The API 510 Credential and This Course

What the credential is

API 510 is the Pressure Vessel Inspection Code: In-Service Inspection, Rating, Repair, and Alteration. It is the code that many refineries, chemical plants and oil and gas facilities follow to keep pressure vessels safe after they leave the manufacturer's shop.

The code says that certain tasks must be done or approved by an authorized pressure vessel inspector. API runs a certification program so that employers and jurisdictions can see that a person has the knowledge to act in that role. A certified person holds the API 510 Authorized Pressure Vessel Inspector certification.

Certification is about knowledge. Your employer (the owner-user) and, in some places, the local jurisdiction still decide whether you may act as an inspector on their equipment. The certificate does not replace site authorization, site procedures or competence on a specific plant.

Who this course is for

It is written for working inspectors, integrity engineers and mechanical engineers who already know what a pressure vessel is and how corrosion works. It is advanced: it assumes you can read an engineering drawing and a code paragraph, and it spends its time on how the code rules are applied and on the kind of judgement the exam tests.

If you need the basics first, two catalogue courses cover them:

• The Pressure Vessels and Heat Exchangers course explains vessel types, construction and internals.
• The Corrosion Management and Inspection course explains corrosion cells, corrosion forms, monitoring and inspection methods at intermediate level.

This course recaps those topics in one or two sentences where it needs them and then moves to the API 510 view of them.