What I understand about Impact testing for stainless steel is that it is required if the design requires it to be done for the particular job.
Working under PED, impact testing is a general rule. An exception would be Austenitic SS for service temperature higher than minus 75 °C, but this exception seems to be linked only with materials under PED harmonized standards.
For other material, even told “equivalent”, you have to perform a PMA which normally is related to a particular job. After a Notified Body has approved a PMA, this document gets a kind of generality for Manufacturer, as I’ve explained previously. However, to reuse a PMA means the impact test temperature must be low enough in order to use that PMA as reference in future applications.
If a particular vessel is designed using SS materials without specifying impact properties it can be welded by employing a procedure that is not tested for impact values.
Probably no PED Notify Body will qualify such equipment. Outside PED of course yes.
Am I right with this one? or am I way off?
Well, I would remark you try to find out a common sense conclusion, but PED considers other criteria as “common sense”… PED is a result of different opinions within EU and probably, being a compromise poor explained, generates a lot of confusion in practice.
I’ll try in my next post to explain you “a little bit” more.
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