Welding, Corrosion and Inspection
Welding Practice
Piping Design, Construction and Mechanical Integrity (ASME B31.3 and API 570)
Process piping from design through construction to the integrity of the line once it is running.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Intermediate
- Fee from
- On enquiry
Overview
Piping is designed under one code, built under another set of documents and then inspected under a third, and most of the expensive problems live in the handovers between them. This week follows a line the whole way. It starts with ASME B31.3: fluid service categories, allowable stress, wall thickness, flexibility and supports. It moves into fabrication, examination and testing as they are actually carried out and signed off. It finishes on in service integrity, where API 570 takes over, so a participant leaves understanding not only how a line is designed but what the designer owes the inspector who will be measuring it in ten years.
Who should attend
Piping, mechanical and project engineers, construction and commissioning engineers, QA and QC inspectors, and the plant engineers who inherit the line afterwards.
What you will be able to do
- Classify fluid service, and understand what each category changes.
- Calculate wall thickness and check a line against allowable stress.
- Assess flexibility, and recognise a support arrangement that will cause trouble.
- Specify examination and testing to the level the code requires.
- Hand over a line with the baseline data in service inspection will need.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
Code and service
- Scope of ASME B31.3 and the other B31 codes
- Normal, category D, category M and high pressure fluid service
- Design conditions, allowable stress and factors
Day 2
Sizing and stress
- Wall thickness for internal pressure
- External pressure and collapse
- Flexibility analysis, and when it is required
- Supports, anchors and expansion
Day 3
Materials and components
- Material selection for the service
- Valves, flanges, gaskets and bolting
- Branch connections and reinforcement
Day 4
Fabrication and examination
- Welding requirements and procedure control
- Examination extent by fluid service
- Pressure testing, and the alternatives when it cannot be done
- Documentation at mechanical completion
Day 5
Into service
- Baseline thickness readings and corrosion monitoring locations
- Where API 570 takes over
- The handover data an inspector will wish you had recorded
What you leave with
- Wall thickness and flexibility calculations on a real line.
- An examination and test plan to code.
- A defined handover data set, so the first inspection does not start blind.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Durban, South Africa | Classroom | R15,000 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Cairo, Egypt | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Port Louis, Mauritius | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Gaborone, Botswana | Classroom | R15,000 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.