This document specifies the requirements for testing principles and systems to produce comparable results with regard to location, type and size of discontinuities in rails. This document does not aim to give any guidelines for managing the result of ultrasonic rail testing. This document only applies to flat bottom (Vignole) railway rail profile 43 kg/m and above.

This document only applies to continuous testing of rails installed in track for detecting internal discontinuities.

This document only applies to testing equipment fitted to dedicated test vehicles or manually propelled devices. This document treats welded joints as plain rail.

This document does not define the requirements for vehicle acceptance. This document does not apply to ultrasonic testing of rails in a production plant.