Why Did My Weld Fail UT (or RT)? A Diagnostic Guide from an ASNT Level III with 30+ years experience
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Why Did My Weld Fail UT (or RT)? A Diagnostic Guide from an ASNT Level III You just got the call: "Your weld failed UT." Or worse, a radiograph landed on your desk with a red circle around a defect nobody wants to explain. Your first questions are always the same — what exactly failed, why did it happen, and what do I do now? After 25+ years running NABL ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and NADCAP-accredited NDT operations at Trinity NDT , I can tell you: a failed UT or RT result is rarely a mystery once you know how to read it. It's a diagnostic clue, not a dead end. This guide walks through how to interpret a failure, trace it back to its root cause, and decide the right next step — repair, re-qualify, or dispute the call. Step 1: Confirm What Actually Failed Before anything else, separate three things that get conflated on the shop floor: The weld failed — an indication was found and evaluated against the applicable acceptance standard (ISO 5817, ISO 10675, ASME Secti...