UK boiler regulations

[Dhutch]

Hi Fred
In the UK the boiler testers are bound by the Pressure Vessel legislation and must apply the same standards that they would apply to any pressure vessel, be it a locomotive or a power station. So rigorous annual testing is the rule. To get an initial certificate, the boiler must be made to a design that has been approved by a 'competent' person and come with the paper trail for the materials used and the details of the coded welder who has welded it up. This paper trail follows the boiler to each of its subsequent test events. You also have to bear in mind that you will not get insurance for a steam launch unless you have a boiler certificate or certify that the vessel is out of commission for maintenance, etc. If you don't have insurance most inland waterways will be banned to you. For SBA meets you must have insurance and a valid boiler certificate or you will be turned away.

I was not quite four when the boat was launched, so only got involved involved once the plant was commissioned.

However my experience is certainly as you say, the boiler is of a known and certified design, and made of the correct steel by a suitable coded welder, it was then tested when new, and again each year, with a hydraulic test at five years. We we retubed it 23 or so years in, the drum was inspected with the tubes out, and then a hydraulic test when recommissioned.

If your are regulation free it might all sound like a huge faff, however what it actually means is that all the infrastructure is in place, the SBA has a stack of signed off designs on file, and SBA Services offers a very competent inspection service at a very reasonable price.

When I am standing next to out boiler, with 30gallons of water at 200psi and 185 C (365F) I have to admit, I wouldnt have it any other way.

Thus for non engineers [and engineers alike] the SBA boiler design library and SBA services the boiler testing and design evaluation service is a godsend.

Unless you have a specific requirement due to the application, or desired to re-invent the wheel for personally enjoyment...


Daniel

[TahoeSteam]

As much as this question comes up it would be amazing if someone with more energy and time than myself were to compile the hobby steam boiler regulations for our countries, and others (the G20?), and make a page dedicated to it.

[Gudmund]

I certainly agree that a boiler should regularly be tested to ensure it is safe to use. AND I am closest to my boiler when it is in use.
However, I have always understood this is voluntary. Your insurance company may require it, though I think the wording is 'you may not be insured if the boiler does not have a current pressure test certificate'. And you may not attend an SBA rally if there is not a current test certificate. Though no one has given guidance on the unlikely event of an untested boiler in a boat whose owner decides to 'join in'.
And what about the steamboater who has access to a stretch of water no other steamboater uses? This could be some considerable distance from the nearest inspector and mean a test would be prohibitively expensive!
I will repeat my opening sentence that a boiler should be tested
Gudmund

[RGSP]

I certainly agree that a boiler should regularly be tested to ensure it is safe to use. AND I am closest to my boiler when it is in use.
However, I have always understood this is voluntary. Your insurance company may require it, though I think the wording is 'you may not be insured if the boiler does not have a current pressure test certificate'. And you may not attend an SBA rally if there is not a current test certificate. Though no one has given guidance on the unlikely event of an untested boiler in a boat whose owner decides to 'join in'.
And what about the steamboater who has access to a stretch of water no other steamboater uses? This could be some considerable distance from the nearest inspector and mean a test would be prohibitively expensive!
I will repeat my opening sentence that a boiler should be tested
Gudmund

I DO have a small stretch of water which no other steamboater uses - to wit, the small moat around my farmhouse. O.1 ihp will be plenty for the punt, and I'll certainly build any boiler to all the appropriate standards. However, it's a tiny steam plant, and employing a certified welder would make the thing ridiculously expensive (I have in the past been certified myself, but not for some years), and while I'm very happy to do hydraulic tests etc., it wouldn't be worth getting the tiny plant inspected every year. No members of the public are allowed access, or indeed within some hundreds of yards of the water.

When I get round to building a "proper" steam launch, to be trailed around and run in public places, then that's another matter. It's a coded welder for sure, and SBA inspections every year for sure as well.

[DetroiTug]

I read somewhere that all firetube boilers in the UK had to be piano wire wound- or was that for cars only, or for neither?

-Ron

[Dhutch]

And what about the steamboater who has access to a stretch of water no other steamboater uses? This could be some considerable distance from the nearest inspector and mean a test would be prohibitively expensive!

Emilyanne is a narrowboat, and as such we do not attend the 'group' boiler inspections, but rather the inspector comes to us, all over the canal network, depending on where we are when the test runs out. The prices is really quite affordable.

I wouldnt get a pressure vessel on a mamod, but by the time it large enough to be able to move you around, most boilers are going to be large enough to kill a person as well.

I read somewhere that all firetube boilers in the UK had to be piano wire wound- or was that for cars only, or for neither?

The only wire-bound boilers I have every been aware of where those in Stanley steam cars, which are otherwise very light weight construction. Certainly our own VFT boiler is not wire wound, nor light!



Daniel

[fredrosse]

A Stanley wire wound boiler was considered very strong, but for marine service the potential for corrosion might eat away at the small diameter wires and significantly weaken the boiler. I have read of this problem on a USA steamboat in salt water service. Probably a moot point these days, I have never seen a wire wound boiler in a steamboat.

[RGSP]

[quote="fredrosse"]A Stanley wire wound boiler was considered very strong, but for marine service the potential for corrosion might eat away at the small diameter wires and significantly weaken the boiler. I have read of this problem on a USA steamboat in salt water service. Probably a moot point these days, I have never seen a wire wound boiler in a steamboat.[/quote

There was a period around 1905 -1910 when wire wound boilers were all the rage here in what today would be called the chattering circles. Some of the designs looked horrendous to me, and I have no idea how many actually got built. It may have had something to do with pre-WW1 battleships, whose main guns barrels were all wire wound - and of course the very latest thing in technology...

The boiler designs (and how to make them) were listed in a sort of home-mechanics encyclopaedia, along with pressure vessels (again using wire) for compressed-air powered large model aircraft, plans for your own X-ray machine, and very short range radio control using a "coherer" as detector (pre cats-whisker days). Sadly, my Mother gave the book away - it would have been a real treasure now.

[Bert Blik]

" As I understand it, the EU pressure vessels directive, as turned into UK legislation by the Whitehall Mandarins, exempts hobby steam launches from the rules applying to ships. However, they are not exempted from boiler testing. In other parts of the EU the Directive is differently interpreted and so annual boiler testing is not required, but the boiler must be built to an approved standard, tested and certified at first sale. "

To answer Pete's query about boilers in one other part of the EU. In the Netherlands we have to have our boilers tested every 2 years by a qualified body which used to be an origination called " Stoomwezen" which roughly translates into " Steambeing" which was part of the ministry of Health .
Now the EU is almighty the inspections have been taken over by the big classification bureaus ( Lloyds, Veritas , D.N.V.)

The boiler in my boat " Araminta" was built in the nineties under SBA regime and is still under SBA inspection but this means I have to take my boat over to the UK annually to have the boiler inspected.
I'm currently having a boiler built by Terry Statham at TRS welding to exactly the same design as is currently in the boat but this boiler is being built under E.U. P.E.D. regime( pressure equipment directive) which means I can have my boiler inspected by one of the Dutch inspection bodies which also means it will only have to be inspected every 2 years.
Mind you, this will also rob me of a good excuse to take the boat across to the U.K. for inspection combined with a steam boat rally of sorts. That reminds me , I still have to pick one out for this year .

On a different note. When I bought my boat I tried to get my boat insured here in the Netherlands but insurance companies are more then willing to take my money to insure the boat but shy away when it comes to insuring the steam plant so I've had to insure my boat through one of the SBA recommended insurance companies.
Any thoughts or suggestions by other Dutch members of this forum?.

And since it's nearly that time; Merry Christmas to the entire steam boating fraternity and happy steaming next year.

[Bert Blik]

" As I understand it, the EU pressure vessels directive, as turned into UK legislation by the Whitehall Mandarins, exempts hobby steam launches from the rules applying to ships. However, they are not exempted from boiler testing. In other parts of the EU the Directive is differently interpreted and so annual boiler testing is not required, but the boiler must be built to an approved standard, tested and certified at first sale. "

To answer Pete's query about boilers in one other part of the EU. In the Netherlands we have to have our boilers tested every 2 years by a qualified body which used to be an origination called " Stoomwezen" which roughly translates into " Steambeing" which was part of the ministry of Health .
Now the EU is almighty the inspections have been taken over by the big classification bureaus ( Lloyds, Veritas , D.N.V.)

The boiler in my boat " Araminta" was built in the nineties under SBA regime and is still under SBA inspection but this means I have to take my boat over to the UK annually to have the boiler inspected.
I'm currently having a boiler built by Terry Statham at TRS welding to exactly the same design as is currently in the boat but this boiler is being built under E.U. P.E.D. regime( pressure equipment directive) which means I can have my boiler inspected by one of the Dutch inspection bodies which also means it will only have to be inspected every 2 years.
Mind you, this will also rob me of a good excuse to take the boat across to the U.K. for inspection combined with a steam boat rally of sorts. That reminds me , I still have to pick one out for this year .

On a different note. When I bought my boat I tried to get my boat insured here in the Netherlands but insurance companies are more then willing to take my money to insure the boat but shy away when it comes to insuring the steam plant so I've had to insure my boat through one of the SBA recommended insurance companies.
Any thoughts or suggestions by other Dutch members of this forum?.

And since it's nearly that time; Merry Christmas to the entire steam boating fraternity and happy steaming next year.