accredited inspection and certification organisation by belac founded 1873 1890 founders robert vin otte henri adan maurice urban headquarters brussels belgium key people robert vin otte founder products reliability engineering nondestructive testing product certification slogan safety quality and environmental services website www.vincotte.com vin otte is a belgian accredited inspection and certification organisation that controlled 75 % of the belgian safety reliability market in 2004 . 1 this holding is the result of a merger between two similar non profit inspection associations aib and association vin otte . contents 1 history 1.1 association vin otte 1.2 aib association des industriels de belgique 1.3 after the merger 1.4 vincotte oman 2 iter project 3 notes 4 references history edit an overview of vin otte s history is bound to discourse on the two competing associations that merged in 1989 . these two associations were association vin otte and aib association des industriels de belgique . association vin otte edit in 1872 maurice urban a director of the national railway company of belgium asked robert vin otte a young engineer to help found an organisation to inspect steam boilers in factories . the association pour la surveillance des chaudi res vapeur was born . its principal aims were twofold the inspection of steam boilers to prevent explosions was coupled with an advocacy of a more economic use of power . its personnel was rather limited apart from the director who also did inspection work only two other engineers were employed . the association grew rapidly though because of among other reasons the increasing legal pressure on factory owners to make their workplaces safer for their employees . thus in 1876 the association was able to report that it had almost doubled its number of inspection visits in only two years . 2 said legal pressure resulted mainly in the july 2 1899 and march 10 1900 laws on safety and health . robert vin otte was heavily involved in the drafting of these laws as by then he had a huge experience in the relatively new area of reliability engineering not only had he led the association for more than 25 years but he had also made an important study visit to the united states in 1881 a trip that resulted in a series of basic mathematical rules for the reliability of steam boilers . its success allowed the association in 1887 to offer its employees a life insurance payable upon retirement . two pages from a handbook for drivers and operators of steam machines published by the association of engineer alumni of li ge city . most of the data in the book however was provided by vin otte and his association . in 1905 the association expanded its inspection domain due to the advent of electrical devices and installations . steam boilers would remain its main area of operation for some time to come though in 1910 it inspected more boilers than the combined inspection organisations of germany and france respectively . but the first world war would put a halt to the association s growth not only did the latter refuse to inspect german controlled installations but a great number of its engineers were drafted into army service . this bleak period did not pass with the end of the war 1919 and 1920 brought massive inflation and attendant high wage costs . this combined with the death of robert vin otte jr. son of the founder and the director of the association at the time . two years later the association would officially become a non profit organisation as this concept had just entered belgian law . the occasion was also used for a name change the lengthy association pour la surveillance des chaudi res vapeur was lengthened to association vin otte pour la surveillance des chaudi res vapeur in honour of its first director . only in 1936 would the implication of only inspecting steam boilers true in the beginning but not anymore by 1922 be elided for the short association vin otte henceforth av . in the 1930s the gradual loss of the focus on steam boiler inspections would continue not only would av inspect more and more electrical power plants but it also sent its engineers to the nascent european airlines . in 1938 av cooperated with its competitor the association des industriels de belgique aib cf. below to perform the first radiographic inspection of weldings . 3 it was applied to the bridges under construction over the albert canal . after inspection these bridges were shown to be disastrously dangerous for the weight they were supposed to bear . in the same year av also experimented with gamma ray inspections utilizing radium obtained from union mini re s mines in katanga . 4 similarly to the first one the second world war put a temporary stop to av s activities . yet business would pick up faster this time allowing a study trip of richard vin otte another son of the first director to the united states in 1947 . in the same year the new r glement g n ral pour la protection du travail general rules for the work protection allowed a broad range of activities for accredited inspection organisations such as av and aib . meanwhile av kept on expanding gaining more and more international prestige . it was this prestige that allowed it to inspect one of the biggest turbo alternators in the world which was being built in england for the united states in 1969 . 5 1969 was also a good year because it was then that the nuclear division of av was founded . called av nucl aire it would focus on making secure the growing number of nuclear power plants in belgium and abroad . innovation would continue in the 70s when av started thermographic inspections and nondestructive testing using foucault currents . anticipating the problems of the future it also invested in noise pollution research and set up the first mobile lab in belgium to investigate air quality through samples . in 1973 looking backward on the occasion its 100th anniversary av could proudly announce that none of the steam boilers that exploded in belgium had been under its regular inspection . as with so many companies of the era the 80s brought financial hardship and cutbacks . this finally led to a merger with its competitor aib making the new aib vin otte the biggest player at inspection and certification on the belgian market . both companies had already closely cooperated in controlatom and of course shared a great deal of heritage all the way back to their roots . aib association des industriels de belgique edit in 1890 13 engineers captains of industry and representatives of parliament gathered to found the association des industriels de belgique pour l tude et la propagation des engins et mesures propres pr server les ouvriers des accidents du travail 6 usually shortened to aib . this happened under the impulse of henri adan the director of the royale belge a belgian insurance company . in the speech he gave on the first meeting of the board adan strongly expressed his faith in private initiative instead of state interference the speech henri adan gave on the first board meeting of aib . comme le disait m. westerroiien van mesteren le promoteur de l association n erlandaise pour pr venir les accidents dans les fabriques et chantiers il est de la plus haute importance pour un petit pays de se joindre au mouvement international qui permet l initiative priv e de l industriel de faire le bien sans qu une loi coercitive lui prescrive ce devoir et le rende odieux . cette appr ciation trouvait particuli rement application en notre pays ; il tait impossible que nos traditions de libert nous permissent d h siter entre un r gime coercitif et les enseignements d un r gime libre . 7 of course as described in the previous section of this article the belgian state would introduce legislation concerning the safety of the workplace only ten years later slightly undermining the pure laissez faire philosophy enunciated here . thus later presidents of the association such as yvon verwilst would rather claim in 1940 that aib is le corollaire de celle de pouvoirs publics et qu elle se consid rait comme l auxiliaire de ceux ci 8 this switch in rhetoric between claiming to anticipate the state and merely serving it as a supplement is a constant in aib s speeches up to 1940 . the structure of the newborn association was to be non profit members would pay fees and get regular inspections and safety education by engineers of aib . from the beginning aib had a general focus on security and education . thus it did not hesitate to create new divisions . already in 1894 president m. jottrand declared that henceforth aib would start inspecting chains whose breakage was causing heavy accidents in the mining and construction business . 9 fame came quickly for aib in belgium and abroad there was the admired exposition in brussels of machine parts and how they might fail and in paris the association received a gold medal for two expositions in 1900 and 1904 . in 1910 aib exposed in brussels li ge milan and st. louis . after the first world war aib s personnel remained constant and hirings started soaring after 1931 showing the solid expansion of the association in that period . the surplus in money was invested in a unique machine one that could exert a test power of 800 tons on cables and chains . at the time 1938 there was no other like it in the world . 10 in the 50s aib would focus on organising international congresses in 1955 the first international congress on nondestructive testing and in 1958 the second international congress for the prevention of work accidents . finally in 1989 it merged with its major competitor in belgium the association vin otte making the combined aib vin otte the biggest player on the belgian market . after the merger edit in the 1990s aib vin otte stabilized itself financially and adopted a holding structure . in 2004 it shortened its name to just vin otte and at the moment it is active in 14 countries including belgium the united states morocco japan and oman . vincotte oman edit aib vin otte international & partners oman was established in 1999 . it provides professional and specialized services to clients in the sultanate of oman mainly industries and specially the oil & gas sector . besides other small contracts vincotte oman currently runs the government gas engineering qhse services contract and operation inspection services contract for petroleum development of oman pdo . after being registered as an omani company in 2001 vincotte oman is targeting to develop local human resources & generating new careers to omani nationals . vincotte oman personnel has reached over 140 engineers inspectors technicians and other supporting staff with over 45 % omanis . citation needed the managing director is ali . a muscati and the general manager is saji . e joseph . iter project edit in 2008 iter has decided to ask vin otte who is accredited by the french nuclear authorities asn to assess the confinement vessel heart of the project following the french nuclear regulatory requirements . notes edit assertion made in interview with trends . see rapport pages 5 7 . lecocq page 18 . lecocq page 21 . verschoren pages 2 3 . translation association of belgian industrials for the study and propagation of machines and proper measures to protect workers from accidents . quoted in de brouwer pages 8 9 . translation as m. westerroiien van mesteren the promoter of the dutch association for the prevention of accidents in factories and construction sites said it is of the highest importance for a small