Brazing Procedure Qualification

[Argus]

Are you / is the job in the UK? If so then Ashrae is not applicable.

The UK comes under EN378 and the PED regs.

Frank is absolutely right. The PED is law in all EU countries, and applies to all pressure equipment within its scope, unless you can demonstrate that is it intended for permanent export to a third country. (i.e. Non EU or EFTA). Not all refrigeration equipment is within the scope of the Directive. You must comply with the PED in the EU, if that is where the equipment is used, by law. However, if your client insists on ASHRAE / ASME in addition, as part of his contract and is prepared to pay for it, that?s a contractual matter between your company and the client. They have no official technical standing as standards outside their country of origin.

The PED is very complex and not easy to understand, so you may consider that the immediate things to ask are:

• Is the prime equipment inside the scope of the PED? Not all equipment is if its components are below category 1 as defined in the Directive.
  
• What?s in the pipe?
  
• How big it is? (Because a 25mm tube would be outside the scope of the PED pipe work limits, UNLESS it connects directly to a piece of equipment that is within the scope of the PED).

There is a brazing methodology produced by the British Refrigeration Association (BRA) and the only one that I am aware of in this country that is specific for refrigeration purposes. However good as it is, it is not harmonised to the PED (in other words it is not recognised for compliance with that Directive?s essential requirements) so you can only use it for the type of equipment that falls outside the scope of the PED that I mentioned, referred to as Standard Engineering Practice (SEP).

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Hermosillo Stamping & Assembly

[Delboy]

Your comments are very helpful indeed.
For further information the construction site is in West Africa.
The piping is for refrigerant only and we as a company have never been asked to qualify a joint in the past.
All pressure piping at site falls under B31.3 and ASME IX however I cannot see how this applies to HVAC equipment in this instance.

Welderuk

[Argus]

Your comments are very helpful indeed.
For further information the construction site is in West Africa.
The piping is for refrigerant only and we as a company have never been asked to qualify a joint in the past.
All pressure piping at site falls under B31.3 and ASME IX however I cannot see how this applies to HVAC equipment in this instance.

Welderuk

Your kit is in a third country so the PED doesn?t apply.

I guess that you will need to obtain a copy of the relevant standards and do what it says if it?s in the contract.


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BMW R 51/3

[Andy]

country of origin.



There is a brazing methodology produced by the British Refrigeration Association (BRA) and the only one that I am aware of in this country that is specific for refrigeration purposes. However good as it is, it is not harmonised to the PED (in other words it is not recognised for compliance with that Directive’s essential requirements) so you can only use it for the type of equipment that falls outside the scope of the PED that I mentioned, referred to as Standard Engineering Practice (SEP).

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ASME IX is what is desribed in PED as "local standards" what was commonly in place befrore PED. To my knowledge ASME IX is the only aceptable standard, widely recoginsed for brazing.

What other people are doing is writing a brazing proceedure that complies with ASME IX and testing their brazers by an in house test using this proceedure. That is fine as long as a notifyable body is in place to aduit the proceedure and the tests.

If I was outside the EU I would do the same, bringing in a competent person to assess my proceedures.

Kind Regards. Andy