API Inspectors Toolbox – Technical Toolboxes Knowledge Center

Introduction

API inspectors play a critical role in operation and integrity management for many types of industrial equipment. The API Inspectors Toolbox software supports inspectors working with the American Petroleum Institute’s API 653, API 570, and API 510 by providing a software suite that contains extensive materials, definitions, standards, and calculations libraries, along with all of the tools needed to streamline and generate full inspection reports.

The API Inspectors Toolbox accelerates project schedules and ensures calculation integrity through the following:

Inspection and data gathering – Users enter the data at the start, and the software performs all of the required calculations. Once loaded, data cascades through to the appropriate calculations and reporting pages. APITB accelerates workflows by simplifying and automating data management. The result is more confidence in data and increased productivity.

Calculating and Analyzing – Items that are missed by in-house methods and spreadsheets too frequently are all covered automatically. The result is consistently higher standards, achieved with more confidence in data and increased productivity.

Code Referencing – Inspectors no longer need to spend hours chasing down information and cross-referencing sources. APITB provides the 510, 570, and 653 codes in a cascading format that is easy to reference and apply. You have immediate access to critical data such as pipe thicknesses and remaining strength. Dozens of files and reference items such as STI, ASME, NBIC, UL, and ASNT-standards are all at your finger tips, along with extensive materials, standards, and calculations libraries.

Formatting and Publishing – As a cloud-based solution, the latest version of APITB does not depend on external applications like Microsoft Access. However, the reporting feature assembles all sections as one file and outputs in PDF and Word document format. What otherwise takes inspectors hours to complete can now be done in minutes with APITB, greatly improving productivity.

Return on Investment – Across the board, inspectors achieve the highest quality and documentation standards in API reporting while reducing the time required to compile a report from days to hours with the API Inspectors Toolbox. For inspectors, the API Inspectors Toolbox is a transformational tool for productivity that provides a significant return on investment.

Modules/Applications

API 653 – Used for steel above-ground storage tanks.
API 570 – Used for metallic and fiberglass-reinforced plastic piping systems and related pressure-relieving devices.
API 510 – Used for pressure vessels and related pressure-relieving devices.
Asset Management Database – Centralizes all asset data organized by client and location.

Appendix/Definitions

Annealing – Heating steel up to a suitable temperature and holding, followed by controlled slow cooling. This is done to remove stresses and soften steel, to improve machinability, to improve cold working properties, and to obtain a desired structure.

Atmospheric Corrosion – Occurs from the presence of water and oxygen in the air. Atmospheric conditions where the humidity level is above 60% will allow water to absorb oxygen at a high rate, which in turn increases the corrosion rate.

Brittle Fracture – The catastrophic failure of a material experiencing little or no plastic formation. For brittle fracture to occur, a notch or a stress concentrator must be present, in addition to a susceptible steel operating below its transition-temperature range.

CML – Condition monitoring location

Colloid – A type of chemical mixture in which one substance is dispersed evenly throughout another. The particles of the dispersed substance are only suspended in the mixture, unlike in a solution, in which they are completely dissolved.

Compression Strength – The maximum stress a material can sustain under crush loading.

Creep and Creep Strength – Creep is defined as the low or plastic deformation of metals held for long periods of time at stresses lower than the normal yield strength. Creep is dependent upon time, temperature, and stress.

Crevice Corrosion – This type of corrosion occurs at the point of contact or in a crevice between a metal and nonmetal or between two pieces of metal in the presence of a corrodent.

Decarburization – A loss of carbon from the surface of a ferrous alloy as a result of heating in a medium that reacts with carbon.

Dezinctification – A type of corrosion that can occur in copper-zinc alloys (brasses) containing less than 85% of copper when used in water service.

Ductility – The extent to which a material can sustain plastic deformation without rupture.

Elasticity – The ability of a material to return to its original shape when a load causing deformation is removed from it.

Modulus of Elasticity – The ratio of stress to elastic strain; it is a measure of the stiffness of a material. The formula is E = S/e ; E = modulus of elasticity, S = Stress (psi), e = Strain

TML – Thickness measurement location

Torsional Strength – The highest stress a material can sustain from a twisting (torque) force without rupture.

Yield strength – The highest stress a material can sustain without undergoing plastic (permanent) deformation.

Introduction

Modules/Applications

Appendix/Definitions

Related Links

Table of Contents

Table of Pages

Introduction

Modules/Applications

Appendix/Definitions

Related Links

Table of Contents

Table of Pages