Visual Testing (VT) Requirements Under CRN

Visual is the method most often performed without a written procedure, and it is exactly as procedure-bound as the others — including the illumination level actually measured at the surface. CRN, enforced by Each provincial and territorial pressure equipment regulator issues its own CRN —.: CRN registration assesses a design and the manufacturer's quality programme, not individual NDT personnel.

An auditor examining VT asks for light meters, measuring aids, mirrors and borescopes where remote viewing is used. CRN is design registration, not certification of a company or a person, and it is the one Canadian requirement with no US equivalent. A design is submitted with proof of design to one province, receives a CRN, and is then extended to the others. The number itself encodes where: CSA B51 article 4.3 defines the format as a letter, four digits, a decimal point, then up to ten digits and three letters, and the digits after the decimal identify jurisdictions — 1 British Columbia, 2 Alberta, 3 Saskatchewan, 4 Manitoba, 5 Ontario, 6 Québec, 7 New Brunswick, 8 Nova Scotia, 9 Prince Edward Island, 0 Newfoundland, Y Yukon, T Northwest Territories, U Nunavut. C denotes all of Canada. Designs must be proven to an ASME code; EN and PED designs are not accepted.

Source: CSA B51:24, Boiler, pressure vessel, and pressure piping code, confirmed as the current edition via CSA Group and the Standards Council of Canada; CRN format per CSA B51 article 4.3 and fitting registration per clause 4.2. Reconciliation Agreement for the Canadian Registration Number (CRN) for Pressure Equipment (2018), in force 2020-01-01, signatories British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec, Saskatchewan and Yukon, per the Canadian Free Trade Agreement Regulatory Reconciliation and Cooperation Table (rct-tccr.ca) and Technical Safety BC. Fee data: TSSA National Service initial deposit CAD $1,200 including a $500 administrative fee plus taxes; ABSA Fee Schedule effective 2025-11-01, design survey for a simple vessel under 3 m³ $170.90 and fitting registration $163.50 per size, type and pressure. Verified 2026-08-21.

Visual Testing under CRN — procedure, personnel and evidence
Item	What applies	Why it matters
Regime	Canadian Registration Number (CRN) design registration under CSA B51	Enforced by Each provincial and territorial pressure equipment regulator issues its own CRN — ABSA in Alberta, TSSA in Ontario, Technical Safety BC, TSASK in Saskatchewan, ITS in Manitoba, the RBQ in Québec and the equivalent authorities elsewhere. There is no single national issuing body; CSA Group publishes the code, CSA B51, but registers nothing.
Method	Visual Testing (VT)	Needs its own procedure and its own qualified personnel
Procedure approval	Per the certification scheme and the client specification	The signature an auditor traces
Other methods in scope	RT, UT, MT, PT, PAUT	Each needs separate qualification
Renewal	Vessel design registrations do not carry a fixed expiry and remain valid until the design changes or a code change invalidates them. Fitting registrations do expire: under CSA B51 they must be resubmitted for validation not more than ten years after the date of acceptance by the regulatory authority in the original registering province, and the clock runs from that first province, not from the date a later province added its digit. In British Columbia a fitting registration is only valid while a current certification of the manufacturer's quality control programme is on record, recertified at a maximum interval of five years.	Applies to the personnel certification behind this method

Does CRN require a separate procedure for VT?

Yes. Every method in scope needs its own written procedure, approved by someone qualified in that method, describing technique, equipment, calibration, scanning or coverage, acceptance criteria and reporting. A single combined "NDT procedure" covering several methods is a finding under every regime that names procedures individually.

Who can approve a VT procedure under CRN?

Approval follows the certification scheme and the governing specification rather than the employer alone. The person approving must hold the scheme's qualification for VT at the appropriate level.

What VT records does a CRN audit sample?

The approved procedure, the technician's VT certification on the date of work, and the equipment evidence — light meters, measuring aids, mirrors and borescopes where remote viewing is used. The auditor works backwards from a finished job, so every item has to reconcile with the report and its stated acceptance criteria.

What is the most common VT finding at audit?

Illumination at the surface never measured, or near-vision acuity test lapsed. It is a records failure rather than a technique failure — the examination was performed correctly and the evidence supporting it cannot be produced, which under CRN is recorded the same way as not having done the work.

Can a technician certified elsewhere perform VT under CRN?

Where the scheme's certification travels with the individual, yes — that is the point of central certification. Verify the certificate covers VT at the level required and is current, since scope and expiry are what get checked.

What equipment evidence does VT need under CRN?

Calibration status traceable to the day of use, covering the instrument and its accessories — probes, cables, blocks and reference standards for ultrasonics; sources and densitometers for radiography. An in-calibration instrument with an out-of-calibration reference block fails the same way as an uncalibrated one.

How do VT requirements differ from the other methods in CRN?

Scope, qualification and evidence are method-specific, so the differences are real rather than administrative. CRN also covers RT, UT, MT, PT, PAUT, and each carries its own procedure, its own personnel qualification and its own equipment evidence.

Personnel certification for VT

CRN registration assesses a design and the manufacturer's quality programme, not individual NDT personnel, so there is no Level III signature and no certification scheme choice at this stage. The relevant control is organizational: fitting registrations require a notarized statutory declaration plus evidence of a valid quality control programme acceptable to the regulatory authority, and Technical Safety BC requires a QMS certificate verifying the programme meets Annex F of CSA B51, recertified at a maximum interval of five years. NDE personnel qualification enters later, through the code of construction and through each province's in-service inspection regime.