Do I Need To Register My Piping System?
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Introduction:
The Canadian B51 standard covers the need to register Pressure Vessels, Boilers and Piping. Of the three, piping is by far the hardest to register.
The first problem is that the B51 standard provides the need to register piping systems, but does not define what a piping system is and when it needs registration. In absence of clarity in the covering standard, each province has a different guideline on what must be registered.
Registration of Piping:
Registration of piping is done to an address of installation. For a manufacturer of identical piping systems, each different address of installation must be registered. This can be avoided in cases where piping systems can be registered as fittings - typically smaller systems with less than 1.5 cuft volume. Update: Ontario is working on a catagory of "portable" piping systems which will probably eliminate the need to register identical piping systems many times for different instalation addresses.
A piping system is made up of a collection of registered fittings (valves, elbows, flanges, hoses, and strainers etc.) and calculated components like pipe and nozzles. It is easiest to find registered fittings for common service like compressed air or steam. Be careful with expiry dates of fittings. Try not to use items that will expire within a year of your submission date - piping registrations can take a long time, requiring re-design if components expire during the process.
The easiest way to deal with fittings lacking CRNs that cannot be substituted is to get the manufacturer to get them registered. Some reviewers will allow you to burst test unregistered components as an alternative to registration.
The ACI web site (www.acicrn.com) contains a list of vessels and fittings registered in Atlantic Canada and the Territories. Many of the listed fittings are also registered in other Canadian provinces.
Expect for Quebec, piping registration is done in advance of construction and is handled just like a pressure vessel. You need calculations, drawings and an appropriate QC program.
Most provinces need piping systems to be signed off by a P.Eng. This is more restrictive than pressure vessels, but comes from the piping codes - see B31.3 301.1(b) "Qualifications of the designer".
Customers are often surprised at the number of pressure relief devices required on a registered piping system.
Common definitions:
Expansible fluid: expansible fluid means any vapour or gaseous substance, or any liquid under a pressure and at a temperature that is such that the liquid will change - "flash" - to a gas or vapour when the pressure is reduced to atmospheric conditions (70°F, 15 psia).
15 psi exemption: many provinces do not specifically state that piping must be over 15 psi to require registration. This is taken from The B51 standard which only covers items over 15psi. Some provinces require steam piping at any pressure to be registered.
British Columbia
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following source:
"Pressure Piping Registration"
Alberta
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following sources:
Safety Codes Act Flow Chartfrom ABSA's website ALBERTA REGULATION 49/2006 / Safety Codes Act / PRESSURE EQUIPMENT SAFETY REGULATION Important note: the 0.5m^3 volume is the complete system volume, not the volume of one skid attached to the system!
Saskatchewan
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following source:
"Pressure Piping Design"
Manitoba
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following source:
"Steam and Pressure Plant Programs" Note: we are getting reports that piping systems less than 15 PSI sometimes need to be registered in Manitoba.
Ontario
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following sources:
"GUIDELINE FOR REGISTRATION OF MEDICAL GAS PIPING SYSTEMS"
"SAFETY INFORMATION BULLETIN: SB00-7 Rev. 4" - very useful piping flow charts
Important: Ontario has strict limitations on which QC programs are acceptable for piping. See below.
Quebec:
[Piping registration requirements for Quebec ONLY] Registration of piping is done at the time the installer submits to the "Regie du batiment du Quebec" a declaration of installation of the piping. If the declaration of installation is accepted by the "Regie du batiment du Quebec", a number is given to the installer and that number shall be used by the manufacturer of the piping as the provincial piping design registration number.
Fittings used in piping systems shall be registered by the fitting manufacturer [fittings need a CRN].
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following source:
New Brunswick:
The New Brunswick pressure vessel code does not specifically mention the need to register piping systems.
We are currently attempting to find out from New Brunswick if piping needs to be registered there, and if so, what piping systems need to be registered.
Nova Scotia:
High pressure piping needs to be registered in Nova Scotia. We are currently in contact with Nova Scotia to determine if a definition of high pressure piping in the province of Nova Scotia exists.
Prince Edward Island:
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following source:
Newfoundland and Labrador:
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following source:
http://www.assembly.nl.ca/legislation/sr/regulations/rc969119.htm
Yukon:
This flowchart is an approximate combination of information collected from the following source:
Boilers and Pressure Vessels Act Regulations
North West Territories:
"Pressure piping" means a pipe or tubing used for transmitting fluid to or from a pressure vessel; (conduite sous pression).
Nunavut:
Use the Ontario chart:
Boilers & Pressure Vessels: Codes
Piping QC Requirements:
As with the scope of registration requirements above, QC requirements vary considerably from province to province. Items here are correct to the best of our knowledge as of November 2012.
ACI covers N.B., N.S., P.E.I., NFLD and Labrador, Yukon, N.W.T., and Nunavut.
A "?" in the table indicates that we do not know at this time. (Our reference: PVE-4529).
Ontario will only accept ASME PP stamps if the piping is ASME Section I external boiler piping. All other applications will require either a B51 certificate which includes piping in the scope or an Ontario Certificate of Authorization for pressure piping. If the manufacturer already holds an ASME PP stamp, then no on site audit is required, a modified assessment can be performed instead. The following is required for an Ontario modified assessment:
- Ontario Certificate of Authorization Form
- Purchase order number. Budget price is around $1000, invoiced at $146/hour, 4 hours minimum.
- Copy of the companies quality control program that was accepted by ASME
- Copy of the companies National Board registration certificate
Contact Mary Scotland at TSSA for more information. mscotland@tssa.org
Authors Comments:
Canada does not have a Canadian Registration System. We have a collection of provincial systems. How is it possible that each province carefully studied what is required to keep the piping systems in their provinces safe and all came up with vastly different requirements? Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 to 1859) might have been thinking about piping registration:
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power [of democracy] then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicate rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent and guided... men are seldom forced to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting... Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervate, extinguishes, and stupefies a people...
Thus the spirit is gradually broken.... gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and acting for themselves. [People then console themselves at the loss of their liberties] by reflection that they have chosen their own guardians.
The Canadian B51 standard has been around for 70 years. The piping registration is really only starting to happen now. It is mainly applied to new installations when an Authorized Inspector is expected to find it. Existing piping systems are seldom registered and usually ignored. We are only now, 70 years in, determining if this system is even possible. The tools to make it practical like searchable databases for registered parts are still being developed.
Laurence Brundrett President, Pressure Vessel Engineering November 2012
Disclaimer: While every effort is made to make these pages accurate and up to date as the CRN system changes, this information is only the opinion of Laurence Brundrett P. Eng., President of Pressure Vessel Engineering Ltd. Please consider this an introduction - the first 20% of the information you require to navigate the CRN system.
Updated November 2012 - extensive re-write; Updated May 2013 - quick links added
