Certifications and Compliance
An A.S.M.E. code shop holding the U and S stamps, working to the standards your specification names.
What the stamps mean in practice
American Pipe Bending is an A.S.M.E. code shop holding the U and S stamps, covering Section VIII pressure vessel work and Section I power boiler work. American Pipe Bending, Inc. is listed in the National Board Manufacturer and Repair Directory, which is the independent register a reviewer will check.
A stamp is not a marketing badge, it is a quality system that has been audited. It means the procedures exist, the people are qualified against them, the records are kept and somebody outside the company has looked. For a buyer the practical consequence is that a bend from this shop can go into code work without a separate qualification exercise.
Alongside ASME, the shop works to A.N.S.I., A.W.W.A., PFI-ES24, MSS-SP75 and the piping codes: ASME B31.1 for power piping, B31.3 for process, B31.4 for liquid transportation and B16.49 for factory-made induction bends.
Built to code, every bend
Every tile below is a standard this shop publishes that it works to. Certificate numbers and expiry dates are provided on request with a quotation rather than published.
Standards, by what they govern
Pressure work
ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section I and Section VIII, under the U and S stamps. This is what allows a bend from this shop to go into a vessel or a power boiler without a separate qualification.
Piping
ASME B31.1 for power piping, B31.3 for process piping and B31.4 for liquid transportation pipelines, with B16.49 for factory-made induction bends. B16.49 is the one that governs the wall thinning and ovality limits on an induction bend, and it is the document most owner specifications point at.
Fabrication and induction bending practice
PFI-ES24 from the Pipe Fabrication Institute, and MSS-SP75 for high-test wrought butt welding fittings. A.N.S.I. and A.W.W.A. standards apply where the work is water or general industrial rather than pressure.
What each standard actually governs
ASME B16.49
This is the one most owner specifications point at for an induction bend, and it is the document that sets the wall thinning and ovality limits. If you read one standard before writing a bend specification, read this one: it defines what a factory-made induction bend is allowed to look like when it is finished.
ASME B31.1 and B31.3
B31.1 covers power piping and B31.3 covers process piping. They are not interchangeable, and the documentation package differs between them. A drawing that says only “to ASME” has not said enough.
PFI-ES24
The Pipe Fabrication Institute standard for pipe bending. It covers the practice rather than the product, which makes it the document that describes how a shop should be working rather than what the part should measure.
A.W.W.A.
Water works standards, which govern most municipal water and wastewater piping. American Pipe Bending publishes that it meets and exceeds these, which is not something most general fabricators can say.
Working to your specification
Most projects add an owner or engineering specification on top of the code, and those usually go further. Send yours with the enquiry. We will confirm in writing what we can certify against before anything is cut, and say plainly where a requirement is outside what this shop does.
That is a better conversation at quote stage than at first article inspection. A bend that meets the code but misses a customer requirement nobody mentioned is a loss for everybody involved.
Have a drawing? Send it over.
Send a drawing or a sketch and our team will get back to you with a quote.