History of the ASME Code

Note: 2025 ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC), was released in July 2025. This new edition includes technical updates, editorial revisions, and other changes compared to the previous 2023 edition.

On March 20, 1905, a disastrous boiler explosion occurred in a shoe factory in Brockton, Massachusetts, killing 58 persons, injuring 117 others, and causing a quarter of a million dollars in property damage. For years prior to 1905, boiler explosions had been regarded as either inevitable evil or an “act of God”.

But this catastrophic incident had the effect of making the people of Massachusetts see the necessity of legislating rules and regulations for the construction of steam boilers in order to secure their safety. After much debate and discussion, the state enacted the first legal code of rules for the construction of steam boilers in 1907.

In 1908 the state of Ohio passed similar legislation, the Ohio Board of Boiler Rules – adopting, with a few changes, the Rules of the Massachusetts Board. Subsequently, other states and cities in which explosions had taken place began to realize that accidents could be prevented by the proper design, construction and inspection of boilers and pressure vessels – and began to formulate rules and regulations for this purpose. As regulations differed from state to state and often conflicted with one another, manufacturers found it difficult to construct vessels for use in one state that would be accepted in another.

Because of this lack of uniformity, both manufacturers and users made an appeal in 1911 to the Council of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to correct the situation. The Council answered the appeal by appointing a committee to “formulate standard specifications for the construction of steam boilers and other pressure vessels for their care of service.”

The first committee consisted of seven members, all experts in their respective fields: one boiler insurance engineer, one material manufacturer, two boiler manufacturers, two professors of engineering, and one consulting engineer. The committee was assisted by an advisory committee of 18 engineers representing various phases of design, construction, installation and operation of boilers. Following a thorough study of the Massachusetts and Ohio rules and other useful data, the committee made its preliminary report in 1913 and sent 2000 copies to professors of mechanical engineering, engineering departments of insurance companies, chief inspectors of boiler inspection departments of states and cities, manufacturers of steam boilers, and others interested in the construction and operation of steam boilers, with a request for changes or additions to the proposed regulations.

After three years of countless meetings and public hearings, a final draft of the first ASME Rules for Construction of Stationary Boilers and for Allowable Working Pressures, known as the 1914 edition, was adopted in the spring of 1915. Since the first 114-page volume was published in 1915, the ASME B&PV Code has expanded dramatically in both scope and technical depth. In February 1919, the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors was established to bring consistency to the independent inspections the Code required — a direct response to the wide range of interpretations that had emerged in the Code’s first years.

Through the 1920s and 1930s, new sections were added to address heating boilers (Section IV), care and operation of power boilers (Section VII), and welding qualifications (Section IX), reflecting the rapid industrialization of American industry and the growing importance of welded construction over riveted fabrication. Nondestructive examination methods were formalized in Section V as radiographic, ultrasonic, and other testing techniques matured. By mid-century the Code had grown from a single boiler construction document into a comprehensive multi-volume standard governing pressure equipment across virtually every industry.

The nuclear era brought the most significant structural expansion in the Code’s history. Beginning in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, Section III — Rules for Construction of Nuclear Facility Components — was developed to address the uniquely rigorous safety requirements of nuclear power generation. This section introduced mandatory quality assurance programs, enhanced material traceability, and Code stamping requirements that went well beyond anything the original boiler rules contemplated. It was during this period that Dr. William O’Donnell contributed directly to the Code’s technical foundations, participating in the development of the fatigue design procedures that were incorporated into Section III and subsequently Section VIII — procedures that remain in use today.

Section XI, covering Inservice Inspection of Nuclear Power Plant Components, followed to address the ongoing integrity of nuclear facilities throughout their operating lives. The latter decades of the twentieth century saw continued expansion into new materials, new industries, and new analytical methods. Section VIII Division 2 was developed to provide alternative, higher-stress design rules for applications where the weight and space savings justified more rigorous Design-By-Analysis, while Division 3 addressed ultra-high-pressure vessels operating beyond the limits of Divisions 1 and 2.

Section X was added for fiberglass-reinforced plastic pressure vessels, and Section XII for transport tanks carrying dangerous goods by highway, rail, air, and water. Since 1972 the Code has been a de facto international standard, with adoption across more than 100 countries. Today all Canadian provinces and 49 of the 50 United States have adopted sections of the B&PVC by law, and more than 25 percent of ASME-accredited manufacturers are located outside North America.

The most recent structural addition to the Code is Section XIII — Rules for Overpressure Protection — introduced in the 2021 edition to consolidate all requirements for safety valves and pressure relief devices, previously scattered across multiple sections, into a single dedicated document. The current edition is the 2025 ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC), released in July 2025, which includes technical updates and editorial revisions across all sections compared to the 2023 edition. What began as a 114-page volume in 1914 is now a 28-volume, 16,000-page standard maintained by thousands of volunteer technical experts — the largest standard, by both physical size and volunteer participation, issued by ASME Codes and Standards.

The present sections are:    (ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, 2025 Edition. American Society of Mechanical Engineers. asme.org/codes-standards)

Section I Power Boilers
Section II Material Specifications
Ferrous Materials, Part A
Nonferrous Materials, Part B
Welding Rods, Electrodes and Filler Metals, Part C
Properties, Part D
Section III Nuclear Power Plant Components – Division 1
Subsection NCA: General Requirements
Subsection NB: Class 1 Components
Subsection NC: Class2 Components
Subsection ND: Class 3 Components
Subsection NE: Class MC Components
Subsection NF: Component Supports
Subsection NG: Core Support Structures
Section III Division 2 Concrete Reactor Vessels and Containments
Section III Division 3 Containment Systems for Storage and Transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel
Section IV Heating Boilers
Section V Nondestructive Examinations
Section VI Recommended Rules for Care and Operation of Heating Boilers
Section VII Recommended Rules for Care of Power Boilers
Section VIII Division 1 Pressure Vessels
Section VIII Division 2 Pressure Vessels – Alternative Rules
Section VIII Division 3 Alternative Rules for the Construction of High Pressure Vessels
Section IX Welding and Brazing Qualifications
Section X Fiberglass reinforced Plastic Pressure Vessels
Section XI Rules for In-service Inspection of Nuclear Power Plant Components
Section XII Transport Tanks carrying Dangerous Goods by Highway, Rail, Air, and Water
Section XIII Rules for Overpressure Protection

References

– “Pressure Vessels: The ASME Code Simplified” Robert Chuse & Bryce E. Carson, Sr. 7th Edition, McGraw Hill, 1993
– ASME Standards
– ASME Committee on Design Method

OCE Resources

>> Understanding ASME B&PV Code Requirements
>> Introduction to ASME Design Approval
>> Performing Fatigue Analysis on Pressure Vessels

Fatigue Analysis is performed per ASME Section III Class 1 and Section VIII Division 2. The fatigue design life evaluation procedures in Section III of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code were originally developed in the U.S. Naval Nuclear Program.

Those involved were Bill O’Donnell, (Bernie) Langer, W.E. (Bill) Cooper and James (Jim) Farr – who, in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s developed the initial formulation of this technology in the Tentative Structural Design Basis for Reactor Pressure Vessels, which became known as “SDB-63.” Section III of the ASME Code “Vessels in Nuclear Service” was the first to include specific Code rules to prevent low cycle fatigue failure.

Examples of our Work have included:

• Thermal, fatigue and creep analysis of nuclear waste recycling vessels
• Vessels subjected to sloshing, seismic and added-mass effects
• Lifting and transportation analyses
• Buckling analysis via ASME formulas and nonlinear methods
• Elastic-plastic stress for protection against plastic collapse