ASME Section V Audit Preparation for Inspection Companies
A ASME Section V audit runs in 6 stages, beginning with identify the referencing code section — section i, iv, viii, xii, b31.. American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Standards Committee, Subcommittee on Nondestructive Examination; enforced in practice by the referencing Code Section, the Authorized Inspector, and the state or provincial boiler and pressure vessel jurisdiction that has adopted the BPVC tests the system.
Section V certifies no company and no person. It tells an NDE provider how to run a method, and three obligations follow you into every audit. First, a written procedure for each method and technique, demonstrated capable of producing meaningful results to the satisfaction of the Authorized Inspector — Article 1, T-150. Second, examination equipment calibrated and that calibration recorded and available to the Inspector. Third, certification records for NDE personnel whose required contents are fixed by Article 1, T-190. Personnel qualification itself sits at Article 1, T-120, which routes out to the employer's written practice and to whichever editions of ASNT SNT-TC-1A, ANSI/ASNT CP-189 or ACCP the referencing Code Section accepts. Article numbers and records, not company certificates, are what a supplier audit asks you to produce. What separates firms that clear an audit from firms that collect findings is not the quality of the documentation but whether it describes what actually happens.
Source: ASME BPVC Section V product page, asme.org, 2025 edition current (BPVC editions listed as 2025, 2023, 2021). The National Board & ASME Guide (nationalboard.org / asme.org), sections 2.11, 3.10 and 6.2.10 — verified for Article 1 T-120 (personnel qualification, cited alongside SNT-TC-1A and AWS QC1), T-150 (procedures demonstrated capable of producing meaningful results to the satisfaction of the Inspector) and T-190 (contents of NDE personnel certification records); for the rule that RT and UT examiners must be certified to the Employer's written practice or a central certification programme; for MT/PT/VT certification on proficiency plus annual eye examination against SNT-TC-1A, CP-189 or ACCP in the current Code-accepted edition; and for the subcontracted Level III acceptance requirement quoted above. Article numbering cross-checked against the API 653 Publications Effectivity Sheet for March–November 2025 exams (Section V Articles 1, 2, 6, 7 and 23/SE-797, ASME BPVC 2023 edition) and the API 570 Body of Knowledge for February/June/October 2026 exams (Articles 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 23/SE-797). ASNT SNT-TC-1A 2024 edition with addendum effective May 2025 per ASNT. Accessed 21 August 2026. Specific T-paragraph numbers beyond T-120, T-150 and T-190 were not independently verifiable and are not stated.
| Stage | What happens | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Identify the referencing Code Section — Section I, IV, VIII, XII, B31.1, B31. | Where the paperwork is tested against itself |
| Stage 2 | Draft the written practice and the method procedures; the Level III reviews and approves them | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 3 | Demonstrate each procedure capable of producing meaningful results to the satisfaction of the Authorized Inspector, and record the demonstration | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 4 | Qualify, examine and certify personnel against the written practice; assemble certification records to the contents T-190 requires | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 5 | Present the programme inside its host review — the ASME/National Board joint review, the client's supplier audit, or the Authorized. | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 6 | Correct nonconformities and have the Authorized Inspector re-verify before examination results are accepted for Code work | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Renewal | No certificate and no expiry — Section V is a code, not an accreditation. ASME publishes BPVC editions on a two-year cycle; the 2025 edition follows 2023 and 2021. Written practices and procedures must be re-reviewed against the edition the referencing Code Section and the adopting jurisdiction have accepted, since the Code-accepted editions of SNT-TC-1A, CP-189 and ACCP change between BPVC editions. Personnel recertification intervals are set by the employer's own written practice, not by Section V. | Diarised from the certificate date, not the last audit |
How long does ASME Section V audit preparation take?
Document work — the written practice, procedures and quality manual — takes weeks. What cannot be compressed is documented experience and records history: on-the-job hours accrue in real time, and calibration and certification history cannot be back-filled. Firms that start when the audit is scheduled rather than announced clear it without findings.
What does American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Standards Committee, Subcommittee on Nondestructive Examination; enforced in practice by the referencing Code Section, the Authorized Inspector, and the state or provincial boiler and pressure vessel jurisdiction that has adopted the BPVC look at first?
Records, not manuals. A manual states intent; records show practice. The usual opening move is to take a completed job and trace it back to the technician's certification, the instrument's calibration, the approved procedure and the report — and see whether all four reconcile.
What are the most common ASME Section V findings?
NDE procedure written to an older edition than the one the referencing Code Section adopts, No record of the procedure demonstration the Authorized Inspector is entitled to witness under Article 1, T-150, Personnel certification records missing one or more of the contents required by Article 1, T-190, Subcontracted Level III used with no documented acceptance on file naming him as the Certificate Holder's Level III examiner. Almost all of them are evidence problems rather than capability problems: the work was done correctly and the proof was not kept, or was kept somewhere the firm could not retrieve during the audit.
Can a consultant attend the ASME Section V audit?
Yes, and it changes the outcome. Someone who has sat through the same audit at other firms answers in the auditor's own terms, produces the right record without a search, and stops a clarification turning into a finding. The firm still owns every answer — the consultant does not speak for it.
What happens after a ASME Section V finding?
A corrective action with a deadline, and evidence of closure at the next audit. Repeat findings are treated far more seriously than first ones, because they show the corrective-action system itself is not working.
Does ASME Section V require a pre-audit or gap assessment?
Not as a requirement, but the arithmetic favours it: a gap assessment finds the same evidence problems the auditor would, without the finding attached, and while there is still time to fix them. Firms entering their first ASME Section V audit blind typically collect findings that a sampling exercise would have caught.
What the auditor asks to see
- NDE written practice for the qualification and certification of NDE personnel
- Written NDE procedure for each method and technique, with the record of the demonstration witnessed by the Authorized Inspector (Article 1, T-150)
- Level III approval signature on each NDE procedure and each revision
- NDE personnel certification records containing the items required by Article 1, T-190
- Annual near-vision and colour-contrast differentiation eye examination records for examiners
- Calibration records for examination and measuring equipment, including densitometer and step-wedge comparison film
- Documented acceptance of a subcontracted Level III examiner as the Certificate Holder's Level III examiner
- Examination reports, radiographic film or digital images, and interpretation sheets available to the Inspector
- Current edition of Section V and of the referencing Code Section held on site
Findings to close before the audit
- NDE procedure written to an older edition than the one the referencing Code Section adopts
- No record of the procedure demonstration the Authorized Inspector is entitled to witness under Article 1, T-150
- Personnel certification records missing one or more of the contents required by Article 1, T-190
- Subcontracted Level III used with no documented acceptance on file naming him as the Certificate Holder's Level III examiner
- Annual eye examinations lapsed for magnetic particle, penetrant and visual examiners
- Densitometer and step-wedge comparison film not calibrated as Section V requires
- Written practice retains 'should' language where the quality system makes the requirement 'shall'
- Level III approval signature missing from a revised procedure that is already in production use
Related: the ASME Section V overview, outsourced ASNT Level III cover, written practice development, NDT procedure development, a programme gap assessment, interim Level III cover.