Intro (2)
Content
1. THE PLANT INSPECTION BUSINESS
The most important aspect of in-service inspection is the role of the individual – the inspector. Irrespective of the organisation for which they work, inspectors have a role which involves a wide and varied scope of technical and engineering issues and the problems and situations that accompany them. The role of the in-service inspector of mechanical plant is far from straightforward. It is a squarely technical discipline, rooted firmly in the logical rules and practices of mechanical engineering. It is also an unashamedly practical subject, which takes place in operating sites rather than in the back room or design office. The role is complicated by the context in which it is applied – inspection is a type of policing function, it involves checking (and influencing) the actions of others. It is this resultant mixture of conflict and co-operation that gives inspection its full character. So what does the inspection business look like? And what does everyone do? The plant inspection business can be a bit difficult to understand for these without previous direct involvement in it. There are many different types of plant inspection but most involve the basic activities of: Inspecting plant (mainly pressure equipment) for mechanical condition. Checking equipment for compliance with statutory regulation (such as the PSSRs and PED). Checking against codes, standards and specifications. Inspecting for corrosion, defects, fitness for purpose, and providing written reports on the results. Whilst plant inspection often involves the inspection of welds and non destructive testing (NDT), it is a very different, more complex discipline than NDT. It has different skill requirements, higher level technical content, and a fundamentally different structure of qualifications. Structure of the business Fig 1 shows the basic structure of the plant inspection business. The structure is based almost entirely on the technical complexity of the inspection tasks and this is tracked fairly accurately by the technical ability, experiences and pay and conditions of the people working within it.
‘Insurance’ company inspections These involve the periodic inspections of pressure systems carried out by the 1000 or so inspectors who work for the so-called ‘insurance’ inspection companies. Most are relatively simple inspections for minimum compliance with the UK Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSRs).In most cases these inspections have precisely nothing to do with insurance, although a lot of people still think that they do. These inspectors generally do multiple inspections per day; spend a lot of time driving between sites, and produce minimalist ‘generic’ inspection reports. Some are staff employees, some are self-employed, and most are over 40, having gained their main engineering experience working somewhere else. Petroleum/Petrochemical industry inspection These divide fairly neatly into on-shore and offshore based inspectors. The two areas have slightly different profiles. Offshore inspection engineers (OIEs) are based offshore on either a 2-3 week rota (North Sea) or longer, perhaps 4-8 week rota in African, Asia, Russia etc. Work involves inspection of fairly complex systems of pipework, vessels and valves. Reports may be quite detailed involving corrosion and fitness-for-purpose issues, or be of a more simplified ‘proforma’ type, depending on the company. Onshore inspection engineers work in refineries, petrochemical plants or other parts of the downstream oil/gas chain. Broadly speaking, they have a slightly higher level of academic training than their offshore equivalents and their inspection work tends to be more heavily concentrated into shutdown or ‘turnaround’ inspections. Self employed or agency inspectors are often employed during these shutdowns to make up the numbers. ‘Agency’ inspectors Agency inspectors work for inspection agencies under either self-employed or staff (PAYE) status doing any of the above jobs. The only difference is their employer; the agency hires them out to plant owners on temporary or semi-permanent contracts, where they do more or less the same job as the plant owner’s staff inspectors
2. THE TECHNICAL SKILLS OF THE INSPECTOR
The skills required by an in-service inspector are characterised by their breadth. In order to feel confident in inspection situations it is necessary to have a technical understanding of a wide variety of engineering plant. Knowledge that is superficial is not sufficient – the complexity of most inspection situations will soon outstrip the knowledge of any inspector who can recite the correct words, but doesn’t know what they actually mean. Inspection requires knowledge that is applied, and robust. You must therefore be able withstand scrutiny, and disagreement, and criticism.
The inspector as technical specialist? Generally not. Most in-service plant inspectors are not technical specialists. They are more likely to be generalists with a wide general knowledge of plant engineering subjects and how to apply it to best effect in an inspection situation. Although some engineers that have trained in specialised, technical subjects (i.e. metallurgy, NDT, design or similar) do move across into plant inspection work, their numbers are not large. They are also fairly unlikely to have been operating as true, high level specialists before their move, more likely they have been involved on the fringe of specialist technical activity, or in some sort of support role. Specialists in predominantly non-technical subjects (such as QA, contract management and procurement) are also found in inspection. Although it is not uncommon to find in-service inspectors with this type of background, they frequently struggle to meet the level of technical appreciation necessary to deal with inspection issues that arise in complex plant, and find the job difficult and stressful. They adapt better to the pre-purchase ‘shop’ inspection of new equipment, which is more about the niceties of documentation and procedures than corroded metal and damaged vessels Inspection as its own specialism? The model of the inspector as absolute generalist is, fortunately, also imperfect. The scope of inspection is wide and general but there are aspects to it which are definitely inspection-specific, and do not relate well to other aspects of engineering. In-service inspection in particular is best thought of as a discipline of its own, with its own set of mainly unwritten rules and norms. It also has its own values. Inspection certainly seems to work better, if you think of it like this. Inspection agencies specialise in either in-service inspection or ‘shop’ (workshop) inspection of new equipment (almost never both) and in the in-service field seek on-going ‘call-off’ contracts with onshore refineries and petrochemical plants. Agencies employ inspectors with a range of abilities, from those with basic NDT qualification through to those with higher-end design code and integrity assessment knowledge. Some agencies have a high turnover of inspectors, as individuals hop without hesitation between agencies looking for more suitable pay, working hours, location or whatever.
3. PLANT INSPECTION: GUIDE TO QUALIFICATIONS
Why is inspector competence an awkward issue? There are two main reasons. First, the technical scope of the subject is so wide – an inspector may be required to inspect anything from a simple low pressure garage air receiver to a highly dangerous process reactor operating under highly corrosive conditions at high pressures. Second, most of the statutory legislation that governs in-service inspection relies on the inspection industry practising a high degree of self-regulation – i.e. it is charged with deciding the competence of its inspectors itself rather than requirements being externally imposed. The resulting freedom means that each inspection organisation takes a different view of what qualifications and experience its inspectors require, and how their competence will be assessed.
European qualifications for plant inspectors are a fairly recent innovation. Whereas the USA has a longestablished system of inspector qualification (The American Petroleum Institute (API) certificate programme)
the UK has no such legal requirement. In recent years however, pressure from enforcement authorities accreditation bodies and plant owner/user clients themselves has brought the technical competence of plant inspectors into focus. Existing certification schemes limited to weld inspection and NDT disciplines do not fit well with the much wider discipline of pressure systems inspection. Why should they?...its a different subject. A summary of the various qualifications available is given below: ROUTE 1: ASME Plant Inspector training scheme (levels 1, 2, 3) Despite its title, this scheme was developed and initiated in the UK. It is divided into three levels, based purely on technical knowledge and expertise rather than anything to do with supervisory or management experience. ASME Plant Inspector level 1 This is a 4-5 day course covering the essential groundwork of pressure systems in-service inspection. Whilst it is a level 1 ‘entry level’ course, it does not contain, nor is it pitched at the same level, as visual weld inspection and NDT qualification content. It is much broader and equipment specific. There are no overly restrictive entry criteria for ASME level 1, although most candidates have some engineering experience connected with inspection or integrity issues in some way. It is not suitable for new graduates who are only interested in collecting certificates to display on their C.V. This is because new graduates without any hands-on experience have little chance of being able to successfully enter the industry as a plant inspector, so they would be wasting their time and money. Academic qualifications are not essential ,as candidates from a background in NDT, welding, operations/maintenance etc traditionally fit quite well into this course, whether they have academic qualifications or not. ASME Level 1 centres on the requirements of statutory inspection under the Pressure System Safety Regulations (PSSRs) and, in most of our courses, contains hands-on inspection and reporting exercises on low pressure vessels and piping components. The course is examined via a test paper (multi-choice and a few description questions) plus an assessed sample inspection report. Approximately 50-60% of delegates find the ASME L1 sufficient for their needs and CV profile and will not want, or need, to progress to a higher level. ASME Plant Inspector level 2 ASME Plant Inspector Level 2 is much harder than level 1. It contains the following six topics, which are studied in some depth in a four-day intensive course: Pressure equipment design codes and their margins Simple fitness-for-purpose assessment of corroded pressure components Risk-based inspection Pressure testing Temporary and permanent weld repairs Critical corrosion mechanisms It is examined by a 2-hour exam of six narrative questions requiring written description answers. Candidates are assessed on their technical knowledge and experience in their written answers. The pass mark is 70% and the
chances of achieving a pass using guesswork, learning by rote or regurgitating the content of the course notes (parroting) are next to zero. Entry requirements We require that entrants to ASME level 2 demonstrate a certain level of competence. This may be either: Passing ASME Level 1 or a comparable entry level course (CSWIP plant inspector level 1 is acceptable but other weld inspection/CSWIP/PCN welding or NDT qualifications are not). CV assessment – you must be able to demonstrate previous pressure systems inspection experience at the necessary level. Achievement of IEng/CEng status is an asset but BEng/MSc qualifications on their own, unless combined with relevant experience, are given no special consideration ASME Plant Inspector level 3 ASME Plant Inspector Level 3 is the highest level covering advanced inspection related topics such as technical disputes, expert witness reports, technical guarantee/insurance claims and suchlike. Only a small percentage of inspection engineers will progress to this level. The examination composes complex written exercises and case study/expert reporting work requiring good written and language skills combined with a wide engineering experience. Entry to Level 3 is only via ASME Level 2, personal recommendation, or our first hand knowledge of a candidate’s experience and abilities.
ROUTE 2: The API 510/570/653 Certification programmes The American Petroleum Institutive (API) certification scheme for in-service inspectors goes under the grand name of its Individual Certification Programme (ICP). Developed in the USA, it is available in various countries in the world, including the UK. It was originally intended for inspectors working in the upstream and downstream oil industry although much of its technical approach adapts well to other petrochemical and general process industries. It is used extensively in the USA (it is a legal requirement in many states for inspectors to be certified) and in other countries that use API/ASME codes. In countries where it is not a legal requirement, it just has the status of being recognised as a ‘benchmark’ standard for certification of inspectors. How many ICPs are there? There are three main ones, each linked to a specific set of API and ASME codes relating to the type of equipment covered. They are: API 510: Pressure vessel inspector API 570: Pipework inspector
API 653: Storage tank inspector These three main certification programmes have been established for many years. There are also a few less well-known ones: Qualifications for ultrasonic examiners (QUTE), API 936 (Certification for refractory personnel) being two of them,limited mainly to use in the USA Which industries recognise API inspector certification? The API organisation has its roots in the petrochemical industry, but the influence of US codes and standards extends to many other industries, hence most large-scale process industries around the world recognise API inspector certification. This is because many of the vessels and pipework systems used are built to the ASME/API codes that form the foundation of the inspector certification examinations. API-certified inspectors can therefore be found in: Refining/Petrochemicals Offshore/onshore oil and gas industries Power utilities General process industry
What is the recognition of API certification in the UK/Europe? The recognition of API inspector certification in the UK has increased over the past few years. There are several reasons for this: There is currently no comprehensive UK or European system of inspector certification based on BS or EN codes with such a wide scope as the API programmes Increasing ownership of offshore facilities and onshore power/process plants by US companies, who are used to recognising API certification Regulatory authorities prefer to see some evidence of inspector competence, against technical codes that they recognise. Mention of inspection procedures to API 570/510 regularly appear in HSE seminars and discussion documents discussing the avoidance of system leakage, failures, regulatory issues etc How do I become API certified? In simple terms, to become certified as an API certified inspector, all you have to do is apply to API, meet and then pass the formal examination. In practice, unless you have full familiarity with the relevant codes (1000+ pages’ worth), you will most probably fail, unless you prepare for the examination by enrolling on a training course. The training course will teach you about the subject matter covered, the way the exams are written, test you using mock exams etc, and prepare you to take the API exam.
When and where are the examinations held? The API 570/510 examinations are held on scheduled dates during the year Candidates book in advance to attend an examination session at which they sit the examinations for either API 570 or 510. As the examinations are on the same day you cannot sit both at the same time. The examination sessions are organised with API through a training provider, enabling candidates to sit for the examination either immediately after they have completed the exam preparation training course, or within a short time. The training provider sets up the exam locations, chosen to suit the majority of delegates. In most cases, the exam will be held in the same location as the exam preparation training course. What is the technical content of the API 570/510 examinations? The technical content of the examinations are well defined and linked closely to API and ASME codes and standards. The content of the exam preparation training courses reflects the scope of the examinations, in order to prepare the delegate to sit the exam. What are the API examination entry requirements? API set minimum entry requirements for candidates who want to sit for the 570/510 exams. The general principle is that candidates must be ‘employed by or under contract to an ‘authorised inspection agency or owner/user organization’. In practice this is less onerous than it sounds and inspectors who work under contract (self-employed or Ltd Company) are generally considered eligible, as long as they can demonstrate that they have been working in the inspection field.
THE MATTHEWS TRAINING API EXAM PREPARATION TRAINING PROGRAMME As an established provider of inspection training courses, Matthews Engineering Training Ltd (MET) offer API 570/510/653 training programmes for API exams to be held in the UK. These programmes are written and delivered by UK presenters and cover all the skills required to sit for the API examinations. What is the format of the MET training programme? The MET programme consists of two parts: Part 1: Preliminary distance learning training modules Part 2: A 5-6 day full time ‘residential’ classroom course, followed by the relevant API exam
You can see details on our website www.matthews-training.co.uk
4. CAREER PATHWAYS Historically, almost no-one starts their engineering career in plant inspection. Of the few that do, perhaps with high hopes that their first degree or MSc will give them a stepping stone to greatness, most leave within a year or two to pursue some other career path; typically project engineering, corrosion engineering or the more loosely defined ‘integrity engineering’. Notwithstanding the above, ‘early starter’ career routes in inspection follow a few well defined patterns. They will have different starting and finishing points, but show the common features that success is reliant on a foundation of solid technical engineering experience rather than lots of academic qualifications. The NDT technician route A lot of inspectors move into inspection from an NDT technician background. They have formal NDT qualifications (CSWIP, PCN, ASNT or whatever) and have gained practical experience by involvement with welding, fabricated structures and pressure equipment. NDT technicians benefit from their experience of dealing with plant manufacturers, contractors and operators and have an appreciation of the ways that they all interact with each other. Their areas of weakness generally include: Lack of experience of the operational aspects of engineering plant. Uncertainty of technical knowledge in some areas of plant design, degradation/failure mechanisms and academic topics such as fitness-for-purpose (FFP) assessment. Difficulty in adapting from the world of NDT, which is based around ‘hard edged’ and well-defined techniques and defect acceptance criteria to the more judgmental, ‘multiple shades of grey’, world of in-service inspection. The plant operator route Traditionally, many plant inspectors started their careers in plant operations in power, process or marine engineering. The high levels of plant experience and practical achievement required form a sound technical background for an eventual move into plant inspection. Although it has not disappeared completely, this route has depleted steadily over the past twenty years. Weaknesses in inspectors taking this route may include: Poor knowledge of important design codes, regulations and statutory aspects. Limited experience of industry-specific technical issues (materials, designs etc) i.e. they are often generalists with a wide, but shallow, knowledge base. In recent years career benefits (mainly salaries) for competent operations technicians and engineers in power/process/petrochemical industries have become quite attractive, thereby discouraging salary-related moves into plant inspection.
The graduate/project engineer route This is the most modern career route into plant inspection. It is growing, encouraged by the decline of traditional apprenticeship training and increase in the number of degree courses. It has its root in the graduate engineer, employed by construction, contracting or process/petrochemical utility organisations. Graduates will typically start their engineering career in a specific project engineer role, or as part of an in-company graduate training. At some point the wide responsibilities of the project engineer may kick-start a graduate engineer’s interest in plant inspection. Inspection plays a part in most plant projects and the technical complexity (and difficulties) of it soon become apparent. In common with the other inspection career routes, the graduate entry route has weaknesses. Typically, these are: Lack of hands-on engineering experience. Poor initial appreciation of the ways that technician and ‘engineering’ disciplines interleave together rather than act alone. In practice, these weaknesses have a short timescale. Graduates that have survived the selection procedures of major companies are well-motivated, and can absorb large amounts of technical information, so they learn very quickly. In many cases the latent technical power of graduates is never fully received into the world of in-service inspection as they quickly move on into another role. This is the downside of graduate/project engineers’ participation in inspection; it is frequently temporary – used as a technical stepping-stone towards progression in other disciplines that have a higher management profile. CONCLUSION Taken together, these three routes make up the majority of paths taken by engineers who become inspectors. Although the routes themselves have different backgrounds and involve different types of people, the technical skills that have to be acquired to do the job of inspection don’t vary too much. You can acquire the formal qualifications you need via either the ASME Plant Inspector (Route 1) or API 510/570/653 ICP scheme (Route 2).Each has their specific features and positive and negative points. ASME L1 has a hands-on training element and ASME L2 gives merit to descriptive aspects of inspection reports. ASME L3 is the hardest there is. The API ICP exams are 100% US code orientated, written in US style and have a huge syllabus, not all of which may be necessary in your own day-to-day work. They are well accepted worldwide, by those who like the scheme. And then of course…..you need engineering and inspection experience …..The more you get, the more employable you will become.
The most important aspect of in-service inspection is the role of the individual – the inspector. Irrespective of the organisation for which they work, inspectors have a role which involves a wide and varied scope of technical and engineering issues and the problems and situations that accompany them. The role of the in-service inspector of mechanical plant is far from straightforward. It is a squarely technical discipline, rooted firmly in the logical rules and practices of mechanical engineering. It is also an unashamedly practical subject, which takes place in operating sites rather than in the back room or design office. The role is complicated by the context in which it is applied – inspection is a type of policing function, it involves checking (and influencing) the actions of others. It is this resultant mixture of conflict and co-operation that gives inspection its full character. So what does the inspection business look like? And what does everyone do? The plant inspection business can be a bit difficult to understand for these without previous direct involvement in it. There are many different types of plant inspection but most involve the basic activities of: Inspecting plant (mainly pressure equipment) for mechanical condition. Checking equipment for compliance with statutory regulation (such as the PSSRs and PED). Checking against codes, standards and specifications. Inspecting for corrosion, defects, fitness for purpose, and providing written reports on the results. Whilst plant inspection often involves the inspection of welds and non destructive testing (NDT), it is a very different, more complex discipline than NDT. It has different skill requirements, higher level technical content, and a fundamentally different structure of qualifications. Structure of the business Fig 1 shows the basic structure of the plant inspection business. The structure is based almost entirely on the technical complexity of the inspection tasks and this is tracked fairly accurately by the technical ability, experiences and pay and conditions of the people working within it.
‘Insurance’ company inspections These involve the periodic inspections of pressure systems carried out by the 1000 or so inspectors who work for the so-called ‘insurance’ inspection companies. Most are relatively simple inspections for minimum compliance with the UK Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSRs).In most cases these inspections have precisely nothing to do with insurance, although a lot of people still think that they do. These inspectors generally do multiple inspections per day; spend a lot of time driving between sites, and produce minimalist ‘generic’ inspection reports. Some are staff employees, some are self-employed, and most are over 40, having gained their main engineering experience working somewhere else. Petroleum/Petrochemical industry inspection These divide fairly neatly into on-shore and offshore based inspectors. The two areas have slightly different profiles. Offshore inspection engineers (OIEs) are based offshore on either a 2-3 week rota (North Sea) or longer, perhaps 4-8 week rota in African, Asia, Russia etc. Work involves inspection of fairly complex systems of pipework, vessels and valves. Reports may be quite detailed involving corrosion and fitness-for-purpose issues, or be of a more simplified ‘proforma’ type, depending on the company. Onshore inspection engineers work in refineries, petrochemical plants or other parts of the downstream oil/gas chain. Broadly speaking, they have a slightly higher level of academic training than their offshore equivalents and their inspection work tends to be more heavily concentrated into shutdown or ‘turnaround’ inspections. Self employed or agency inspectors are often employed during these shutdowns to make up the numbers. ‘Agency’ inspectors Agency inspectors work for inspection agencies under either self-employed or staff (PAYE) status doing any of the above jobs. The only difference is their employer; the agency hires them out to plant owners on temporary or semi-permanent contracts, where they do more or less the same job as the plant owner’s staff inspectors
2. THE TECHNICAL SKILLS OF THE INSPECTOR
The skills required by an in-service inspector are characterised by their breadth. In order to feel confident in inspection situations it is necessary to have a technical understanding of a wide variety of engineering plant. Knowledge that is superficial is not sufficient – the complexity of most inspection situations will soon outstrip the knowledge of any inspector who can recite the correct words, but doesn’t know what they actually mean. Inspection requires knowledge that is applied, and robust. You must therefore be able withstand scrutiny, and disagreement, and criticism.
The inspector as technical specialist? Generally not. Most in-service plant inspectors are not technical specialists. They are more likely to be generalists with a wide general knowledge of plant engineering subjects and how to apply it to best effect in an inspection situation. Although some engineers that have trained in specialised, technical subjects (i.e. metallurgy, NDT, design or similar) do move across into plant inspection work, their numbers are not large. They are also fairly unlikely to have been operating as true, high level specialists before their move, more likely they have been involved on the fringe of specialist technical activity, or in some sort of support role. Specialists in predominantly non-technical subjects (such as QA, contract management and procurement) are also found in inspection. Although it is not uncommon to find in-service inspectors with this type of background, they frequently struggle to meet the level of technical appreciation necessary to deal with inspection issues that arise in complex plant, and find the job difficult and stressful. They adapt better to the pre-purchase ‘shop’ inspection of new equipment, which is more about the niceties of documentation and procedures than corroded metal and damaged vessels Inspection as its own specialism? The model of the inspector as absolute generalist is, fortunately, also imperfect. The scope of inspection is wide and general but there are aspects to it which are definitely inspection-specific, and do not relate well to other aspects of engineering. In-service inspection in particular is best thought of as a discipline of its own, with its own set of mainly unwritten rules and norms. It also has its own values. Inspection certainly seems to work better, if you think of it like this. Inspection agencies specialise in either in-service inspection or ‘shop’ (workshop) inspection of new equipment (almost never both) and in the in-service field seek on-going ‘call-off’ contracts with onshore refineries and petrochemical plants. Agencies employ inspectors with a range of abilities, from those with basic NDT qualification through to those with higher-end design code and integrity assessment knowledge. Some agencies have a high turnover of inspectors, as individuals hop without hesitation between agencies looking for more suitable pay, working hours, location or whatever.
3. PLANT INSPECTION: GUIDE TO QUALIFICATIONS
Why is inspector competence an awkward issue? There are two main reasons. First, the technical scope of the subject is so wide – an inspector may be required to inspect anything from a simple low pressure garage air receiver to a highly dangerous process reactor operating under highly corrosive conditions at high pressures. Second, most of the statutory legislation that governs in-service inspection relies on the inspection industry practising a high degree of self-regulation – i.e. it is charged with deciding the competence of its inspectors itself rather than requirements being externally imposed. The resulting freedom means that each inspection organisation takes a different view of what qualifications and experience its inspectors require, and how their competence will be assessed.
European qualifications for plant inspectors are a fairly recent innovation. Whereas the USA has a longestablished system of inspector qualification (The American Petroleum Institute (API) certificate programme)
the UK has no such legal requirement. In recent years however, pressure from enforcement authorities accreditation bodies and plant owner/user clients themselves has brought the technical competence of plant inspectors into focus. Existing certification schemes limited to weld inspection and NDT disciplines do not fit well with the much wider discipline of pressure systems inspection. Why should they?...its a different subject. A summary of the various qualifications available is given below: ROUTE 1: ASME Plant Inspector training scheme (levels 1, 2, 3) Despite its title, this scheme was developed and initiated in the UK. It is divided into three levels, based purely on technical knowledge and expertise rather than anything to do with supervisory or management experience. ASME Plant Inspector level 1 This is a 4-5 day course covering the essential groundwork of pressure systems in-service inspection. Whilst it is a level 1 ‘entry level’ course, it does not contain, nor is it pitched at the same level, as visual weld inspection and NDT qualification content. It is much broader and equipment specific. There are no overly restrictive entry criteria for ASME level 1, although most candidates have some engineering experience connected with inspection or integrity issues in some way. It is not suitable for new graduates who are only interested in collecting certificates to display on their C.V. This is because new graduates without any hands-on experience have little chance of being able to successfully enter the industry as a plant inspector, so they would be wasting their time and money. Academic qualifications are not essential ,as candidates from a background in NDT, welding, operations/maintenance etc traditionally fit quite well into this course, whether they have academic qualifications or not. ASME Level 1 centres on the requirements of statutory inspection under the Pressure System Safety Regulations (PSSRs) and, in most of our courses, contains hands-on inspection and reporting exercises on low pressure vessels and piping components. The course is examined via a test paper (multi-choice and a few description questions) plus an assessed sample inspection report. Approximately 50-60% of delegates find the ASME L1 sufficient for their needs and CV profile and will not want, or need, to progress to a higher level. ASME Plant Inspector level 2 ASME Plant Inspector Level 2 is much harder than level 1. It contains the following six topics, which are studied in some depth in a four-day intensive course: Pressure equipment design codes and their margins Simple fitness-for-purpose assessment of corroded pressure components Risk-based inspection Pressure testing Temporary and permanent weld repairs Critical corrosion mechanisms It is examined by a 2-hour exam of six narrative questions requiring written description answers. Candidates are assessed on their technical knowledge and experience in their written answers. The pass mark is 70% and the
chances of achieving a pass using guesswork, learning by rote or regurgitating the content of the course notes (parroting) are next to zero. Entry requirements We require that entrants to ASME level 2 demonstrate a certain level of competence. This may be either: Passing ASME Level 1 or a comparable entry level course (CSWIP plant inspector level 1 is acceptable but other weld inspection/CSWIP/PCN welding or NDT qualifications are not). CV assessment – you must be able to demonstrate previous pressure systems inspection experience at the necessary level. Achievement of IEng/CEng status is an asset but BEng/MSc qualifications on their own, unless combined with relevant experience, are given no special consideration ASME Plant Inspector level 3 ASME Plant Inspector Level 3 is the highest level covering advanced inspection related topics such as technical disputes, expert witness reports, technical guarantee/insurance claims and suchlike. Only a small percentage of inspection engineers will progress to this level. The examination composes complex written exercises and case study/expert reporting work requiring good written and language skills combined with a wide engineering experience. Entry to Level 3 is only via ASME Level 2, personal recommendation, or our first hand knowledge of a candidate’s experience and abilities.
ROUTE 2: The API 510/570/653 Certification programmes The American Petroleum Institutive (API) certification scheme for in-service inspectors goes under the grand name of its Individual Certification Programme (ICP). Developed in the USA, it is available in various countries in the world, including the UK. It was originally intended for inspectors working in the upstream and downstream oil industry although much of its technical approach adapts well to other petrochemical and general process industries. It is used extensively in the USA (it is a legal requirement in many states for inspectors to be certified) and in other countries that use API/ASME codes. In countries where it is not a legal requirement, it just has the status of being recognised as a ‘benchmark’ standard for certification of inspectors. How many ICPs are there? There are three main ones, each linked to a specific set of API and ASME codes relating to the type of equipment covered. They are: API 510: Pressure vessel inspector API 570: Pipework inspector
API 653: Storage tank inspector These three main certification programmes have been established for many years. There are also a few less well-known ones: Qualifications for ultrasonic examiners (QUTE), API 936 (Certification for refractory personnel) being two of them,limited mainly to use in the USA Which industries recognise API inspector certification? The API organisation has its roots in the petrochemical industry, but the influence of US codes and standards extends to many other industries, hence most large-scale process industries around the world recognise API inspector certification. This is because many of the vessels and pipework systems used are built to the ASME/API codes that form the foundation of the inspector certification examinations. API-certified inspectors can therefore be found in: Refining/Petrochemicals Offshore/onshore oil and gas industries Power utilities General process industry
What is the recognition of API certification in the UK/Europe? The recognition of API inspector certification in the UK has increased over the past few years. There are several reasons for this: There is currently no comprehensive UK or European system of inspector certification based on BS or EN codes with such a wide scope as the API programmes Increasing ownership of offshore facilities and onshore power/process plants by US companies, who are used to recognising API certification Regulatory authorities prefer to see some evidence of inspector competence, against technical codes that they recognise. Mention of inspection procedures to API 570/510 regularly appear in HSE seminars and discussion documents discussing the avoidance of system leakage, failures, regulatory issues etc How do I become API certified? In simple terms, to become certified as an API certified inspector, all you have to do is apply to API, meet and then pass the formal examination. In practice, unless you have full familiarity with the relevant codes (1000+ pages’ worth), you will most probably fail, unless you prepare for the examination by enrolling on a training course. The training course will teach you about the subject matter covered, the way the exams are written, test you using mock exams etc, and prepare you to take the API exam.
When and where are the examinations held? The API 570/510 examinations are held on scheduled dates during the year Candidates book in advance to attend an examination session at which they sit the examinations for either API 570 or 510. As the examinations are on the same day you cannot sit both at the same time. The examination sessions are organised with API through a training provider, enabling candidates to sit for the examination either immediately after they have completed the exam preparation training course, or within a short time. The training provider sets up the exam locations, chosen to suit the majority of delegates. In most cases, the exam will be held in the same location as the exam preparation training course. What is the technical content of the API 570/510 examinations? The technical content of the examinations are well defined and linked closely to API and ASME codes and standards. The content of the exam preparation training courses reflects the scope of the examinations, in order to prepare the delegate to sit the exam. What are the API examination entry requirements? API set minimum entry requirements for candidates who want to sit for the 570/510 exams. The general principle is that candidates must be ‘employed by or under contract to an ‘authorised inspection agency or owner/user organization’. In practice this is less onerous than it sounds and inspectors who work under contract (self-employed or Ltd Company) are generally considered eligible, as long as they can demonstrate that they have been working in the inspection field.
THE MATTHEWS TRAINING API EXAM PREPARATION TRAINING PROGRAMME As an established provider of inspection training courses, Matthews Engineering Training Ltd (MET) offer API 570/510/653 training programmes for API exams to be held in the UK. These programmes are written and delivered by UK presenters and cover all the skills required to sit for the API examinations. What is the format of the MET training programme? The MET programme consists of two parts: Part 1: Preliminary distance learning training modules Part 2: A 5-6 day full time ‘residential’ classroom course, followed by the relevant API exam
You can see details on our website www.matthews-training.co.uk
4. CAREER PATHWAYS Historically, almost no-one starts their engineering career in plant inspection. Of the few that do, perhaps with high hopes that their first degree or MSc will give them a stepping stone to greatness, most leave within a year or two to pursue some other career path; typically project engineering, corrosion engineering or the more loosely defined ‘integrity engineering’. Notwithstanding the above, ‘early starter’ career routes in inspection follow a few well defined patterns. They will have different starting and finishing points, but show the common features that success is reliant on a foundation of solid technical engineering experience rather than lots of academic qualifications. The NDT technician route A lot of inspectors move into inspection from an NDT technician background. They have formal NDT qualifications (CSWIP, PCN, ASNT or whatever) and have gained practical experience by involvement with welding, fabricated structures and pressure equipment. NDT technicians benefit from their experience of dealing with plant manufacturers, contractors and operators and have an appreciation of the ways that they all interact with each other. Their areas of weakness generally include: Lack of experience of the operational aspects of engineering plant. Uncertainty of technical knowledge in some areas of plant design, degradation/failure mechanisms and academic topics such as fitness-for-purpose (FFP) assessment. Difficulty in adapting from the world of NDT, which is based around ‘hard edged’ and well-defined techniques and defect acceptance criteria to the more judgmental, ‘multiple shades of grey’, world of in-service inspection. The plant operator route Traditionally, many plant inspectors started their careers in plant operations in power, process or marine engineering. The high levels of plant experience and practical achievement required form a sound technical background for an eventual move into plant inspection. Although it has not disappeared completely, this route has depleted steadily over the past twenty years. Weaknesses in inspectors taking this route may include: Poor knowledge of important design codes, regulations and statutory aspects. Limited experience of industry-specific technical issues (materials, designs etc) i.e. they are often generalists with a wide, but shallow, knowledge base. In recent years career benefits (mainly salaries) for competent operations technicians and engineers in power/process/petrochemical industries have become quite attractive, thereby discouraging salary-related moves into plant inspection.
The graduate/project engineer route This is the most modern career route into plant inspection. It is growing, encouraged by the decline of traditional apprenticeship training and increase in the number of degree courses. It has its root in the graduate engineer, employed by construction, contracting or process/petrochemical utility organisations. Graduates will typically start their engineering career in a specific project engineer role, or as part of an in-company graduate training. At some point the wide responsibilities of the project engineer may kick-start a graduate engineer’s interest in plant inspection. Inspection plays a part in most plant projects and the technical complexity (and difficulties) of it soon become apparent. In common with the other inspection career routes, the graduate entry route has weaknesses. Typically, these are: Lack of hands-on engineering experience. Poor initial appreciation of the ways that technician and ‘engineering’ disciplines interleave together rather than act alone. In practice, these weaknesses have a short timescale. Graduates that have survived the selection procedures of major companies are well-motivated, and can absorb large amounts of technical information, so they learn very quickly. In many cases the latent technical power of graduates is never fully received into the world of in-service inspection as they quickly move on into another role. This is the downside of graduate/project engineers’ participation in inspection; it is frequently temporary – used as a technical stepping-stone towards progression in other disciplines that have a higher management profile. CONCLUSION Taken together, these three routes make up the majority of paths taken by engineers who become inspectors. Although the routes themselves have different backgrounds and involve different types of people, the technical skills that have to be acquired to do the job of inspection don’t vary too much. You can acquire the formal qualifications you need via either the ASME Plant Inspector (Route 1) or API 510/570/653 ICP scheme (Route 2).Each has their specific features and positive and negative points. ASME L1 has a hands-on training element and ASME L2 gives merit to descriptive aspects of inspection reports. ASME L3 is the hardest there is. The API ICP exams are 100% US code orientated, written in US style and have a huge syllabus, not all of which may be necessary in your own day-to-day work. They are well accepted worldwide, by those who like the scheme. And then of course…..you need engineering and inspection experience …..The more you get, the more employable you will become.
