ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code
What the code requires of a fabricator, how the Certificate of Authorization and the Authorized Inspector actually work, and which records a code shop has to be able to produce.
The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is a construction code covering design, materials, fabrication, examination, testing and certification of boilers and pressure vessels. A fabricator holds a Certificate of Authorization to apply the Certification Mark with a designator such as U, works under contract with an Authorized Inspection Agency, and signs a Manufacturer's Data Report for each vessel.
Rules for the design, fabrication, inspection, and certification of boilers and pressure vessels, with the U and S stamps certifying the manufacturer's quality control system.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Fabricators and assemblers of pressure-retaining items, plus the material suppliers and subcontracted welding, forming and nondestructive examination houses inside their quality system. Section VIII Division 1 covers most vessels and carries the U designator; Division 2 uses U2 and Division 3 uses U3. Section I power boilers carry S, and Section III covers nuclear components.
ASME issues a Certificate of Authorization after a four-stage process: prepare the Quality Control Manual and contract an Authorized Inspection Agency, apply, undergo assessment of the manual and its implementation, then demonstrate the programme on real work. The certificate is time-limited and renewed by reassessment. Many jurisdictions also require the data report registered with the National Board.
Fabricators of boilers, pressure vessels, and heat exchangers, and the shops that weld and test them.
| Requirement | Module | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Material traceable to the heat | Inventory | Code material has to be identifiable to its certified mill test report and remain identifiable through cutting and fabrication, with marking transferred and the transfer documented. Receiving captures the lot and stores the mill certificate against the item and the lot, and every issue to a job preserves the link, so the plate in a shell course resolves back to the heat number without a hunt through a supplier email thread. The physical marking transfer on the shop floor is still a procedure you write and witness. |
| Evidence the examinations were performed | Quality | The code prescribes visual examination, radiography or ultrasonics on specified joints, and hydrostatic or pneumatic test at a defined pressure. Inspection templates define what gets checked and AQL sampling plans set how many, with results recorded against the operation and the lot already attached. The NDE procedures themselves, examiner certifications to the referenced personnel standard, and the radiographic film or data records are not held in WorkCell. What it gives you is a dated, attributable record that the examination step happened on that joint, on that vessel, which is the spine the examination reports hang from. |
| Nonconformance and repair history | Quality | A rejected weld, an out-of-tolerance thickness or a failed test raises a nonconformance classified by severity, with the disposition recorded against the job and the lot. Systemic problems escalate into an 8-D corrective action with containment, root cause and verification of effectiveness. What the code adds is the Authorized Inspector's concurrence on a repair before it proceeds, and that acceptance is not a workflow WorkCell models. |
| The as-built fabrication sequence | Engineering | Bills of material and routings are versioned and effective-dated, and a new revision supersedes rather than overwrites, so a vessel fabricated two years ago still reports the material list and the operation sequence it was actually built to. Code design calculations, the drawing set, and the design certification by a registered professional engineer where Division 2 or the jurisdiction requires one all live outside the system. Finite capacity scheduling plans the fabrication sequence against real machine and labour capacity, which matters on long-lead vessels where a late forging moves a hold point. |
| Who did the work and when | Production | Operators clock on to an operation at a terminal and record quantities, time and inspection results at the machine, and every transaction records the person who posted it. That gives an attributable record of who performed each fabrication step on each vessel. Welding procedure specifications, procedure qualification records, welder performance qualifications and continuity logs are not built, and they are the first thing a joint review asks for. |
| Documents stored against the item | Inventory | Mill certificates, test reports and supplier documentation attach to the item and the lot they belong to rather than to a shared folder, so the paperwork follows the material into every job it feeds. This is document storage and not document control: there is no revision-controlled distribution, no approval routing and no electronic signature, which is what the Quality Control Manual has to describe for controlled code documents. |
The manual describes authority and responsibility, drawing and specification control, material control, examination, welding, nonconformance and the Authorized Inspector's points of inspection. The assessment tests whether the shop works the way the manual says. WorkCell holds none of the manual; it can hold several of the records the manual commits you to keeping, which is a different claim.
A completed and signed U-1A for the vessel, or a partial U-2A where another certificate holder made part of it, with the Authorized Inspector's signature alongside the manufacturer's. The data on it is design, material, examination and test data drawn from the fabrication record. WorkCell does not generate, number or file code data reports, and no vendor should say it does.
The Authorized Inspector picks a component and asks which heat it came from and where the certificate is. Receiving lots, stored certificates and the issue-to-job link answer that directly. Expect the harder question too: how marking was transferred when the plate was cut, which is answered by your written procedure and the inspector's witness, not by a database.
Qualified procedures with their supporting qualification records, welder performance qualifications for every process and position used, and continuity showing each welder has worked within the required interval. None of this is built in WorkCell. It is central to code compliance, so keep it where it is and name it as a gap rather than discovering the gap during a joint review.
Where the jurisdiction requires it, the data report is registered with the National Board and the registration number recorded. The code also sets how long the manufacturer keeps the fabrication records, and jurisdictions and owners frequently ask for longer. WorkCell retains transactional and inspection history; the code package, the data reports and the registration file remain your responsibility.
What does the U stamp actually certify?
Your quality control system, not an individual vessel. The Certificate of Authorization says ASME assessed your Quality Control Manual and saw it implemented, which permits you to apply the Certification Mark with the U designator to Section VIII Division 1 vessels you build under an Authorized Inspection Agency contract.
Can software get us code stamped?
No. No software confers a Certificate of Authorization. ASME assesses your manual and your implementation, an Authorized Inspection Agency contracts with you, and an Authorized Inspector accepts the work vessel by vessel. A system holds records the manual commits you to keep; the certificate, the contract and the inspector relationship stay yours.
What does the Authorized Inspector do that we cannot?
The Authorized Inspector works for an Authorized Inspection Agency, not for you, and independently verifies that the vessel was built to the code before countersigning the Manufacturer's Data Report. The inspector sets hold points, witnesses the pressure test, and must concur with a repair. That independence is the point and cannot be internalised.
Which code records would still live outside WorkCell?
Welding procedure specifications and qualification records, welder continuity, NDE procedures and examiner certifications, design calculations, the Quality Control Manual itself, document control with electronic signatures, gage calibration, and the Authorized Inspector's hold-point and acceptance workflow. All of it matters to a code shop, and none of it is built.
Do we have to register the data report with the National Board?
It depends on the jurisdiction the vessel is installed in, and on the owner's specification. Many US states and Canadian provinces require registration; some do not. Check the jurisdiction before fabrication rather than after, because the registration and the nameplate data have to agree with the signed data report.
Keep the records as the work happens.
Tell us how your code shop tracks material, examination and fabrication records today and we will tell you straight which of it WorkCell would hold and which of it stays put.