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Quotes - Engineering - SalesPaper is part of the product
A sanitary heat exchanger built for an audited plant is not complete when it passes hydrotest. It is complete when the documents that prove its materials, welds, finish and test results are assembled, cross-referenced and handed over. For a food plant that may be a few pages: mill certificates for the wetted metal, the gasket compliance statement, the hydrotest report and the drawing. For a pharmaceutical plant it is a turnover package that the validation team files as the equipment's permanent record, and the unit cannot go into service without it.
The organizing idea is traceability: any product-contact surface on the finished unit can be followed back to the heat of metal it was made from, the certificate for that heat, the welds that joined it, the finish reading taken on it, and the test it passed. The tools are heat numbers marked on the parts, a weld map that ties joints to heats, and reports filed against the weld map.
Mill Test Report
- Chemistry and mechanicals for one heat
- EN 10204 type 3.1 from the mill
- Heat number marked on parts before fabrication
Compliance Statement
- Compound name and the regulations met
- FDA 21 CFR 177, USP Class VI, 3-A 18-03
- Indexed into the turnover package
Documents in a sanitary exchanger package
Material and welding
- MTR (mill test report): Chemistry and mechanicals per heat; EN 10204 3.1 format
- Heat number marking: Stamped or stenciled on tube, sheets, heads and fittings before fabrication
- Weld map: Numbered joints on the drawing, each with the heats on both sides
- Weld log: Procedure, welder or machine program, date, visual result per joint
- Weld inspection: Borescope video or photos for a stated percentage of product-side welds
- Gasket compliance: Compound name, FDA 21 CFR 177, USP Class VI or 3-A 18-03 statement
Finish, test and closeout
- Surface finish report: Profilometer readings by location, instrument and cutoff
- Passivation certificate: Procedure, solution, time and temperature, verification test result
- Hydrotest report: Test pressure each side, hold time, witness, result
- Code data report: ASME U-1 or U-1A form with National Board number where stamped
- As-built drawings: General arrangement and details reflecting the shipped unit
- Turnover package (TOP): All of the above indexed, with nameplate data and spares list
Every surface traces to a heat; every heat to a cert
What each document proves
Mill test reports and heat numbers
A mill test report is the certificate the steel mill issues for one heat, a single melt of metal, listing its chemical analysis and the results of tensile, hardness and any corrosion or grain-size tests required by the material specification. EN 10204 type 3.1 is the certificate format most specifications ask for: issued by the mill's own inspection department, independent of production, and specific to the heat delivered. When tube, tubesheet plate, head material and fittings arrive at the shop, each carries its heat number, and the shop transfers that number onto the cut parts before the mill marking is lost. That transfer is what makes the rest of the traceability possible.
- Ask for 3.1 certificates for every wetted heat, including fittings and ferrules
- Check that the grade and the tube standard on the MTR match the drawing
- Keep the heat number list with the drawing so a future repair can match material
Weld maps and weld logs
A weld map is the drawing with every product-contact weld numbered. Against each number the log records the welding procedure, the welder or the orbital machine program, the heat numbers of the two parts, the date, and the inspection result. On BPE work a sample of welds, often 20 percent or more, is borescoped and the video is filed against the weld number; on 3-A work a visual of the ground and polished product side is usual. The map and log together let an auditor pick any joint on the unit and see who made it, from what, and whether it passed.
Finish, passivation and hydrotest reports
The surface finish report lists profilometer readings by location, with the instrument, the cutoff length and each trace, and states the acceptance limit. On a shell-and-tube unit it covers the tube bore (by heat, on sample lengths), the tubesheet product faces, the heads and the ferrule bores. The passivation certificate records the procedure, the acid, the concentration, the time and temperature, and the verification test, typically a copper sulfate or water-break test, with its result. The hydrotest report gives the test pressure on each side, usually 1.3 times design pressure for ASME Division 1, the hold time, and the result, and is witnessed by the authorized inspector on a stamped unit. All three are dated and signed, and all three are routinely asked for by pharmaceutical QA and increasingly by food-plant auditors.
The turnover package for pharma
A turnover package, or TOP, is the indexed binder or electronic file that collects everything above plus the code data report, the as-built drawings, the nameplate rubbing or photo, the gasket compliance statements, and a spare parts list. Its purpose is installation qualification: the validation engineer checks the delivered unit against the package and the package against the specification, and the unit is released to service on that basis. A good TOP has a table of contents, is cross-referenced by weld number and heat number, and is delivered with the unit, not after it.
Ordering the right level
Food and beverage: MTRs for wetted metal, gasket compliance, hydrotest report, drawing. 3-A: the same plus the finish readings and the symbol authorization number. Pharmaceutical: the full turnover package with weld map, weld log, borescope records, finish and passivation reports, and code data. Name the level on the order and the package arrives with the unit. Call and talk it through with an engineer: 1-805-484-2992
Common FAQs
3.1 is issued by the mill's own independent inspection department. 3.2 adds a third-party inspector who witnesses the tests. Sanitary specifications almost always ask for 3.1; 3.2 is reserved for nuclear and some offshore work.
They are cheap to supply and they answer the auditor's first question. Ask for them on the product-contact tube and tubesheets at minimum.
Only if the shop kept the heat numbers on the parts and the records at the time. A unit built without a weld map cannot have one reconstructed. Specify it on the order.
It can be. A handheld XRF check on finished parts confirms the alloy matches the MTR and is often requested on pharmaceutical work. It supplements the MTR; it does not replace it.
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