Information for testing laboratories that test safety devices – safety valves

(link to the Notification on changes of the reqirements for accreditation in the field of pressure equipment published on April 20th, 2022, HERE►

After receiving the first applications for accreditation for testing activities of safety valves on pressure equipemnt to which the provisions of the new Rulebook on inspections of pressure equipment to which provisions of the new Rulebook on inspections of pressure equipment during their lifetime are applied (’’Official Gazette of the RS’’, No. 114/21), for testing prescribed in Annex VI of the aformentioned Rulebook, and recorded inconsistencies in the expression of the required scopes of accreditation, in order to standardize the way of expression of the scope of accreditation, to avoid possible different interpretations of it by interested parties, the Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) is in accordance with the Protocol on cooperation between the Ministry of Mining and Energy and the Accreditation Body of Serbia, addressed to the Ministry of Mining and Energy, the adopter of the aformentioned regulation and the institution responsible for its implementation.

Having in mind that Article 27, paragraph 1 of the Rulebook on inspections of pressure equipment during its lifetime (’’Official Gazette of the RS’’, No. 114/21) stipulates that testing and adjustment of safety devices can be performed by a legal entity accredited according to the SRPS ISO IEC standard 17025, based on the information of the Ministry of Mining and Energy submitted in letter number: 312-01-01147/2022-05 of August 15th, 2022, which was filed in ATS under number 1-15-010/2022-7 on August 23rd, 2022, ATS informs testing laboratories that intend to be accredited for testing of safety devices – safety valves, on pressure equipment to which the provision of the Rulebook on inspections of pressure equipment during their lifetime are applied (’’Official Gazette of the RS’’, No. 114/21), that the follwoing method of expressing the scope of accreditation was established:

In the scope of accreditation, as a reference document, Annex VI – Testing and adjustment of safety valves of the Rulebook on inspections of pressure eqipment during its lifetime shall be specified (’’Official Gazette of the RS’’, No. 114/21). Having in mind that, as necessary, in addition to Annex VI – Testing and adjustment of safety valves, standards, parts of standards and other technical specifications can be listed as reference documents in case that they prescribe in more detail certain specific testing methods, while requirements shall always be met which are prescribed in Annex VI – Testing and adjustment of safety valves of the Rulebook on inspections of pressure equipment during the lifetime (’’Official Gazette of the RS’’, No. 114/21), it was agreed that in accordance with the guidances given in the Guidelines for formulating the scope of accreditation of the CAB, ATS-UP02, in addition to Annex VI, also list standards, parts of standards and other technical specifications that prescribe in more detail certain specific testing methods, whereby the requirements prescribed in Annex VI shall always be met.

The scope of accreditation as a type of testing shall include the following testing:
1.    Opening start pressure (setting pressure); and
2.    Leakage, within which the closing pressure is also tested; and
3.    Hydraulic pressure testing of the safety valve housing.

In case when the accredited laboratory wants to deal with the testing of safety valves where the construction and technical solution do not allow hydraulic testing of the housing and/or when the safety valve is used in processes where there shall not be even the smallest amount of liquid in the scope of accreditation expect for hydraulic pressure testing and/or pneumatic pressure testing of the safety valve housing shall be specified.

Visual inspection is not stated as a type of examination in the scope of accreditation, but is a mandatory activity that shall be performed before the start, during and after completion of the examination and adjustment. The visual inspection determines the general condition of the safety device as well as the operation of its visual parts, and accredited laboratories are required to keep records with photographs.

Having in mind the above, neither ATS shall accept applications for accreditation, nor will it make decisions on accreditation for the scope of accreditation that does not include all the testing listed in Annex VI, in the manner presented in this information.
Testing laboratories that are acting in accordance with Notification on changes to requirements for accreditation in the field of pressure eqipment published on 20th April, 2022, HERE►, had already submitted an application for accreditation in the previous period and whose procedures are in progress, or will be possible to request an additional extension within the already paid fees for processing the application for accreditation if the submitted requested scope of accreditation does not cover all the testing listed in Annex VI, as presented in this information. In terms of fees, the request for an additional extension shall be reviewed only in terms of the number of mandays required to assess the additional extension.

Sincerely,

Your ATS