Article 1 This Regulation is formulated according to those specified in the "Regulations on Safety Supervision over Special Equipment" and the relevant safety technical supervision regulations for pressure vessel, with a view to standardizing the pressure vessel periodical inspection work.
Article 2 This Regulation is applicable to the periodical inspection on the stationary pressure vessels, transportable pressure vessels and medical oxygen chambers in use in the scope of "Regulations on Safety Supervision over Special Equipment", with exception of gas cylinders.
Therein, the periodical inspection on railway tank cars, tank cars and tank containers (hereinafter referred to as "tankers") shall be carried out in accordance with Annex A "Special Requirements for Periodical Inspection on Railway Tank Cars, Tank Cars and Tank Containers" of this Regulation; the periodical inspection on medical oxygen chambers (hereinafter referred to "oxygen chamber") shall be carried out in accordance with Annex B "Special Requirements for Periodical Inspection on Medical oxygen Chambers" of this Regulation; the periodical inspection on pressure vessels in small refrigerating plant shall be carried out in accordance with Annex C "Special Requirements for Periodical Inspection on Pressure Vessels in Small Refrigerating Plant" of this Regulation; the periodical inspection on tube trailers and tube bundle containers shall be carried out in accordance with Annex D "Special Requirements for Periodical Inspection on Tube Trailers and Tube Bundle Containers" of this Regulation; and the periodical inspection on glass-lined pressure vessels, graphite and graphite-lined pressure vessels, glassfiber reinforced plastic (GRP) and GRP-lined pressure vessels as well as plastic and plastic-lined pressure vessels shall be carried out in accordance with Annex E "Special Requirements for Periodical Inspection on Nonmetal and Nonmetal-lined Pressure Vessels" of this Regulation.
The provisions in Chapters 1, 2 and 5 of this Regulation are applicable to the periodical inspection work of pressure vessels stated in preceding clause, and those separately specified in special requirements, these provisions shall prevail.
Periodical inspection on super-high pressure vessels shall be carried out in accordance with the relevant requirements of "Super-high Pressure Vessel Safety and Technical Supervision Regulation" (TSG R0002).
Article 3 Pressure vessel periodical inspection refers to the compliance verification activity conducted by the special equipment inspection organization (hereinafter referred to as "inspection organization") according to a certain time period at the shutdown time of pressure vessels in accordance with the safety condition of pressure vessels in use as specified in this Regulation.
Article 4 General procedure of periodical inspection work includes the formulation of inspection scheme, preparations before inspection, implementation of inspection, handling of defects and problems, summarization of inspection results, and issuance of inspection report, etc..
Article 5 Safety condition of pressure vessels is divided into Level 1 to Level 5. As for pressure vessels in use, the safety condition level shall be rated according to Chapter 4 of this Regulation and on basis of the inspection conditions.
Article 6 Generally, the pressure vessels shall be carried out with the first periodical inspection within 3 years after being put into use. And the subsequent inspection cycle shall be determined by the inspection organization on basis of the safety condition level of pressure vessels according to the following requirements:
(1) Once every 6 years for the pressure vessels at Level 1 and 2 safety condition;
(2) Once every 3~6 years for the pressure vessels at Level 3 safety condition;
(3) For pressure vessels at Level 4 safety condition, they shall be used under monitoring and their inspection cycle shall be determined by the inspection organization, the accumulation service time under monitoring shall not exceed 3 years, and the using organization shall take effective monitoring measures during the service period under monitoring;
(4) For pressure vessels at Level 5 safety condition, the defects shall be treated, otherwise the vessel shall not continue in service.
For pressure vessels using risk based inspection (RBI) technology, their inspection cycle shall be determined according to the requirements of 7.8.3 in "Supervision Regulation on Safety Technology for Stationary Pressure Vessel" (TSG R0004).
In case that annexes of this Regulation or other safety technical regulations have special provisions on the inspection cycle, these special provisions shall prevail.
Article 7 The cycle of periodical inspection shall be duly shortened for pressure vessels under any one of the following conditions:
(1) The corrosiveness of medium to material of pressure vessel is unclear or abnormal;
(2) The pressure vessel has the environmental cracking tendency or the phenomenon of generating mechanical damage, and already has been discovered with crack (Note 1);
(3) The working medium is changed and may cause the deterioration of corrosion phenomenon;
(4) The material deterioration phenomenon is relatively obvious;
(5) The using organization did not conduct the annual inspection as required;
(6) During the inspection, other factors that affect the safety are in doubt.
The spherical boiler adopting paper technology of "ammonium sulfite method" and also without effective anticorrosive measures shall be carried out periodical inspection at least once every year.
For spherical tank manufactured from the low alloy steel of which the lower limit value of standard tensile strength is larger than or equal to 540 MPa, opening inspection shall be carried out after the tank is put into use for one year.
Note 1: Environmental cracking mainly includes stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen induced cracking and intergranular corrosion cracking, etc.; and mechanical damage mainly includes various fatigue and high temperature creeps, etc..
Article 8 For the pressure vessels at Level 1 and 2 safety condition and meeting any one of the following conditions, the cycle of periodical inspection may be duly postponed:
(1) For the pressure vessels of which the corrosion rate of medium is less than 0.1 mm per year and also having reliable corrosion-resistant clad lining or hot spray metal coating, if it is confirmed through one or two times of periodical inspection that the corrosion is slight or the lining is intact, their inspection cycle may be prolonged to 12 years at most;
