (allbeit ASNT rather than PCN).

You would need to be level 3 or in a specialized field to be able to work here.

Head down under it`s going to jump for the next 3yrs at least

Good luck

Thank for the input guys.

50 level 2’s! Just your company, I see why you say go level 3 to work in Thailand.

QED. Changing the subject slightly. I know ASNT is the preferred route for inspection here in Asia, for many reasons, but how do you find there work after they just qual? I’m not a big fan of ASNT qualification, I’m sure your guys are up to speed and competent, It just seems that ASNT exam system has been open to abuse, a lot in the past, I know there have been moves to tighten it up, but so many times I encounter Problems: Let me give you an example, I’m working as the clients rep here in Libya, it’s a transmission gas pipeline, and we are in the middle of fitting and welding split tee’s, for “Hot Tapping” of course we need MPI at different stages, NDT tech turns up, I check his quals, OK, Now you don’t know me, but I’m a very easy going bloke, (so I think) Time to MPI the root/hot pass, I had to pull the guy of the job, (I’m sure very embarrassing for the guy) but I really had no option and instruct him how to do the test! He had no flux indicator, not test weight and no understanding of orientation of yoke to defect indications. He has been doing this job for 3 years! It goes without saying I’m not looking forward to the UT….. Yes he’s the UT man as well.

Thaiozy. Thank for the heads up! Aus is defo closer than N Africa, I have never really looked to Aus for work, I hear it’s good, I have on occasion tried to find work outlets on the internet, you know, Job agents and the like but never had any luck, any pointers where to look?

Thank again guys!

Thank for the input guys.

50 level 2's! Just your company, I see why you say go level 3 to work in Thailand.

QED. Changing the subject slightly. I know ASNT is the preferred route for inspection here in Asia, for many reasons, but how do you find there work after they just qual? I'm not a big fan of ASNT qualification, I'm sure your guys are up to speed and competent, It just seems that ASNT exam system has been open to abuse, a lot in the past, I know there have been moves to tighten it up, but so many times I encounter Problems: Let me give you an example, I'm working as the clients rep here in Libya, it's a transmission gas pipeline, and we are in the middle of fitting and welding split tee's, for "Hot Tapping" of course we need MPI at different stages, NDT tech turns up, I check his quals, OK, Now you don't know me, but I'm a very easy going bloke, (so I think) Time to MPI the root/hot pass, I had to pull the guy of the job, (I'm sure very embarrassing for the guy) but I really had no option and instruct him how to do the test! He had no flux indicator, not test weight and no understanding of orientation of yoke to defect indications. He has been doing this job for 3 years! It goes without saying I'm not looking forward to the UT….. Yes he's the UT man as well.

Thaiozy. Thank for the heads up! Aus is defo closer than N Africa, I have never really looked to Aus for work, I hear it's good, I have on occasion tried to find work outlets on the internet, you know, Job agents and the like but never had any luck, any pointers where to look?

Thank again guys!

A few years ago they were being certified in house (before my time), but it has straightened up alot, and I have no hesitations sending 90% of them on jobs, the ones I am not sure about I make sure they are well supervised.

Postscript to my last post, I just found out today that we have 2 Thai guys sitting their level 3 next week, so maybe strike that one from the list