Certified Fitness for Service Professional (CFSP)

API 579 – Fitness-for-Service (FFS) evaluations are quantitative engineering assessments performed to demonstrate the structural integrity of pressurized equipment in service that may have a defect or damage. The guidelines of this standard can be used to make “Run-Repair-Replace” decisions, and if the equipment is deemed serviceable, its predicted remaining secure life can be calculated.

This course explains and applies the API fitness-for-service standard so that students can implement it in their daily work. The course materials illustrate how stress analysis, materials engineering, and nondestructive testing collaborate to evaluate fitness-for-service. The processes pertain to in-service pressure vessels, pipelines, and tanks.

This training session is intended to provide logical, step-by-step procedures for assessing the present structural integrity of equipment, determining its fitness for continued service, and selecting and implementing the appropriate corrective action.

Certification Program Objectives: 

  • To comprehend the appropriate inspection procedures and how to evaluate inspection results.
  • To comprehend how pressure vessels and piping degrade and deteriorate in service.
  • Learn a step-by-step method for evaluating service-related errors and defects.
  • When component repair is deemed necessary based on proper inspection and defect evaluation, action must be taken.
  • To determine the remaining life of the asset.
  • Repairing equipment without causing damage.

Certifying Examination:

  • To be certified as CFSP, student should take up a 1.5 hours exam at the designated examination centers.
  • The qualifying exam would consist of 50 multiple choice questions, testing core certification modules.
  • Professionals with relevant experience and other qualifying criteria may be exempted from the examination.

Materials Provided:

  • Presentation slides
  • Study references

Certification:

Upon successful completion of the CFSP training, participants will receive a “Certified Fitness for Service Professional” certificate.

Who Should Attend:

  • Process engineers, industrial operational engineers and managers, and chemical/mechanical engineers.
  • Also recommended for design engineers, inspection personnel, and maintenance engineers in the refining, petrochemical, and chemical industries who repair, maintain, and troubleshoot facility equipment.

Course Outline:

  • API 579 Standard (Fitness for Service)
  • Scope and limitations of API 579
  • Fitness-for-service engineering assessment procedure
  • Remaining Life Assessment
  • Concept of remaining strength factor
  • Remediation methods, In-Service Monitoring
  • Assessment Techniques and Acceptance Criteria
  • Fire damage assessment, Dents, gouges, and dent-gouge combinations are evaluated.
  • Level 1 evaluation, Level 2 evaluation, and Level 3 evaluation
  • Damage mechanisms must be identified and characterized
  • FFS (Level 1) assessment procedures and how to apply them to plant equipment and pipes
  • A brittle fracture assessment of existing equipment
  • Assessment of overall metal loss, localized metal loss, pitting corrosion, and hydrogen blisters and damage – The HIC and SOHIC acronyms