API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspector Recertification Course

Course Description

This course is designed to provide a portion of the required Continuing Professional Development hours needed to recertify at both 3-year and 6-year intervals for certified API 510 inspectors and to assist those who are planning on writing the API 510 6-year recertification quiz.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This course is NOT designed for those who are writing the initial API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspector examination to become certified as an API 510 Inspector. If you are writing the API 510 examination to achieve initial certification as an API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspector, we offer three options to assist with that, please go back to the Courses page and review our Webinar, Combination and Self-study options for the initial API 510 certification exam preparation.

Intent and Purpose of this Course

There are two main goals that this course material intends to meet. They are:

To provide a portion of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours needed for the 3-year and 6-year recertification requirements as stated by the American Petroleum Institute. This course will provide a maximum of 24 asynchronous CPD hours to those who complete the entire course.
To educate, inform, and instruct those who are planning on taking the 6-year recertification quiz required by the American Petroleum Institute.

Goal 1: Achieving Professional Development Hours for Recertification

To provide Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours to course participants, this course meets the seven stated requirements in the API Recertification Requirement Guideline. These requirements, and how this course meets them are stated below:

1) Training is to be provided by a recognized party. – Kinetic Inspection & Testing has been successfully instructing exam preparation and training courses in the oil and gas industry for years and is recognized by major companies as the go-to training source for exam preparation.

2) The subject is directly relevant to the petrochemical industry and the course participants ICP certification. – This course covers the subjects specifically identified by API as relevant for the API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspector ICP certification.

3) The training is to have a clear and relevant learning objective. – The learning objective is to become familiar with the source documents, and any changes in them since the course participants original certification date. There will be a final examination demonstrating the course participants mastery of the subject matter.

4) For multi-day courses there should be no more than 10 contact hours in a 24-hour period. – (This course is a self-paced course, and as such there are no scheduled instruction hours with the instructor, so this point does not apply to this course. The CPD hours of this course are awarded based on completion of the entire course. Course participants who do not complete the entire course will not receive any CPD hours.)

5) CEU equivalent hours will should not exceed the time needed to complete the subject materials. This course has an assigned maximum of 24 CPD hours, which is a reasonable amount of time to complete the lessons, quizzes, and final exam. Course participants who spend more than 24 hours will only receive the maximum of 24 hours, and course participants who spend less than the maximum time in the course will only receive credit for the time that is actually spent and tracked by the course software.

6) Must evaluate the participant’s knowledge through some assessment mechanism. – The final exam of this course is timed and will test that course participants have achieved a working understanding of the course content. Achieving a passing mark of at least 80% is required to receive certification hours.

7) Must provide documentation showing completion / mastery of the course. – Each participant who achieves a passing grade in the final examination and has completed 100% of the online materials will receive a letter and certificate showing their success, completion, and hours earned.

Goal 2: Preparing for the 6-year Recertification Quiz

To meet the first goal, preparing candidates for the 6-year recertification quiz, this course uses the Body of Knowledge published by API as the source material. API states that recertification candidates should be familiar with the latest editions, changes, and updates to specific API documents. The current Body of Knowledge published by API requires knowledge of the following documents

API 510 Pressure Vessel Inspection Code: Maintenance Inspection, Rating, Repair and Alteration (11th Edition October 2022, Errata 1, March 2023))
API RP 571 Damage Mechanisms Affecting Fixed Equipment in the Refining Industry (3^rd Edition) with only the following sections included:
- Section 2: Terms and Definitions
- Section 3.3: Amine Stress Corrosion Cracking
- Section 3.8: Atmospheric Corrosion
- Section 3.11: Brittle Fracture
- Section 3.14: Caustic Corrosion
- Section 3.15: Caustic Stress Corrosion Cracking
- Section 3.17: Chloride Stress Corrosion Cracking
- Section 3.20: Cooling Water Corrosion
- Section 3.22: Corrosion Under Insulation
- Section 3.27: Erosion/Erosion-Corrosion
- Section 3.36: High-temperature Hydrogen Attack
- Section 3.37: Hydrochloric Acid Corrosion
- Section 3.43: Mechanical Fatigue (including Vibration-induced Fatigue)
- Section 3.58: Sour Water Corrosion (Acidic)
- Section 3.61: Sulfidation
- Section 3.67: Wet H₂S Damage (Blistering/HIC/SOHIC/SCC)
API RP 572 Inspection of Pressure Vessels (4^th edition)
API RP 576 Inspection of Pressure-Relieving Devices (4^th edition)
API RP 577 Welding Inspection and Metallurgy (3^rd edition)
API RP 578 Guidelines for a Material Verification Program (MVP) for New and Existing Assets (3^rd edition)

To meet the goal of preparing exam candidates for the 6-year recertification quiz, each of these documents will be discussed in detail in the course material by means of explanatory lessons, Practice Questions, Quizzes, and a Final Exam.

The lessons will focus on navigation, key words and concepts that will teach the exam candidate to recognize the document being discussed by the subjects in the exam questions.

Course participants need to provide their own copies of the above listed documents for study purposes.

Course Components

This course has the following components, or sections:

Online training materials consisting of explanatory lessons, navigation guidance, over 550 Practice Questions, and 3 quizzes. These materials cover all 5 required documents. Candidates are required to provide their own copies of the API documents to study from. Access to these online lessons begins on the day of registration.
A final examination which will be a 25 question, open-book, online examination. Achieving a passing grade of 80% (20 out of 25 correct) is required.

IMPORTANT: Completion of all components of the course and achieving a passing grade on the final exam are all required to achieve credit for the training hours in the course.

As stated above, course participants and recertification quiz candidates are responsible for supplying their own copies of the required codes and recommended practices.

Completion of this course does not remove the requirement to complete the API recertification quiz on the API website for candidates recertifying in their 6th year. This course is intended to assist in preparation for the recertification quiz.

CPD Hours

Registrants in this course are eligible to earn CPD hours based on the time they spend on self-paced learning. The online course software will track active hours spent by the course participant in the learning modules and practice questions. A certificate will be issued to the registrant upon completion of the course. This certificate will show the total number of self-paced, tracked hours spent by the course participant, up to a maximum of 24 hours. Please note:

Course participants will receive up to a maximum of 24 CPD hours. The 24-hour maximum is not automatic. If a course participant spends less than 24 hours in the course, they will only receive CPD hours for the time tracked.
To receive credit for the CPD hours, the entire course must be completed. This includes all lessons, practice questions, quizzes, and Practice Exams. Incomplete training materials are not eligible for CPD hours.
CPD hours and completion certificates will not be issued prior to the completion of the course.
Course access will end upon issuance of a certificate of completion showing CPD hours.
Course participants are responsible for ensuring that CPD hours for self-paced learning are acceptable to the organization they require them for.