Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EU

Under Article 1, Directive 2014/68/EU applies to the design, manufacture and conformity assessment of pressure equipment and assemblies with a maximum allowable pressure above 0.5 bar. It is addressed to manufacturers and the other economic operators that place pressure equipment on the market. The operator is not its addressee. The operator sees its effect in the documents that come with each device: CE marking, declaration of conformity and operating instructions.

Under Article 2, pressure equipment means vessels, piping, safety accessories and pressure accessories. Article 4 sets, by equipment type, the size, pressure and fluid above which the essential safety requirements apply. Equipment below these limits must be built to the sound engineering practice of a Member State and may not bear the CE marking.

The directive contains no rules for operation and recurring inspections. Article 3(2) expressly states that Member States may set requirements to protect people, in particular workers, when the equipment is used. In Germany, that is the BetrSichV, especially Annex 2 Section 4. Anyone buying pressure equipment therefore checks two things: whether it meets the directive's requirements and how German law requires it to be inspected.

Pressure installations under Annex 2 Section 4 No. 2.1 must be inspected. These include steam boiler installations with heated, overheating-prone pressure equipment for steam or hot water above 110 degrees Celsius, pressure vessel installations, filling installations for compressed, liquefied or dissolved gases, and certain piping installations for gases, vapors or liquids with hazard statements, for example flammable, acutely toxic or corrosive. A pressure installation must also be or contain pressure equipment under Directive 2014/68/EU, transportable pressure equipment under Directive 2010/35/EU, or simple pressure vessels under Directive 2014/29/EU with more than 50 bar·l.

Pressure equipment under Article 4(3) of the directive, meaning below the limits and without CE marking, is excluded from this definition. A compressed-air tank with a PS·V of 20 bar·l is below both limits and is therefore not a pressure installation requiring monitoring. It is still work equipment and needs a risk assessment with inspection intervals under § 14.

The installation components are pressure vessels, steam and hot water generators, piping and the vessels named. Accessories such as safety valves and limiters are assigned to the respective component. Sort every piece of equipment above 0.5 bar in your inventory into these categories and record whether it requires monitoring. The inspector and the intervals depend on it.

Recurring inspections of installation components consist of external inspections, internal inspections and strength tests (Annex 2 Section 4 No. 5.5). The external inspection checks the condition from outside, the internal inspection checks the interior, and the strength test checks the load capacity of the pressure-bearing wall, usually by a pressure test. External inspections can be dropped for pressure vessels unless they are fired, heated by exhaust gas or electrically heated. For piping, the internal inspection can be dropped (No. 5.6).

For components that an approved inspection body inspects, the maximum intervals in Table 1 apply (No. 5.8). Steam boilers: external inspection one year, internal inspection three years, strength test nine years. Pressure vessels: two, five and ten years. Simple pressure vessels: no external inspection, internal five years, strength test ten years. Piping: external inspection and strength test five years each. For the pressure installation as a whole, the interval may not exceed ten years (No. 5.3).

Within the maximums, you set the interval yourself. It must be determined in the risk assessment and be settled no later than six months after commissioning (No. 5.4). Whether it is correct is determined immediately after it is set (§ 15(2)), and in a dispute the authority decides. For components that a qualified person may inspect, the interval may be at most ten years, and for strength tests up to 15 years with proof (No. 5.9).

As a rule, an approved inspection body inspects, both before commissioning and after modifications that require inspection, and at recurring intervals. A person qualified to inspect may do so if Annex 2 Section 4 provides for it in Tables 2 to 11 or in No. 7 Table 12 (No. 6). Whether that applies depends on the volume, the maximum allowable pressure, the product of the two and the fluid group. Example: for vessels with gases of fluid group 1, Table 3 shows that with a volume of 1 to 200 liters and PS·V between 25 and 200 bar·l, a qualified person may carry out both the inspection before commissioning and the recurring inspection. With a higher PS·V, the inspection before commissioning moves to the ZÜS first, and with a higher product still, the recurring inspection does too. If an installation consists only of parts that a qualified person may inspect, that person may also inspect the whole installation.

For inspections on pressure installations, the qualified person must have relevant technical training, know the rules, have at least one year of experience with the manufacture, assembly, operation or maintenance of the installations or components to be inspected, and keep their knowledge current through training (No. 3). They are not bound by instructions during the inspection. Keep the proof in the installation file.

In the inspection before commissioning, the inspector determines whether the necessary technical documents are available and their content is plausible (Annex 2 Section 4 No. 4.2). The ordinance names the operating instructions as an example. For installations requiring monitoring, § 15(1) adds the declaration of conformity. In the recurring inspection, the inspector again determines whether the necessary documents are available and plausible (No. 5.2).

Member States must ensure that pressure equipment is only made available and put into service if it meets the directive's requirements when properly installed and maintained (Article 3(1)). Equipment below the limits must be accompanied by adequate instructions for use (Article 4(3)). For each device, therefore, put the declaration of conformity, the operating instructions and the documents for the accessories in the file.

Add your own documents: the risk assessment with the intervals you set, earlier inspection certificates, records of repairs and modifications, and proof of the inspectors' qualifications. Without the necessary documents, the inspector cannot establish their plausibility. An inspection result may not be transferred from one pressure installation to another (No. 5.7). That is another reason each installation needs its own file. vi reads inspection reports for pressure vessels and assigns valves and accessories to the right installation.

Safety valves are safety accessories. These are devices designed to protect pressure equipment against the allowable limits being exceeded, such as safety valves, bursting discs, pressure and temperature switches and safety-related measurement, control and regulation devices (Article 2 point 4 of the directive). The BetrSichV assigns them to the respective installation component and includes all other accessories that affect safety (No. 2.2). They are inspected with the vessel, not separately from it.

Whether replacing a valve or a protective device is a modification requiring inspection is for the employer to assess under § 2(9) and § 10(5). Any measure that affects safety requires inspection, including repair work. After a modification requiring inspection, the installation must be inspected before restart. The inspection may be limited to checking that the installation was modified properly and works safely (No. 4.2). The employer must also assess whether it takes on manufacturer duties with the modification (§ 10(5)).

If you miss a recurring inspection, you commit an administrative offense under § 22(2) No. 7 BetrSichV. Under the Act on Installations Requiring Monitoring, the fine can be up to 100,000 euros (§ 32(2)). If you keep running the installation with dangerous defects, the operating ban in § 8 ÜAnlG applies.