TCAT might not be
what you need.
There are three different things you could be looking for, and only one of them is TCAT. This page is here so you can find that out before you pay us anything, rather than after.
Knowledge, a TIERA credential, or an accredited certificate.
You want to learn the subject
Go to the free TIERA 101 primers. They are free, self-paced and beginner-first, and they issue completion badges. Nothing about TCAT is a reason to skip them.
You want a credential that proves you can diagnose
That is TCAT: a TIERA-issued analyst credential with verified experience, graded diagnostic tasks and a per-component pass rule.
You need an accredited certificate
Then you need a certification body accredited to certify against ISO 18436-2. TCAT is not one, and does not substitute for one.
The free primers are not a cut-down TCAT.
They are a different product for a different job, and they stay free. If you are new to vibration, 101 is where to start — including if TCAT is where you intend to finish.
- TIERA 101
- Free primer courses in vibration and condition monitoring. Self-paced, beginner-first, with completion badges. Live now at 101.tieraonline.in.
- TCAT
- A paid, assessed analyst credential, Category I to IV. Verified experience to enter, two assessed components to pass, issued by TIERA. In development.
- What 101 will not do
- It does not verify your experience, it does not assess diagnostic skill against a ground truth, and a completion badge is not an analyst credential.
- What TCAT will not do
- It does not teach you the subject from zero. It assesses people who already work on machines.
Aligned with a standard is not certified against it.
ISO 18436-2 sets out a body of knowledge for vibration condition-monitoring personnel, in four categories. TCAT's syllabus is written against that body of knowledge, and its four categories map onto those categories one for one.
That is alignment. It is not accreditation, and the difference is not a technicality:
- An accredited certification is issued by a certification body that has itself been assessed by an accreditation body. TIERA is not a certification body and TCAT is not accredited.
- TCAT training hours do not count towards the formal training an accredited ISO 18436 certification requires.
- If a tender, a client or an employer specifies accredited certification, TCAT will not satisfy it. Buy the accredited certificate.
We build the evidence an accreditation application would need — who was verified and how, every attempt including the failures, the exact content served, the cut score applied and the rubric version — from the first candidate onward, because retrofitting that record is what makes those applications fail. That keeps the door open. It is not a statement that we are walking through it, and no date is attached to it.
TCAT is a TIERA-issued credential aligned with the ISO 18436-2 body of knowledge. It is not an accredited ISO certification, TIERA is not an ISO certification body, and TCAT training hours do not count towards the formal training an accredited ISO 18436 certification requires.
So what is TCAT actually for?
Of the vibration analyst certification exams we surveyed, the assessments are closed-book multiple-choice, and practical competence at the higher categories is generally evidenced by supervisor-signed logged hours rather than by a graded task. Those schemes are accredited and TCAT is not — but on the specific question of whether a candidate can look at a measurement set and diagnose the machine, TCAT grades that directly.
That is the whole claim, and we would rather state it narrowly and be right than broadly and be caught. If you need the accredited certificate, TCAT is not it. If you want a credential that actually tested whether you can diagnose, that is what we are building.
Still the right fit?
Read how the assessment actually works, or start free with the 101 primers while TCAT is being built.