Lauren, I spend a significant part of my free time working with mobile pressure vessels. As a steam railway locomotive fireman and repairer, I have to rely, for my continued well-being, on sound engineering practice. This has been developed over the last 200 years, often learning from some spectacular failures. When we rebuild a boiler, it is subjected to detailed third party inspection and proof testing before we can obtain insurance cover to use the loco. Every year, a boiler inspector comes to perform a repeat inspection and safety test, so that we can continue for the next year. Sometimes this involves an ultrasound test for plate corrosion. After ten years, all the fire-tubes are removed and any suspect plates or stays replaced. This is in addition to the visual inspection I perform before lighting the fire at the start of the day. The sound engineering practice relies not only on the original plate thickness and rivet spacing, but also on regular maintenance, inspection and testing throughout the working life of the pressure vessel. A combination of good original design followed by regular verification, with the bottom line being the ability to satisfy an insurance company's inspector. Best regards, Geoff Lister Senior Engineer Motion Media Technology Ltd., Bristol, UK. http://www.motion-media.com <http://www.motion-media.com/>
-----Original Message----- From: lcr...@tuvam.com [mailto:lcr...@tuvam.com] Sent: 06 September 2001 21:35 To: emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Subject: Sound Engineering Practice I am struggling with one of those darned European directives, the pressure equipment directive. One aspect of conformance is dependent on the application of "Sound Engineering Practice". Does anyone have a practical or authoritative definition of "Sound Engineering Practice?". It's and idea that easy often thrown about, but it seem very hard to define. Thanks for any ideas.... Lauren Crane TUV Product Service
