The document package that ships with a pump or valve, checked against the purchase order.

An order's document requirements can sit in a clause, a specification section, a vendor data list or a note on the data sheet. Quality staff work out what applies to this order, pull the reports that exist for these serial numbers and tags, tie the material test reports to the heat numbers of the parts actually built in, and chase whatever is missing before the truck is booked.

In the test, AI reads copies of those orders and the files you kept for them and drafts a document checklist for each order: what the order required, what your files hold for each serial number or tag, the heat number each material report covers, and what is missing or doesn't line up. Nothing is signed or released, and no report is changed.

The depth of paper is set order by order. A 2020 inspection guide in the valve trade press notes that API 6D allows a single certificate of conformance as a minimum, while the supplier's inspection and test plan lists every inspection activity and acceptance criterion. Project work can go much further. One reference guide on data books says the required level is set in a document register issued with the purchase order, and puts critical valves at a level meaning a full data book plus third-party witness reports. So the draft starts from what this order's papers ask for, not from your usual packet.

Witness means different things on different papers. A witnessed test on a data sheet or contract corresponds to a hold point on the inspection and test plan, where work stops until the purchaser approves it, while an observed test corresponds to a witness point, where the vendor gives notice and the purchaser need not attend. Tucson Water's butterfly valve section has the contractor either notify its engineer to be present for shop testing or get a waiver, and still wants test reports showing each valve conforms. The draft lists each hold the order set and whether your files show it cleared or waived.

Each report answers to its own order. MSS SP-61's shell test runs at no less than 1.5 times the valve's 100 degree F design rating, rounded up to the next 25 psi, for a minimum of 15 seconds at NPS 2 and smaller, rising to 300 seconds at NPS 14 and larger, and its seat test has its own pressure and a separate table of times. Tucson calls for a body test at twice the pressure rating under AWWA C504. For pumps, the City of Mercer Island's 2025 request wants a certified data sheet and curve for each unit along the lines of the Hydraulic Institute's Appendix H, three test points beyond the five the standard lists, and no model tests without the owner's approval, and Winnipeg's process pump section in a 2013 bid wants results certified and summarized within three weeks of the factory tests. The draft checks each report for the test points, units, size and serial number it claims to cover. It never judges the result.

Material reports have more than one signer and more than one trail. Under EN 10204, a type 3.2 inspection certificate also bears the stamp or signature of an independent inspection representative. For valves shipped into the EU, Annex I of the Pressure Equipment Directive asks for a certificate of specific product control on main pressure-bearing parts in categories II, III and IV. An inspector's list often adds NACE compliance, hardness and impact reports, plus positive material identification on some alloys. Bodies, bonnets and stems can come from different heats and different suppliers, so the draft maps each report to the part and heat number it names, and says so when a part has none. This page describes public rules and is not legal or engineering advice.

Federal water money and the nameplate add their own checks. EPA's 2014 answers on the American Iron and Steel requirement name the parts that count on a covered valve: the body, bonnet, shoe, stem and wedge, disc, gate or ball. Actuators, whether manual, electric, hydraulic or pneumatic, are separate products outside the rule, and a motor-operated valve isn't excused for having a motor. ASME B16.34 marking covers the maker's name, the materials of the body, bonnet and cover plates, pressure rating, temperature and size, and a compliant valve can be stamped B16.34, so the folder has to agree with the nameplate. Your reviewer, usually the quality manager, checks that every required document was found, each report landed on the right serial or heat, and every flag is real.

With your reviewer's yes, each new order gets the same checklist for about 30 days, drafted while there is still time to chase a missing report.

Your quality staff check and release every package, and nothing reaches a buyer on a draft alone. Each next job is priced separately, and monthly support comes after that.