API 570 Code (Pipeline Inspection) — Definition & NDT Use
American Petroleum Institute standard for in-service inspection, maintenance, repair, and rerating of pipelines. API 570 requires periodic pigging (internal inspection), external ultrasonic thickness measurements, visual inspection, and radiography of repairs. Compliance with API 570 is required in the oil and gas industry for safe pipeline operation. API 570 is essential for preventing pipeline failures.
As a written standard, API 570 Code translates physical inspection know-how into auditable rules: who is qualified, what equipment is acceptable, how the procedure must be written, and what counts as a rejectable indication. Radiation passes through the part and a dense region (more material, more attenuation) records as a lighter band on film or digital detector, while a void, lack of fusion, or porosity records as a darker area; an image quality indicator (IQI) verifies that the technique was sensitive enough to be trusted. On piping, the inspection is usually a circumferential band of UT thickness readings, a girth-weld RT or PAUT shot, and a follow-up MT/PT on the toes — each method picking up a different failure mode at the same weld. A standard's strength is that two independent crews can reach the same disposition on the same indication; that consistency is the entire point of the document and why audit findings cite paragraph numbers rather than opinions.
API 570 Code is invoked by a contract, a purchase order, or a regulator; once invoked, it controls procedure, personnel, and acceptance criteria for the entire scope of work. On in-service piping the inspection is scheduled against an API 570 corrosion monitoring plan rather than a one-off; trend data is what matters.
ASME Section V Article 4
Ultrasonic examination methods for welds and components.
ASTM E114 / E164 / E2375
ASTM straight-beam, contact, and wrought-product UT practices.
ISO 16810 / ISO 16811
General principles and sensitivity setting for industrial UT.
ASME Section V Article 2
Radiographic examination requirements (penetrameter selection, IQI, density).
A common misreading of API 570 Code is to apply the latest edition's acceptance criteria to a part fabricated under a previous edition; contracts usually freeze the edition, and the audit trail must reflect that.
What does "API 570 Code" mean in NDT?
American Petroleum Institute standard for in-service inspection, maintenance, repair, and rerating of pipelines. API 570 requires periodic pigging (internal inspection), external ultrasonic thickness measurements, visual inspection, and radiography of repairs
Who enforces API 570 Code?
Enforcement comes from the contract (the purchaser cites the standard), the regulator (where the jurisdiction has adopted the standard into law), and the third-party inspection body or owner-user inspection group performing audit oversight.
What other NDT concepts should I read alongside API 570 Code?
The most directly related entries in this glossary are "api standards", "pipeline inspection", "pigging"; reading those together gives you the surrounding vocabulary used in inspection reports and procedures.