The Latin American Second Meeting on Acoustic Emission was held in the Atomic Energy National Commission, Constituyentes Atomic Center, located in the party of General San Martin, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, during September 10 – 14, 2001.
The Acoustic Emission Latin American Group (GLEA), founded in 1997, intends to gather scientists, technicians, users, all those people connected in some way with Acoustic Emission in Latin- and Ibero- America. It is aimed at the promotion, development and research of themes related with Acoustic Emission, so as the organization of Meetings. The Group is a non-profit organization, with only scientific and technological objectives.

In 1999 the First Meeting (E-GLEA 1) took place in the same place as the Second one and with important achievements.

The Second Meeting began with an Acoustic Emission School, specially addressed to those engineers, scientists, technicians and all people willing to discover the potential of these technique in industrial activities. Then, in the second part of the Meeting, different conferences related with both academic and application aspects took place. Applications were about oil chemical plants, distillation plants, concrete structures etc.

The Meeting was sponsored by: Embassy of Italy, Buenos Aires Engineering Faculty, Delta and Buenos Aires Faculties of the National Technological University, José A. Balseiro Foundation, MORKEN S. A, Constituyentes Technological Pole, TISEC S. A., QUALICONTROL S.A., and General San Martín National University.

The E-GLEA 2 Meeting Opening was with the presence of Dr. G. Nardoni, President of the "International Committee for Non- Destructive Testing" and of the "Non-Destructive Tests Italian Society", and Dr. Roberto Semenzato, Scientific Attaché of the Embassy of Italy in Buenos Aires.

Prominent professionals from Argentina and from the world participated in the Meeting. Among the local professionals we can mention Dr José Ruzzante, Dr. Horacio Lescano, Dr. María Isabel López Pumarega, Dr. Rosa Piotrkowski, Eng. Mag. Miguel Angel Sabio Montero, Eng. J. J. Piñeyro, Dr. María Aurora Rebollo, Dr. E. Serrano, Eng. Claudio Verrastro, Dr. E. Serrano. Among the experts that specially came to the event we can mention Dr. G. Nardoni (Italy), Eng. Pedro Feres Filho (Brazil), Dr. Chris Scruby (Britain),l Dr. Edoardo Milotti (Italy), Eng. Gabriele Paparo (Italy), Eng. Sergio Damasceno Soares (Brazil), Dr. María Teresa García Hernández (Spain) , Dr. Antolino Gallego Molina (Spain).

On Friday morning a meeting among all the present Glea associates, from Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil and Spain took place, and the following subjects were discussed:

1. Promotion of the GLEA´s activities:

   It was decided to incorporate in the GLEA WEB page sections corresponding to the areas: Acoustic Emission (AE) Basic Theory, Technological Applications of AE, Research and Development in AE, Instrumentation in AE, Procedures for AE Tests. With this purpose we ask the collaboration of the associates. The format of the papers is to be determined. It was also decided to perform a Discussion Forum in the WEB page and with different areas.

   The experience of the NOTIMAT Internet site was commented, with respect of the different international correspondents.
   

2. Third Meeting (E-GLEA 3) in 2003:

Sergio Damasceno Soares proposed Río de Janeiro, Brazil, as the next location for the Meeting that could be performed joint with the "Third Panamerican Congress on Non´Destructive Testing", sponsored by ABENDE and ASNT. This idea was accepted. The comments were that more diffusion could be achieved in this way but care had to be taken in order to preserve the GLEA´s identity.

3. Fourth Meeting (E-GLEA 4) in 2005:

Antolino Gallego Molina´s proposal was accepted in the sense of selecting the location of this event in the University of Granada, Spain. Possibly it will be sponsored by the University School of Technical Architecture and the AE Group (FQM-152 of the Andalucía Joint). The Coordinator is Dr. María Teresa García Hernández. Efforts will be made to get support from other research groups, companies and the Spanish Association of Non-Destructive Testing.

4. AE Standards for the MERCOSUR:

It was commented that standards for Non-Destructive Tests in Brazil are responsibility of ABENDE. In ABENDE they have begun to identify the staff with level III in AE, in order to subsequently qualify the staff of level I.

The IRAM Institute proposed to exchange documentation with Brazil in order to achieve the first Level IIIs in Argentina, which would be given according to antecedents to a very reduced group of specialists. The National Atomic Energy Commission could be qualifying entity. Then the program of courses, the exams questions, the test procedures, the specimens to be tested and the necessary equipment have to be determined.

5. E-GLEA 2:

The success of the E-GLEA 2, was remarked, with specialists participants from Great Britain, Brazil, Spain, Uruguay, Italy and Argentina. The high level of the talks and the warmness and cordiality of the whole meeting was emphasized.

Members of various National Universities participated: Buenos Aires, San Juan, San Martín, Technological and the Universities of Granada and Jaén (Spain).

In the next months it is expected that the Proceedings of the Meeting will be ready, both in hard and electronic version.