Testing types & checks

Beyond recording a plain pass or fail, MaxTrax handles several specialized testing types and checks. Some are recorded by inspectors as part of examining a weld, some are configured by project administrators and then applied automatically, and a few exist today only as an API with no dedicated screen yet. Each section below says which.

For the full list of inspection result states these checks move through, see Inspection states.

UT metadata capture

Ultrasonic (UT) examination carries more than a single result: a pulse-echo read has its equipment, a set of transducers and their sensitivity calibration, and a set of results, each with its own recorded defect. MaxTrax stores this whole block against the inspection as a UT metadata record.

Who records it: an inspector or NDT technician with permission to record inspections on the project.
How it behaves: setting the metadata replaces the inspection’s UT block while preserving any unrelated data already stored on the inspection. The metadata is free-form capture — MaxTrax stores what you record without imposing a cross-field rule on it.

RT metadata capture

Radiographic (RT) examination carries its own equipment and film detail — radiation source, X-ray equipment, tube voltage/amperage, film sensitivity/density/size/type, source-to-film distance, exposure time, and image-quality-indicator/screen/process detail — stored against the inspection as a single RT metadata block.

Who records it: an inspector or NDT technician with permission to record inspections on the project.
How it behaves: setting the metadata replaces the inspection’s RT block while preserving any unrelated data already stored on the inspection. Like UT metadata, RT capture is free-form — MaxTrax stores what you record without imposing a cross-field rule on it.
Where to find it: on a radiographic inspection’s detail screen, in the Radiograph log panel beside Film intervals. See Record a film interval result for the full walkthrough, including capturing a structured defect on an individual film interval.

PWHT / heat testing

Heat treatment — post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) and pre-heat / bake-out heat treatment (BHT) — is tracked as its own inspection type on a weld. MaxTrax can assign these heat-treatment inspections across a batch of welds in one action.

What it does: for each weld in the batch, it adds a PWHT inspection and a BHT inspection only if the weld doesn’t already have one of that type. This is heat-treatment inspection assignment — it creates the inspection records that track the heat treatment; it does not assign a heat number to a weld.
Who runs it: a user with permission to manage welds (a Weld Associate role or higher).
Idempotent and safe to re-run: because it only adds what’s missing, running it again over the same welds changes nothing. It is an explicit action, so it runs even on projects where the automatic heat-treatment path is turned off.

Administrators control the automatic path separately: the project setting Prevent auto-PWHT/BHT (per B31.3) stops MaxTrax from auto-adding heat-treatment inspections during weld completion and import. The explicit batch assignment above is a deliberate operator action and runs regardless of that setting.

NDE-technician certification-expiry enforcement

MaxTrax can check whether the NDE technician tied to an inspection has a current certificate when you record a result, create an inspection, update one, or send an NDE request. The behavior is set per project.

Default — warn and audit: by default, a record by a technician whose certificate has expired is accepted, but MaxTrax shows a warning and writes an audit entry. In the app, that warning appears as an information message when you create an inspection or record a result — the record still saves.
Block: administrators can turn on the Qualify NDE technicians project setting to make the rule a hard stop. With it on, a record by an expired-certificate technician is refused and audited; a valid certificate still records normally.
Expiring soon: a certificate within the warning window (30 days by default) produces a warning, never a refusal.
No certificate window on file means the technician is treated as valid — the check never blocks a technician who simply has no dates recorded.
Who configures it: administrators, via the project setting above and the certificate-window capture screen below.
Who sees it: inspectors and NDT technicians, through the warning shown when a record is accepted.

Capturing a technician’s certificate dates

Administrators enter and clear a technician’s certificate window from Admin → NDE technicians: open a technician’s row and set (or clear) the effective and expiry dates. Only the expiry date is enforced — the effective date is stored for reference but doesn’t gate anything. Clearing both dates returns the technician to “no window on file” (treated as valid). The same dates also show read-only on the technician’s card in the Workforce roster.

Fit-up (pre-weld visual check)

Fit-up is a pre-weld visual (VT-class) check — confirming the joint is fitted correctly before welding. On projects that use it, MaxTrax adds a fit-up inspection automatically.

Who configures it: administrators, via the Enable fit-up project setting.
How it behaves: when fit-up is enabled for a project, creating a new weld automatically adds one Fit-up (Visual) inspection to that weld, ahead of its other inspections. You record its result through the same record-a-result flow as any other inspection — there is no separate fit-up screen or step.
Informational, not a gate: a fit-up result is a visibility signal. It does not, on its own, block completing the weld.

Record a film interval result — the radiograph log and per-interval defect capture, the RT metadata section above’s dedicated screen.
Welder qualifications — the related administrator settings for qualifying the people doing and checking the work.
Inspection states — the result states every inspection type above moves through.