Canada TSSA, opinions wanted please

[budw]

I am looking for some opinions on TSSA inspection.
I am working on some assembly equipment that will be going in to Canada. This equipment will be supplied by the plant air supply. The airdrop is ½”. The 1/2'” air drop then drops into a ¾” pipe used as a drip leg (with a ball valve at the bottom to drain any water). Do you think that this is now considered a pressure vessel of ¾” or greater and will require TSSA inspection?

Thank you
Bud

 

[eliebl]

As you are dealing with TSSA then you will alo be guided by CSA B51. This is additional requirements and come clarifications where it comes to boilers and pressure vessels installed in Canada. I do not have a copy on hand but this is likely to be called pressure piping.

TSSA has been quite reasonable to work with in the past, at least from my opinion, and this should likely be considered part of the piping without any supplemental requirements which are required for pressure vessels. I don't think they want the paperwork of calling every drip leg in a refinery a pressure vessel.

With the recent propane plant explosion they may be stepping up the oversight a bit but this should not be something to worry about.

My opinion only as I am not located in Ontario.

 

[budw]

Thank you eliebl. Your opinion is valued and appreciated. I will aslo look into calling this pressure piping and look at CAS B51. Thanks again.

Bud

 

[TBP]

Is your equipment going to Ontario, or another province? You say only "Canada". If it's going to Ontario, talk to the TSSA. If it's going to Alberta, contact the ABSA. Other provinces have their own inspection authorities. Make sure you're talking to the right people.

 

[moltenmetal]

If indeed it's going to Ontario, compressed air piping < 1" NPS connected by means other than welding is exempt from the TSSA Act and regs. No design registration or inspection, no requirement for CRNs for the fittings, no requirement for the piping fabricator to have a C of A to build pressure piping- anyone can do the work.

Does your drip leg assembly involve welding? Ooops...then it's a gray area. If you are mass producing them for sale, then it's a Category H fitting, not a vessel, and needs to be registered with TSSA (so you can get a CRN for the assembly). If it's simply part of piping, then you would register its design with TSSA, who would then need to witness its testing.

Far be it from me to counsel anyone to ignore a regulation of the Province, but I can say you would not be alone in successfully ignoring the requirement for TSSA registration of such a small item on an ordinary compressed air system. TSSA has far larger fish to fry...We've taken delivery of a sandblaster recently which has 1" threaded piping at its inlet, and I guarantee you that the sandblaster manufacturer doesn't even know who TSSA IS...

 

[TBP]

Absolutely, moltenmetal - Unless it's nuke, or perhaps something BIG in the Chemical Valley, the Boiler & Pressure Vessel Safety Division of the TSSA is a toothless tiger. And asleep at the switch, to boot. The Fuels Safety Branch is currently presiding over the HUGE propane explosion in Toronto. The only thing that surprised me is that it took this long for something massive to happen.

 

[GrimesFrank]

Ahhh to know the un-intrusive TSSA inspector/registrar. Damn you all non-nuclear crowd.

Bud,
By the letter of the regs you are dealing with system piping that is registered when you register the equipment skid. A drip leg in of itself isn't a fitting or a vessel.

Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.
Every day, from here to there,
funny things are everywhere. ~'Dr.' Theodor Geisel

 

[budw]

Thank you eliebl, TBP, moltenmetal and GrimesFrank. This system is a small piece of pneumatic assembly equipment going in to an automotive assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. The main air drop to our system will be ½” pipe (the plant may use ¾” pipe). The main air drop will drop down into a ¾” npt ball valve and down into a ¾” npt tee. The tee will continue down to the Drip leg and the other tap of the tee will continue on to the rest of our system (Main filtration, lockout valve and valving, ¼” flexible tubing). The drip leg will have a ½” to 1-1/2” npt bell reducer on both top and bottom, with a 20” length of 1-1/2” pipe between them. The bottom port of the Drip leg (1/2” npt) will have a ½” npt ball valve on it to drain the drip leg.

We have created an exemption letter for the plant that states we incorporate compressed air piping ¾” nominal pipe size and less. And that we are exempt from TSSA Ontario Regulation 220/01 made under the Technical Standards and Safety Act, 2000, in section 2.2.K.

So, we do not even reregister the skid.

The plant still says that we will need TSSA certification/verification of the Drip Leg because it has piping over ¾”.

Thanks again,

moltenmetal, every time I see you handle all I can think of is Quasimodo dancing around saying molten metal, molten metal.

Oh, do you recognize Quasimodo. No, but his face sure rings a bell.

 

[moltenmetal]

By the letter of the law, you need to register the design and have the finished article inspected (witnessed pressure test). Fittings used require CRN numbers. If the owner insists, then you have no choice but to comply with the Act.

Everything on your air system below 3/4" NPS involving no welding is exempt and requires nothing relative to TSSA- no inspection or testing. That goes for the actuator cylinders which of course are greatly larger than 3/4" NPS and may even involve pressure-retaining welds etc...If you have any air accumulators on there, they too will fall under the TSSA Act and require inspection etc.

My posture is bad, but not quite to the point of being called Quasimodo! And the molten metal is a hobby. I figured if people have been doing it for 3,000 years, then I could do it too.

 

[leakyseal]

The owner is ultimately on the hook for obtaining code-compliant equipment. They are right to ask, especially if they know an inspector is tramping around their plant on occasion.

That said, clients will sometimes ask for stuff to be cert that doesn't need it.

THAT said, unfortunately I can't lend any more clarity to your particular problem. Haven't had to tangle with air systems and fittings much, we deal more with the whole "what exactly IS more dangerous than water, anyway?" question.