We get the plant ready. We do not sign it off.
The Pressure Equipment Regulations put the inspection duty on you, the equipment owner, and name who may carry it out. What is due, who may do it, and what we do around that visit.
What is due
Find your plant, then read its duties. These are the owner’s duties under the regulations, not a service we are offering to perform.
Our own yearly boiler inspection is a maintenance inspection. It is not one of the statutory inspections below, and it does not replace them.
Steam generators and pressure vessels, including pressure and safety accessories
When they are new or reinstalled
- Before it is commissioned
A witnessed internal and external inspection of a hydraulic pressure test to 1,25 times the design pressure.
Who must do it An approved inspection authority
The regulation allows two exceptions: Category I equipment may be inspected, tested and witnessed by the user; and the user may, with an authority’s written approval, dispense with the internal inspection and hydraulic test where these could adversely affect the equipment’s operation or integrity.
Fire-tube steam generators
In service
- Every 12 months
An external inspection.
Who must do it An approved inspection authority for in-service inspection, appointed by you in writing
- Every 36 months
A witnessed hydraulic test, and crack detection of critical welds.
Who must do it An approved inspection authority for in-service inspection, appointed by you in writing
Pressure vessels and steam generators
In service
- At intervals not exceeding 36 months
An internal and external inspection, and a hydraulic test to 1,25 times the design pressure.
Who must do it An approved inspection authority for in-service inspection, appointed by you in writing
Which category your equipment falls into is set by SANS 347, a standard published by the SABS; we do not reproduce its contents here.
Boilers, steam & hot waterWho may do it
You appoint the authority in writing, so it is worth knowing what that approval actually consists of.
Approved inspection authority standing is made of three conditions that must all hold at once, each contained by the one before it. Accreditation: Approval requires an accreditation certificate issued by the accreditation authority against SANS/ISO 17020 and SANS 10227. Approval: Only an organisation holding an approval certificate from the chief inspector may perform the duties of an approved inspection authority. Scope: And then only within its scope of accreditation. Each approved authority carries a unique number issued by the Department, and the Chief Inspector’s office keeps a list of the current ones. SANAS accreditation on its own is not the same thing as approval as an inspection authority. The approval certificate is the additional step.
Accreditation
Approval requires an accreditation certificate issued by the accreditation authority against SANS/ISO 17020 and SANS 10227.
Approval
Only an organisation holding an approval certificate from the chief inspector may perform the duties of an approved inspection authority.
Scope
And then only within its scope of accreditation.
How to check it Each approved authority carries a unique number issued by the Department, and the Chief Inspector’s office keeps a list of the current ones.
SANAS accreditation on its own is not the same thing as approval as an inspection authority. The approval certificate is the additional step.
We do not act as the approved inspection authority.
What we do around it
- Before the visit
- We clean the boiler and open it up, so the inspection is of the plant and not of the soot.
- Our own inspection
- We carry out a yearly boiler inspection of our own — a maintenance inspection, not the statutory one.
- Valves
- We overhaul valves of all makes, test pressure valves hydraulically, and issue a test certificate with each overhauled valve.
- After the report
- We repair what the inspection finds — pressure parts, mountings, valves, panels and pipework — and close the plant back up.
- Paperwork
- Our health and safety department keeps the health and safety file for the work we do on your site.
Training, against the duty that exists
The duty
The General Machinery Regulations require an employer or user of machinery to designate a person in writing, in a full-time capacity, to supervise the machinery — and that person must be a competent person. What is required of them is tiered by the boiler’s power, which the regulations calculate from its rated evaporative capacity.
What we do
We train boiler operators. The training is aimed at that supervision and competence duty, which is the obligation your organisation actually carries.
What we do not claim
We are not aware of a statutory boiler-operator training certificate in these regulations, and we do not market our training as satisfying one. We make no accreditation claim for it.
Tell us when your inspection is due.
If a date is coming up, the useful conversation is about what the plant needs before the authority arrives — and what the last report left outstanding.
- What the plant is, and its design pressure and rated capacity if you have them
- When it was last inspected, and by whom
- Whether you have an inspection authority appointed in writing
- What the last report listed as outstanding
This is our general line. We publish no separate breakdown number, and no promise about how quickly someone answers.