The turnover book for a finished vessel, assembled from your shop records and marked where a record is missing.

A tank or vessel job leaves records in several places: mill reports from purchasing, a heat log or traveler from the floor, weld maps and welder lists, examination reports from your own technicians or an outside lab, a hydrostatic test record, and partial reports for heads or other parts built elsewhere. Someone ties them together against the plate and nozzle list, sets them in the order the customer's document list asks for, and chases whatever is missing before the report goes to the inspector for signature.

In the test, AI reads copies of those records for vessels you already shipped and assembles a draft book: each plate and nozzle line with its heat number and the report that covers it, the welding procedure and welder references for each seam, examination and test records, and a list of items with no record. Nothing is signed, stamped or registered, and no record is altered.

The report itself never names a heat. Form U-1A, ASME's alternative report for single-chamber vessels built completely in the shop or the field, has lines for material specification number and grade, nominal thickness, corrosion allowance, seams with radiography and joint efficiency, heads, test pressure and a table of nozzles. It has no column for heat numbers, so traceability lives in your own records. NB-57, the National Board and ASME guide used for certification reviews, lists what a Section VIII, Division 1 manufacturer keeps for at least three years: partial data reports, drawings and calculations, material test reports, welding procedures and qualification records for each welder on the vessel, radiographic and ultrasonic reports, repairs, heat treatment records, nonconformance dispositions and hydrostatic test records. That list reads close to a table of contents for the book.

Picking the right form is part of the work. ASME's forms page separates U-1 from U-1A, U-2 and U-2A for partial reports, U-3 for the certificate of compliance, U-4 and U-5 for supplementary sheets, and A-1 for Division 2. Under NB-264, a U-3 takes a Certified Individual's signature where other reports take a commissioned inspector's. NB-11 has every partial report listed on the primary report, even one that references another partial, and attached by the maker of the finished item. The draft lists the forms this vessel should have and which ones the file holds.

The National Board reads the paperwork too. Under NB-264, Revision 19 of May 2025, registration numbers run in sequence with none bypassed or duplicated, a log ties each number to its issue date, the inspection agency's acceptance date and the serial number, and forms go in no more than 30 days after certification, with a clerical review of selected documents for completeness and legibility. NB-11 adds the small traps: materials written as SA, SB or Code Case rather than A or ASTM, impact testing or the exemption claimed noted in the remarks on a U-1A, at least 8-point type for entered data, and no handwritten additions on a typed form unless both signers initial and date them. The draft flags any of those it can see, and fixing them stays with your quality manager.

States and public owners add their own lines. Oregon's OAR 918-225-0450 has the report filed with the National Board for a new ASME or CSA vessel subject to installation inspection there. Nevada's NAC 512.575 bars installing a new boiler or pressure vessel unless it is registered with the National Board, and the contractor's notice of installation must include the data report. Washington's WAC 296-104-021 also calls for registration. A water tank for New York State can bring the Office of General Services' list: radiographic films cross-referenced to shell plate diagrams at closeout, welders qualified under Section IX within the previous 12 months, and a hydrostatic test made by filling to the overflow. We summarize these for context; none of it is legal or engineering advice, and who files what is for your people to settle.

Shop records come in house formats. ASME titles QW-482, QW-483 and QW-484A suggested formats for welding procedure specifications, procedure qualification records and welder performance qualifications, so no two shops' files look alike. NB-57 asks how production welds are tied to the welder, by stamps or weld maps, whether the welder's log keeps the six-month continuity requirement, and whether controls stop a data report being signed with open nonconformities. So the draft names the record each seam relies on and lists any open disposition it finds. Your reviewer, usually the quality manager, checks that each heat sits on the right line, that partial reports were accounted for, and that nothing was shown as complete when its record was absent.

With your reviewer's yes, each vessel coming up to final inspection gets a draft book for about 30 days, early enough to chase what is missing.

Your quality manager reviews every draft, and the authorized inspector reviews what the code puts in front of them. Nothing reaches a customer or the National Board on a draft alone. A further job carries its own price, and monthly support comes after that.