What Qualifications Are Required For Pressure Vessel Installation?

What qualifications are required for pressure vessel installation?

Directly related to production safety and personnel life safety is how to choose a riveting and welding unit with pressure vessel design qualifications for pressure vessel installation. According to the special equipment statistics released by the State Administration for Market Regulation in 2025, a total of 23 accidents related to pressure vessels occurred nationwide that year, and more than 60% of the accidents were related to the installation unit's incomplete qualifications or illegal operations. The installation qualification is not just a piece of paper, but the first line of defense to ensure the safe operation of the equipment.

Manufacturing license is a hard barrier to entry

Pressure vessel installation units must first hold pressure vessel manufacturing qualifications. This means that the company must pass a nationally recognized quality management system certification and obtain a pressure vessel manufacturing license issued by the market supervision department. Without this certificate, there is no installation qualification. How about Jiangsu Province? How to choose a riveting welding unit with pressure vessel design qualifications ? The province's special equipment safety supervision report in 2025 showed that 7 installation units were ordered to stop work for rectification because they did not have a manufacturing license, and the total fine exceeded 800,000 yuan.

Different levels of manufacturing licenses correspond to containers of different pressure levels and media categories. For example, units that install high-temperature and high-pressure reactors must hold a Class A manufacturing license, while ordinary air storage tanks only need Class D qualifications. When companies choose installation units, they must check whether the scope of the license covers the type of required installation equipment. In March 2026, a chemical factory in Zhejiang was ordered to dismantle and reinstall by the local supervisory department because it selected a unit with only Class D qualifications to install high-pressure vessels.

Pipe installation qualifications are also critical

Pressure Vessels Frequently Connected to Piping Systems What qualifications are required for pressure vessel installation? , the installation unit must have pressure pipeline installation qualifications, and this qualification requires both quality management system certification and a special installation license. According to the "Pressure Pipeline Safety Management Regulations", different levels of pipeline installation qualifications such as GC1, GC2, and GCD correspond to different installation scopes and difficulties. Sampling inspection data provided by the Shandong Special Equipment Inspection Institute in 2025 shows that about 30% of pressure vessel installation quality problems occur at the connection welds between the vessel and the pipeline.

If the installation unit only has container manufacturing qualifications but no pipeline installation qualifications, then the pipeline connection part will fall into the category of illegal construction. In actual operation situations, some units will take the edge and subcontract pipeline connections to unqualified teams. This will cause great hidden dangers for subsequent operations. In 2024, there was a food factory in Foshan, Guangdong, because the installation unit did not have pipeline qualifications, which caused the steam pipeline interface to leak, eventually causing two workers to be scalded.

Production safety license ensures construction safety

The production safety license is the basic prerequisite certificate that the installation unit relies on to legally carry out construction. This certificate is issued by the housing and urban-rural development department or the emergency management department. It can prove that the enterprise has the conditions for safe production and the ability to effectively prevent accidents. Those units that do not hold a production safety license often lack a standardized safety management system and environmental support at their construction sites. In this way, it is very easy for a series of accidents such as falling from a height, being struck by an object, or getting an electric shock to occur. Nationwide in 2025, a total of 11 cases of personal injury and death occurred during the installation process of special equipment. Eight of these accidents involved units that had not obtained production safety licenses.

Before starting construction, the installation unit must prepare a special safety construction plan and then submit it to the supervision unit and construction unit for review. There are some safety measures, including isolation of work areas, provision of personal protective equipment, emergency drill records, etc. In January 2026, there was an installation company in Shanghai. During the hoisting operation of a large storage tank, due to insufficient safety protection, the sling broke. The tank fell and damaged the ground pipeline. Fortunately, no casualties were caused. However, because this unit did not have a production safety license, it was included in the list of serious dishonesty.

Personnel qualification determines installation quality

No matter how good the qualification certificate is, it still has to be carried out by people. Welders, crane workers, non-destructive testing personnel, etc. who are engaged in pressure vessel installation must hold corresponding technical titles and job certificates. According to national regulations, pressure vessel welders must pass the special equipment welding operator examination. , so as to obtain a welder qualification certificate, and the certificate items must match the material, thickness, and location of the actual welding. In a nationwide spot inspection conducted by the State Administration for Market Regulation in 2025, it was found that about 15% of the installation sites had expired welder certificates or inconsistent identity certificates.

The on-site technical person in charge, in addition to the welder, should have the title of engineer or above, and the quality inspector should have a non-destructive testing certificate of level two or above. Before starting construction, the construction unit shall verify the original qualification certificates of all installation personnel and keep copies for future reference. In February 2026, it was discovered during the completion acceptance of a pressure vessel installation project in Tianjin that the welders actually performing the welding were completely different from the ones reported on the list. The certificates of two of the welders had expired. The project was ultimately judged to be unqualified, and the installation unit compensated the owner for losses of more than 2 million yuan.

Filing, approval and supervision and inspection cannot be omitted

Complete qualifications are only a basic requirement. Before installation, notification procedures and construction registration must be completed with the local market supervision department. According to Article 23 of the Special Equipment Safety Law, before a pressure vessel is installed, the installation unit shall notify the special equipment safety supervision and management department of the municipality or districted city in writing, and submit relevant materials such as qualification certificates, construction plans, and equipment certificates. If any construction work is carried out without notification, a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan may be imposed.

During the installation process, and after the installation is completed, the special equipment inspection agency will carry out supervision and inspection. The inspection content covers data review, physical inspection, pressure test, leakage test, etc. Only when the supervision inspection is passed can the pressure vessel be put into use. In 2025, the nationwide More than 2,000 pressure vessels were required to undergo rectification because they failed to pass the inspection during the installation process. About 10% of them were eventually judged to be scrapped. The construction unit must not omit these legal procedures in order to meet the construction deadline. Otherwise, if an accident occurs, all the responsibilities will be borne by themselves.

After looking at the qualification requirements in the above five aspects, which qualification do you think is most easily overlooked when selecting a pressure vessel installation unit? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to share your experience, and don’t forget to like and repost it so that more people in the same industry can see this article.