Introduction
This article applies to the assessment of inspection findings for fixed equipment assets (e.g., drums, towers, reactors, piping, etc.) associated with owner/user facilities. With that said, as certified inspection professionals, we owe it to the client (owner/user) to not only find and document damage, but diligently investigate and quantify the damage to facilitate submitting an effective work request that captures recommended repairs and their justification, or initiate further inspection and/or testing to complete the inspection assessment.
For the majority of owner/users, their Quality Assurance (QA) and Mechanical Integrity programs have adopted API 510 and API 570 to maintain compliance with OSHA 1910.119.
Importance of the Inspection Assessment
As the industry strives to maintain PSM/OSHA compliance through owner/user mechanical integrity programs, inspection professionals should fully understand technical standards to generate an adequate repair recommendation or request further inspection and testing. The majority of inspectors can perform an inspection and locate damage, whether it is from external, internal or supplemental inspections; but what you do with that data and if/when/how you present this to the client for repairs or further inspection/testing is critical. I will use an internal inspection of a pressure vessel during a turnaround outage as an example.
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