Pushing Boundaries in NDT

An Interview with AWS International Agent, Advanced Technology Group

By Dr Payel Dutta Chowdhury, Marketing and Communications Content Specialist (Asia, Africa & Oceania) for the American Welding Society

AWS International Agent, Advanced Technology Group (ATG), headquartered at Prague, Czech Republic, is a privately-owned company that specialize in NDT products and services. Established in 1992 by Zbynek Zavadil, ATG has grown leaps and bounds in the last three decades to become one of the largest NDT-oriented companies worldwide with its presence in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. In the last year ATG also actively entered the regions of Oceania. ATG comprises ATG Ltd. in Prague, LA Composite in Prague, ATG Slovakia in Trencin and with numerous partners all over the world. With over 30 years’ history in the field of testing, it has achieved success especially by providing a complete solution for Non-Destructive Testing for its customers, i.e. by providing both equipment and services, in all standard NDT methods and other related special processes. In an exclusive interview with Payel Dutta Chowdhury, the Founder and General Director of ATG, Zbynek Zavadil, and the Deputy Director of ATG, Dr Tomáš Zavadil, shared their insights on the strengths and future of ATG and their perspectives on enhancing the collaboration with American Welding Society.

How do your products address the recent trends in NDT?

Recent trends in NDT showcase growing affinity with automation. In line with this current shift, ATG is also well-prepared with automation, machine learning, and deep learning techniques. Being adapted to recent trends in NDT helps us minimize problems related to human factors, primarily in quality assurance. We have set up an R&D unit at ATG that focuses on dealing with specific applications for full automation or robotization or even ADR (automated defect recognition) as most markets find this important. Adapting to recent technology does not create any challenge for job displacement for humans; rather, it assists humans in working more efficiently, resulting in enhanced customer service.