Sweating the “small stuff” matters in process safety management. Meeting the details of our chosen RAGAGEPs matters! Although I am often told, “That is a picky audit finding,” it is what it is. Far too many facilities believe that designing their process piping to be bolted flange assembly vs. welded joints is somehow easier; in some ways, it is more difficult. Using ASME PCC-1, 2022 – Pressure Boundary Bolted Flange Joint Assembly, we can see the “Tightening Procedure” for bolted flange assemblies…
|
ASME PCC-1, 2022 – Pressure Boundary Bolted Flange Joint Assembly TIGHTENING PROCEDURE (a) The site assembly guidance should include the following: (1) acceptable tightening method and load-control techniques, e.g., hand wrenches, hand-operated or powered tools with torque measurement, tensioning tools with force measurement, or any tightening method used with bolt elongation or load-control measurement (2) acceptable tightening patterns (see Nonmandatory Appendix F), including (a) single – or multitool usage (b) tightening sequence, including consideration of bolt grouping for flanges containing 48 or more bolts (see Nonmandatory Appendix J, section J-5) (c) guidance on the number of passes and the load increments for each pass (d) whether gap measurements are required between passes (see N on mandatory Appendix J, section J-2) (e) whether an additional pass is required based on the use of a soft (versus hard) gasket (3) the assembly bolt stress or assembly target torque or bolt load, as applicable to the tightening method (see Nonmandatory Appendix 0) (b) The selections from (a) should be included as the instructions in the assembly procedure. |
*ASME Section VIII, UG-13 NUTS AND WASHERS
(a) Nuts shall conform to the requirements in the applicable Part of Subsection C (see UCS-11 and UNF-13). They shall engage the threads for the full depth of the nut.
(b) The use of washers is optional. When used, they shall be of wrought materials.