AUT (AUT) Requirements Under Part 195

AUT (AUT) needs an approved procedure and personnel qualified in this specific method. Part 195, enforced by Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Office of Pipeline Safety, US.: No certification scheme is named, and the wording is weaker than Part 192's. Section 195.

Part 195 governs hazardous liquid and carbon dioxide pipelines, and its welding and testing rules are built on a different frame from Part 192. There is no class-location table. Instead, during construction at least 10 percent of the girth welds made by each welder and welding operator during each welding day must be nondestructively tested over the entire circumference of the weld. A defined list of locations requires all girth welds installed that day to be tested — near water bodies and offshore, in railroad or public road rights-of-way, at overhead road crossings and in tunnels, within incorporated subdivisions of a State government, and in populated areas — with impracticability permitted only if the untested welds stay within 10 percent of that day's total. Used pipe and tie-ins are 100 percent.

Source: 49 CFR Part 195 as published in the eCFR, text current to 1 August 2026, cross-checked against the 2024 annual CFR edition on govinfo.gov. Verified verbatim: §195.234(a) through (g) in full, including (b)(2) 'with personnel that have been trained in the established procedures and in the use of the equipment employed in the testing', (d) at least 10 percent of the girth welds made by each welder and welding operator during each welding day tested over the entire circumference, (e) the five 100-percent location categories and the 10-percent-of-the-day impracticability cap, (f) used pipe at 100 percent of old girth welds, and (g) tie-ins at 100 percent; §195.222(a) welder qualification under section 6, section 12, Appendix A or Appendix B of API Std 1104 or ASME BPVC Section IX; §195.228(a) and (b) visual inspection supplemented by nondestructive testing and acceptability under section 9 or Appendix A of API Std 1104, with Appendix A barred from accepting cracks; §195.230(a) removal of a weld with a crack more than 8 percent of the weld length; §195.3, which incorporates API Standard 1104, 21st edition, September 2013, including Errata 1 through 5, Addendum 1 (July 2014) and Addendum 2 (May 2016), IBR approved for §§195.214(a), 195.222(a) and (b) and 195.228(b), and ASME BPVC Section IX, 2007 edition, IBR approved for §195.222(a); §195.501 the four-part covered-task test; §195.505(a) through (i); and §195.507(a) and (b). Accessed 21 August 2026.

AUT under Part 195 — procedure, personnel and evidence
Item	What applies	Why it matters
Regime	Transportation of Hazardous Liquids by Pipeline, 49 CFR Part 195	Enforced by Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Office of Pipeline Safety, US Department of Transportation; state agencies certified under 49 U.S.C. Chapter 601 inspect intrastate hazardous liquid pipelines
Method	AUT (AUT)	Needs its own procedure and its own qualified personnel
Procedure approval	The employer's Level III, qualified in this method	The signature an auditor traces
Other methods in scope	RT, PAUT, UT, MT, PT, VT	Each needs separate qualification
Renewal	No certificate; the obligations run continuously. Operator qualification re-evaluation intervals are set by the operator in its own programme under §195.505(g). Records supporting an individual's current qualification must be maintained while that individual performs the covered task, and records of prior qualification and of individuals no longer performing covered tasks must be retained for five years under §195.507(b). Part 195 has no equivalent to Part 192's five-year welder-record rule for steel transmission pipe, so retention of welder qualification records is governed by the operator's own programme and by contract.	Applies to the personnel certification behind this method

Does Part 195 require a separate procedure for AUT?

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 AUT procedure under Part 195?

A Level III qualified in AUT. Because Part 195 accepts employer-based certification, that Level III may be contracted rather than employed — but their own qualification must cover AUT, and an auditor will check that before accepting the signature.

What AUT records does a Part 195 audit sample?

The approved procedure, the technician's certification for AUT on the date of work, the calibration status of the instrument used, and the report itself with its acceptance criteria stated. The auditor works backwards from a finished job, so all four have to reconcile.

What is the most common AUT finding at audit?

Evidence that the examination was performed to the approved procedure by a currently-certified technician with calibrated equipment. Under Part 195 an unprovable examination is treated as one that did not happen.

Can a technician certified elsewhere perform AUT under Part 195?

Not automatically. Employer-based certification ends when the holder leaves, so the new employer must certify them under its own written practice. Prior training and documented experience transfer as evidence; the certificate itself does not.

What equipment evidence does AUT need under Part 195?

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 AUT requirements differ from the other methods in Part 195?

Scope, qualification and evidence are method-specific, so the differences are real rather than administrative. Part 195 also covers RT, PAUT, UT, MT, PT, and each carries its own procedure, its own personnel qualification and its own equipment evidence.

Personnel certification for AUT

No certification scheme is named, and the wording is weaker than Part 192's. Section 195.234(b)(2) requires nondestructive testing to be performed with personnel that have been trained in the established procedures and in the use of the equipment employed in the testing — trained, where Part 192 says trained and qualified. Operators almost universally close that gap by contract, specifying ASNT SNT-TC-1A Level II. Employer-based certification is fully accepted and an outsourced Level III can own the written practice, write and approve the procedures and certify the technicians. Subpart G operator qualification applies to covered tasks — activities on a pipeline facility that are operations or maintenance tasks, performed as a requirement of Part 195, and that affect the operation or integrity of the pipeline — with the operator, not the rule, defining the list.