Pipe Plug Test Report: What Must It Prove?

Chapters

Each chapter opens the video at that point on YouTube. Read the script under each chapter. From the subtitle track delivered with the video. Refer to the video and product documentation for technical details.

1. 010:00What a pipe plug test report must show

   A pipe plug test report is only evidence if it names the document it was tested against. One model, two documents, two maximum pressures. Every plug carries two pressure numbers, and they are not the same condition. Inflation pressure acts inside the rubber body, and presses it onto the pipe wall. Back pressure comes from the pipe contents, and it pushes the plug along the pipe. A report should also name the instrument: gauge, serial number, calibration date. Without that, the reading cannot be traced to anything. A factory test is a sequence, not a single number. The plug goes into a fixture and inflates to the stated stage. The fixture diameter matters, because a small rigid chamber is not your pipe. Then the pressure is held for a stated time, with the medium and the gauge recorded. Without those, a pass is only a word.

2. 020:53Match the specimen: five references that must agree

   Start with identity, before the pass stamp. Identify the specimen by serial, batch or lot, with the same mark on the plug or the packing list. Repeat the model code and the configuration exactly as ordered, then the purchase order line. Five references, and they should agree. The parts a report describes are on the plug itself. The inflation valve, the outlet and the model label. A report that says only MS plug, or only DN 500, cannot be matched to an order line. On the packing, the same model code and the same serial mark should appear. With the gauge and the air hose the brochure lists. The model code is not a fit range. MS 300-600 is a catalogue interval, not a measurement of the pipe you will seal. So the report should state the fixture diameter and the plug's position.

3. 031:44Read the columns: brochure vs spreadsheet pressure

   Take one model, MS 300-600. Our brochure gives 1.5 bar maximum inflation, and 0.5 bar maximum back pressure. The spreadsheet gives 2 bar and 0.8 bar for the same model. Neither number is wrong until you know which document governs the order. The plug has not changed. The documents have. So the report has to state which revision it was tested against. Read it in order. Report number, revision and date. Model code and configuration against the order line. Specimen number against the plug and the packing list. Medium, pressure stages, hold times and the instrument. Measured result against the stated criterion, then the tester and the approver.

4. 042:29The audit: a measured value against a stated criterion

   A factory pass is evidence about one specimen, in one fixture, at one pressure. It is not a site acceptance test, and it does not approve the installation. Keep those three questions separate. A report that says passed, with no measured value and no limit, cannot be audited. A pass is a measured value against a stated criterion, in stated units. That is the version you can file with the order. File the report with the order: purchase order line, packing list and invoice. Every plug ships with a pressure gauge and a 10 metre air hose. If the model codes differ between the report and the packing list, stop and ask for a written correction. Send the order line, the model code and the pressure you need. We will send the report that matches it.