Forgemasters accredited for nuclear components
21 February 2014
Sheffield Forgemasters of the UK has supplied steel castings for nuclear power plants for many years, but has now gained American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) accreditation to fabricate safety critical cast components.
The company announced that it has successfully passed the final audit towards gaining ASME NPT (Nuclear Partials) status.
 |
| Forgemasters may soon start weld-fabrication of nuclear components |
The NPT status will enable Forgemasters to weld-fabricate components that it currently supplies as a Nuclear Materials Organization, a status it has held since 1992. Up to now, the company has had to supply other NPT-accredited companies with these components for welding. Forgemasters claims that this "is a part of the nuclear assembly process that few organizations can undertake and one with significant challenges posed by weld-joining different materials." Rolls Royce, it says, is the only other British company to have gained NPT qualification.
Forgemasters said it will "await an accreditation certificate which signals the green light to take on a whole new strand of civil nuclear manufacture."
Sheffield Forgemasters quality director David Street said, "The audit to gain NPT status is a significant landmark for the company, which is the culmination of several years of work to establish enhanced requirements and disciplines embracing all our processes, employees and sub suppliers. This is to ensure we meet the exacting construction requirements of the ASME code, which are some of the most stringent demands in modern engineering."
He added, "The program to retain our existing accreditation and to gain the highest NPT accreditation has required an investment of approximately £140,000 ($234,000), but the new accreditation will undoubtedly create new revenue streams as we start to tap into nuclear assembly work for a global client base."
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News