BES Forum

Members of the BES.

An IPlantE member has posted a question regarding Accumulators on the IPlantE discussion forum. We don't have the ability to link it to the BES forum yet so I have copied and pasted it below. Can anyone help?

From
Tom Goldie
22 Feb 2008
15:42:49

Can anyone advise if an accumulator, vessel with replaceable membrane requires inspection under the regulations. If so above what pressure do they require inspection?

Many Thanks in advance.

Dave Bates

Any thoughts on this one?

Regards

Dave Bates

Hello Tom The first question would be, Inspection under regulations I assume you are referring to PSSR (Pressure Systems Safety Regulations) 2000? If so the next question would be does it contain a relevant fluid (Gas or vapour above 0.5bar or steam at any pressure (basically)) If its a nitrogen bladder accumulator, I would assume so. Next the vessel 'size', is the pressure x volume greater than 250 bar/litres if yes then it needs to be inspected under PSSR (with no exemptions), if it is less than 250 bar litres and not steam it is exempt from Reg 5 (Provision of markings) Reg 8 WSE Written Scheme of Examination & Reg 9 Examination in accordance with WSE (See PSSR Schedule 1 for details). Sorry if this sounds a bit rushed, working away from home and I don't have access to all my notes, I've just joined but hopefully this helps, even though the post has been up for a while. Cheers Ross McNie

The site doesn't seem to like speach marks? where I've written size

Cheers

Ross

Hi Ross,
Not sure what's happening with your multiple posts and the speech marks issue! We've deleted the duplicate messages.
I've done a couple of "speech marks" 'tests' and it seems to 'work' for my computer. We'll keep an eye on it!
Thanks
Andrea (SOE Web team).

Ross,

Many thaks for taking the time to post your comments. It is most appreciated!

Dave

An accumulator vessel may have two fluids seperated by a membrane or direct air ,gas/water interface.An example of our daily inspections we do are: air / water or nitrogen/water. What is relevant fluid in this scenario? It is air or gas. What is the product of the pressure(bar) of gas or air x volume(litres). In this example it is initial charged air x initial volume.(volume of the accumulator). Is it equal to or above 250barlitres. If the above stands then according to pressure system regulation the following regulations apply:regs3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. The minimum gas pressure for inspection is above 0.5bar.
Thanks
Fred

Hello gentlemen.
My name is Charlie Armour and I've recently been elected to the PSC.

I had hoped to submit to this conference earlier but pressure of work etc...

I had envisaged using this forum to see if there was anything I could help with - technical questions or in fact questions on any topic of interest - bearing in mind I'm an engineer so my area of expertise is probably severely limited.

I also have some questions of my own - related to SOE membership.

Why do so few engineer surveyors take up professional registration with the Engineering Council?
Is it percieved as too difficult?
Is this something you need help with?
Do you think your institute should be more proactive in supplying help/guidance?
Is registation percieved as being of little value?

Not sure gents - perhaps I could have your thoughts.
As registration with ECUK is only possible via an engineering institute, I would expect this access might be a fundamental reason for joing an institute?
Yet it does not seem to be proactively offered, or pushed as much as it could be.

Just my impression gents - would welcome your views.
Perhaps this is sopmething you would like help with?

Regards
Charlie

Hi Charlie

Thank you for your post, its great to see our Council members getting involved with the forum. I was just wondering though, would it be possible for you to put this topic on a brand new thread on the forum as this is a specific thread for the 'Accumulators' topic. Then hopefully people will see it under a different, more relevant heading and respond accordingly.

Kind regards
Sarah
SOE Webmaster
webmaster@soe.org.uk