Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993)Guidance NotesPressure Equipment Regulations, 2009Regulation 7 - Approval and Duties of Approved Inspection Authority |
| (1) | Only an organisation holding an approval certificate from the chief inspector shall perform the duties of an approved inspection authority within the scope of accreditation. |
| (2) | An application for approval in terms of subregulations (1) shall include the applicant’s proof of accreditation prescribed by paragraph (a) or (b) of subregulations (3), including full contact details and address. |
| (3) | The chief inspector’s approval— |
| (a) | of inspection bodies operating in the Republic shall be subject to the submission of an accreditation certificate issued by the accreditation authority in accordance with the requirements of SANS/ISO 17020 and SANS 10227: Provided that the chief inspector may set additional requirements before granting approval; or |
| (b) | of foreign inspection bodies shall be subject to the submission of an accreditation certificate issued by an International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) or an International Accreditation Forum (IAF), Mutual Recognition Arrangement signatory in accordance with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17020: Provided that— |
| (i) | the foreign inspection body shall ensure compliance with all the duties assigned to an approved domestic inspection authority in terms of these Regulations and within their scope of accreditation together with the applicable health and safety standards; and |
| (ii) | the chief inspector may set additional requirements before granting approval. |
| (4) | Imported pressure equipment stamped by an ASME authorised manufacturer in compliance with the full ASME Code of Construction shall be deemed to meet the requirements of these Regulation. |
| (5) | In the event of a dispute of a technical or safety issue, which could not be reasonably resolved between an approved inspection authority and any interested party, including the user, modifier, repairer or manufacturer, an interested party may refer the case to the chief inspector in writing for arbitration, setting out the full details of the dispute. |
| (6) | Upon receiving such a dispute in terms of sub regulation (5), the chief inspector may appoint an arbitrator mutually agreed upon between the parties. |
| (7) | A case referred to the chief inspector in terms of subregulation (5) shall be investigated and arbitrated within a maximum of 90 days. |
| (8) | An approved inspection authority shall ensure compliance with all the duties assigned to an approved inspection authority in this Regulation within its scope of accreditation and the relevant health and safety standard. |
Notes:
| (a) | PER 7(4) states that imported pressure equipment stamped by an ASME authorized manufacturer in compliance with the full ASME code of construction shall be deemed to meet the requirements of these regulations. The intent was that such certification is deemed to be meeting the requirements of the Health and Safety Standard, however any additional requirements of the PER, e.g. Marking, shall also be complied with. This may require the application of an additional data plate meeting the PER requirements e.g. units of measure and categorisation. Equipment is to be categorised by the Importer for future repair, modification and in-service inspection requirements. Equipment that is ASME or CE marked in accordance with a Health and Safety Standard do not need to comply to the requirement in SANS 347 for approval by a Professional Engineer. |
| (b) | Pressure equipment that is ASME marked by a local manufacturer meets the requirements of PER 7(4). The manufacturer shall comply with the additional requirements of PER as in Note (a) above and issue conformity assessment review certificate countersigned by an AIA for category II and higher. |
| (c) | From 1 January 2012 all foreign inspection bodies shall be accredited to ISO 17020, ISO 17021 or higher, in accordance with the conformity assessment modules of SANS 347, as applicable. If these requirements are met no submission to DoL for approval is required. NBIC authorised agencies are approved unconditionally. The Importer shall ensure compliance to PER 5 Note (f) when conducting the conformity assessment review on imported pressure equipment. For pressure equipment where an AIA is required, the AIA shall verify compliance to the accreditation requirements of the foreign inspection bodies. |
| (d) | In-service inspection authority scope is limited to the duties as listed in PER 11(1)(c) and (d) only. The scope of inspection determined by the RBI study conducted under PER 12 shall be conducted by the in-service inspection authority. All other duties as required by an Approved Inspection Authority shall be performed by a manufacturing AIA as stipulated in SANS 10227 5.1(c). |
| (e) | ASME "UM" certification marked vessels Category II and higher shall not be accepted if not conformity assessed to an equivalent SANS 347 module G. |