Hydrotest of Pressure vessels

[sree60]

The client specification for hydrotest of pressure vessels states that"All hydrostatic tests shall be done in presence of AI/companys's authorised representative.
Vessels shall not be previously tested by the vendor.

In what way is the last line above(Vessels shall not be previously tested by the vendor.) to be interpreted?

a)AI/Company rep shall witness the hydrotest of vessels
The vessels shall not be tested in their absence

b) vessels shall not be tested before final hydrotest which prohibits contractor to carry out even internal hydrotest. Only one time the testing is permitted .

I tend to agree with a) .

i would like some inputs on the interpretation.

Thanks in anticipation
sree60

 

[CodeRef]

I can only guess....as others may as well.....the only way you will get the right answer is by asking the client who wrote the specification.....I would guess that they want the first test to be witnessed by both the AI and the Company representative and yes, this would imply no internal testing allowed prior to AI/Company Rep Witnessing....the way I look at it, this way they will be able to know how good your shop really is at fabrication ....My $0.02

FAQ731-376

 

[vesselfab]

The vessel will be pumped up and made ready for AI/client inspector. They don't have to be there for make ready and pumping. Make sure you have a chart recorder on it as a record.

No previous hydrotest is to make sure client inspector is there to see if there is any ""repairs"" frantically being made to hold water.

Good practice

 

[metengr]

Agree with the above responses.

 

[boilerone]

I guess your client is putting QA/QC concepts into the spec. Typically if a boiler or pressure vessel can pass the first and single hydro test it can be considered of very good build and/or installation quality. If something failed an earlier inspection, typical QA/QC would become more suspicious and require more stringent tests. This not normally an AI's job but prior failures does raise his/her concern on quality and manufactures might not want to show these earlier records.

 

[sree60]

Thanks to everyone for the valuable inputs.