ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code

ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code
The ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) is an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standard that regulates the design and construction of boilers and pressure vessels.[1] The document is written and maintained by volunteers chosen for their technical expertise .[2] The American Society of Mechanical Engineers works as an Accreditation Body and entitles independent third parties such as verification, testing and certification agencies to inspect and ensure compliance to the BPVC.[3]

History

The BPVC was created in response to public outcry after several serious explosions in the state of Massachusetts. A fire-tube boiler exploded at the Grover Shoe Factory in Brockton, Massachusetts on March 20, 1905 which resulted in the deaths of 58 people and injured 150. Then on December 6, 1906 a boiler in the factory of the P.J. Harney Shoe Company exploded in Lynn, Massachusetts. As a result, the state of Massachusetts enacted the first legal code based on ASME's rules for the construction of steam boilers in 1907.[4][5]

ASME convened the Board of Boiler Rules before it became the ASME Boiler Code Committee which was formed in 1911. This committee put in the form work for the first edition of the ASME Boiler Code - Rules for the Construction of Stationary Boilers and for the Allowable Working Pressures, which was issued in 1914 and published in 1915.[5]

The first edition of the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, known as the 1914 edition, was a single 114-page volume.[6][7] It developed over time into the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel code, which today has over 92,000 copies in use, in over 100 countries around the world.[5] As of March 2011 the document consisted of 16,000 pages in 28 volumes.[7]

After the first edition of the Code, the verifications that the manufacture was to the Code was performed by independent inspectors, which resulted in a wide range of interpretations. Hence in February 1919, the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors was formed.[5]

ASME BPVC TIMELINE[5][8]
Year Activity
1880 The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is founded
1884 First performance test code: Code for the Conduct of Trials of Steam Boilers
1900 First revision of an ASME standard, Standard Method of Conducting Steam Boiler Tests
1911 Establishment of a committee to propose a Boiler Code
1913 New Committee to revise the Boiler Code
1914 Issuance of the first Boiler Code
1915 Standards for Specifications and Construction of Boilers and Other Containing Vessels in Which High Pressure is Contained
1919 National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors formed
1924 Code for Unfired Pressure Vessels
1930 Test Code of Complete Steam-Electric Power Plants
1956 Committee established for ASME Pressure Vessel Code for Nuclear Age
1963 Section III (Nuclear Power) of ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code
1968 ASME Nuclear Power Certificate of Authorization Program commences
1972 ASME expands its certification program worldwide; first ASME manufacturer certification issued outside of North America
1978 First ASME publication of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Committee interpretations
1983 ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code published in both conventional and metric units
1989 Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code published on CD-ROM
1992 First Authorized Inspection Agency accredited
1996 Risk technology introduced into the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code
1997 High Pressure Vessel Code
2000 C&S Connect (on-line balloting and tracking system) launched for Boiler and_Pressure Vessel Committees
2007 ISO TC11 Standard 16528—Boilers and Pressure Vessels published, establishing performance requirements for the construction of boilers and pressure vessels and facilitating registration of BPV Codes to this standard
2008 Polyethylene plastic pipe introduced into the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III
2009 ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Committee reorganized from one consensus body to ten consensus bodies

Source WIKIPEDIA