ASME Tank Certification: Pros and Cons for Nitrogen/Fire Aid System Tanks

[RichieM]

I am part of a potentially fast growing company here in the states.
We've designed and manufactured a nitrogen/fire aid system that consist of 30 & 60 gallon tanks that hold the actual fire aid foam solution (not the nitrogen).

Our tanks are not ASME certified so I have the following questions-

- What would we have to do as a company to have them certified or is it really necessary?

- What would be the pros and cons to both?

- What would be the best way to go about it?

Note: We've only designed the tanks; we have a separate manufacturer building them.

There's a prototype of one of our tanks for example attached.

 

[Travis_King]

As far as I know, ASME only certifies companies/organizations, it does not certify individuals or individual pieces of equipment. ASME certification means that your employees and equipment doing the fabrication, your methods and materials of fabrication, and your design are all up to the relevant ASME codes.

It's a pretty extensive and expensive process.

Some states/municipalities/countries require certification, some may not.

Here's some literature:

Here's a company that talks about why it got ASME certified.

http://www.onetb.com/asme_code_certification.htm

Here's a PF thread

and another

 

[Q_Goest]

Just to add to that, your vessels will need to be ASME code stamped according to state law in almost all states in the US & Canada. See the second page of this PDF file for a map http://www.nationalboard.org/SiteDocuments/NB-370.pdf.

So by state law, your vessels can't be sold or used without being built and certified to the code by a shop that holds the ASME stamp.

The right way, and very easy way to do this is to simply take your requirements for the vessel to a handful of shops holding the code stamp and have them 'design' and certify the vessel for you. Work with them on the design. In short, they basically have to provide all the calculations and work processes per the code and have a board inspector review them before they can stamp the vessel.

You should find costs are very reasonable since there are a lot of shops that can manufacture vessels so there's quite a bit of competition.