Third Party Inspection for Process Equipment: When to Use It and How to Scope It

Third party inspection means hiring an independent inspection company to act as your eyes at the supplier's works. The inspector attends the hold and witness points in your inspection and test plan, checks materials and documents, witnesses tests such as pressure tests and performance tests, carries out a final inspection, and reports back; if you authorise it, the inspector also issues the release note that lets the equipment ship. It is worth paying for when the equipment is critical, the supplier is far away or new to you, or you simply do not have engineers free to travel.

It is not the same as the inspection done by a notified body or an ASME Authorized Inspector. Those inspectors check compliance with the law or with a code. Yours checks compliance with your order.

Why this matters now

When equipment comes from suppliers in other countries, a buyer cannot be at every factory acceptance test in person. Applus+, for example, offers scopes that run from a single final inspection to an intensive regime that starts at the pre production meeting and covers raw materials, every hold point, witnessing of all tests, document review and a final release inspection, with the level set by the client to suit the equipment and order [1].

The quality of that work depends on the agency. ISO/IEC 17020 is the international standard against which inspection bodies are accredited. UKAS describes type A bodies as independent of the parties involved in the inspection, and notes that types B and C may have different levels of independence, while being equivalent in standing [2]. Accredia, Italy's accreditation body, describes type B bodies as first or second party bodies that are separate and identifiable from a parent organisation that designs, makes or uses the item, and type C as identifiable but not necessarily separate [3]. For buyer's inspection at a supplier's works, a type A body is the natural choice.

Who inspects what

Keeping the roles apart avoids two common mistakes: assuming the notified body has checked your specification, and assuming your inspector can sign off code compliance. For pressure equipment under the European regime, notified bodies, or recognised third party organisations, approve permanent joining procedures and personnel for categories II, III and IV, with their inspector supervising the qualification tests [4]. For ASME stamped equipment, the manufacturer must have an agreement with an Authorized Inspection Agency for third party inspection under the code [5]. Neither of these replaces checks against your own datasheet, materials, finish and documents.

When to use it

The levels above are a practical starting point, not a standard. Set them by asking what it would cost you if this item arrived wrong, and how hard it would be to fix on site.

How to scope the assignment

Give the agency an inspection assignment that leaves nothing to guesswork:

• The order and its documents: purchase order, datasheets, drawings, specifications and the agreed inspection and test plan, with each point marked hold, witness or review. Our guide to hold points and witness points explains the difference.
• What the inspector may decide: whether they can accept minor deviations, raise nonconformance reports, or only report; and whether they can issue the release note.
• Reporting: the format, photographs, timing (for example within 24 hours of each visit) and who receives it.
• Notice periods: how much notice the supplier must give before each inspection point, written into the purchase order as well.
• Commercial terms: day rate, travel, report writing time and cancellation charges if the supplier is not ready.
• Competence: the inspector's qualifications for the equipment type, such as welding inspection or rotating equipment experience.

Applus+, for example, says its reports are technically reviewed for completeness and correctness before issue [1]; ask for that review in your assignment too.

Practical example

In this illustrative example, a buyer orders a £420,000 heat exchanger package from a fabricator abroad that it has not used before. It hires an accredited type A inspection agency at £900 a day for four visits: a kick off meeting (one day), material and welding surveillance (one day), the hydrostatic test (one day), and final inspection with release (one and a half days). That is 4.5 days, or £4,050, plus £1,600 travel: £5,650 in all, about 1.3% of the order value.

At the material visit, the inspector finds that two nozzle forgings carry certificates for a different heat from the one stamped on the parts. The fabricator quarantines them and orders replacements before they are welded in. At the final inspection, the inspector checks the data book against the inspection and test plan, confirms the nameplate and preservation, and issues the release note. Without the material visit, the wrong forgings would have been found, at best, during the buyer's review of the data book after delivery.

Where ChemCapital fits

Third party inspection works best when everyone shares the same dates and records. ChemCapital lets buyers issue formal purchase orders in the platform, suppliers confirm with their own references and dates and post milestone updates, each order has its own message thread, and interactions and decisions are logged with timestamps and the person who made them, which keeps inspection dates, notices and outcomes with the order they belong to. See how it works.

Ready to keep inspection milestones and decisions in one record for every order? Start a free 14 day ChemCapital trial, with no credit card needed.