52 Pa. Code § 61.50 - Welding; qualification and nondestructive testing

(a) Welding shall be performed by qualified welders employing qualified welding procedures. Welders and welding procedures shall be qualified in accordance with the most updated and applicable standards of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Two Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990, https://www.asme.org/.

(b) Field welds that are inaccessible or not in a manhole on new steam pipelines shall be nondestructively tested. A new pipeline shall be tested at system pressure.

(c) Field welds made on existing mains and service lines shall be subject to a program of random unannounced nondestructive testing to assess the quality of welding and test the work of each welder. The required minimum testing rate shall be 10% of all welds made during a calendar year. If 10% or more of the welds tested in a calendar year are found to be unacceptable, the test rate shall increase by 5% for the ensuing calendar year. If fewer than 10% of the welds are found to be unacceptable in a year when the required test rate was greater than 10%, the test rate may be decreased by 5% for the ensuing calendar year.

(d) Pressure tests will not be required if 100% of the welds are tested with nondestructive methods.

Notes

52 Pa. Code § 61.50

The provisions of this § 61.50 adopted December 1, 2017, effective 12/2/2017, 47 Pa.B. 7314.

The provisions of this § 61.50 issued under the Public Utility Code, 66 Pa.C.S. § § 501 and 1501.