Applies to QESTField

Contents

Overview

To meet the requirement for companies using nuclear gauges for soil-aggregate field compaction testing in the US marketplace, the functionality described in this article provides a way for users of the QEST Platform to record nuclear gauge standardizations.

Field technicians are able to access the standardization page from the QESTField home page, select a gauge and enter the daily counts.

To assist in decision making, the daily density and standard counts are compared to the running average of the last four related readings and the technician is informed as to whether the counts are within tolerance or not.

When performing a field density test, the technician is informed about the standardization status of the selected gauge. If there is an issue with the standardization, the user will see exactly what the issue is. If the gauge has been standardized, and is within tolerance, the standard counts for the day are automatically imported to the test.

The historical standardization data for each gauge is also accessible for review from the equipment registry. Quality managers will always have visibility into the data for each gauge. The standardization functionality supports moisture density gauges, thin lift gauges as well as dual purpose gauges.

Pre-requisite Configuration

Nuclear Gauge Type

Various types of nuclear gauges have different allowable tolerances in standard counts due to the differences in their operation and intended use. Therefore, the type of gauge must be selected when entering the nuclear gauge’s equipment information in the equipment register.

The Gauge Types available for selection on the Nuclear Gauge Details tab on the equipment item are:

• Moisture Density Only

• Thin Lift Layer Only

• Dual Purpose

Granting User’s Access to the Nuclear Gauge Standardization Workflow

For field users to see and launch the workflow from their home page in QESTField, the Nuclear Gauge Standardization workflow under the United States of America configuration, must be enabled via the QESTField tab of the Regions & Laboratories node in the QEST Administrator Console. For further information please refer to Enabling QESTField Workflows.

Handling of Standard Counts Outside of Tolerance

There are various approaches to managing standard counts that fall outside of tolerance. Guidance is provided in Appendix 3 of ASTM D6938, and there are two common interpretations that QESTLab supports through an option in QEST Administrator Console.

1. New Baseline: This option establishes a new baseline by capturing 4 new standard counts and calculating the average of the last 4 counts that fall within tolerance.

2. Rolling Average: This option compares new standard counts to a rolling average of the last 4 counts, regardless of tolerance limits. If a single count falls outside of tolerance, the user continues taking readings until the standard counts are within tolerances of the rolling average.

This option is set in QEST Administrator Console on the Nuclear Gauge Standardization document, The selected option will be applicable to all users of QESTField using this workflow and is not able to be customized per region or laboratory.

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Performing Daily Standard Counts

Field users can launch the workflow from their QESTField Home Page . Selecting the Nuclear Gauge Standardization workflow will open a page for the user to choose the Laboratory and the Nuclear Gauge that is being standardized. The list of nuclear gauges available in the drop-down selection is restricted to the nuclear gauges made available at the laboratory selected.

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Once the gauge has been selected the technician will be presented with a page that will:

• Show the last twelve counts recorded for the gauge

• Allow the user to edit or delete the last count

• Allow the user to add new counts

• Warn the user if any of the entered counts are not within the tolerance for the given gauge type.

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Summary of Tolerances

In accordance with Appendix 3 of ASTM D6938 and with most gauge manufacturer’s operation manuals, the following table displays tolerances deemed acceptable when comparing a daily standard account to the average of the last four counts for the different gauge types.

If the daily standard count falls outside of tolerance, the user is presented with a message advising the latest standard count is not valid. Depending on the selected option (New Baseline or Rolling Average), the user will be prompted to take additional counts. For the New Baseline option, four valid counts are needed to establish a new baseline.

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For the Rolling Average option, additional counts will be taken until they fall within the tolerances of the average of the last four counts.

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Using Daily Standard Counts inside the Nuclear Density Workflow

When the Density Gauge has been selected in the Nuclear Density workflow, the appearance of the Standard Count fields will vary depending on the existence of a valid daily count.

Valid Daily Count

When a valid daily count exists for the selected gauge, the values from the Nuclear Gauge Standardization worksheet will be imported into the Nuclear Density workflow.

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No Valid Daily Count

When there is no valid daily count available for the selected gauge, the user will be informed there is not a valid set of standard counts for the current day and advised that a confirming standardization count should be taken prior to using the gauge.

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Quality Managers

Quality Managers can access the nuclear gauge standardization worksheet in QESTLab from the Standardization tab available on the Nuclear Density Gauge equipment item.

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