First of all, ASNT Certification – certification issued by the American Society of Nondestructive Testing – is only available from ASNT headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. This certification program is designed to provide uniform testing and certification of NDT personnel that is ‘transportable’ when an NDT technician leaves the employ of a company.

The use of the title, ‘ASNT Certified Thermographer’ is incorrect since ASNT does not use or recognize the term ‘thermographer’ in any of its professional designations. The correct term is NDT person or NDT technician.

Although ASNT does offer Level II certification in some NDT disciplines, they presently do not certify anyone below Level III in the Thermal Infrared (TIR) Method. Therefore, titles such as “ASNT Level 2 Certified Thermographer” or “ASNT Level 1 Certified Thermographer” do not exist except on the websites or advertising materials of companies who believe they have earned such titles. There are many examples of such citations ranging from infrared consultants to top executives at infrared equipment manufacturers.

Perhaps the biggest reason that considerable confusion surrounds ASNT certification is that some infrared trainers provide misleading information on this topic. Further compounding this problem is that many thermographers are imprecise when they represent their credentials. Few thermographers who do misrepresent themselves are rarely called to task by their peers or their clients.

Ethics within any profession demand that practitioners always represent their qualifications and credentials accurately. Because words do mean things, thermographers must be careful when representing their qualifications and avoid using titles that do not exist. Accurately describing your certification reflects not only on you but on the credibility of our industry as well.

We thank our exhibitors, our speakers, and all who attended and helped to make this year’s conference our best ever!