ONE/TÜV/BV-History

ASME Code History

In 1905 a disastrous explosion at a shoe factory in Massachusetts was the starting point for the development of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, called ASME Code for short. Up to the day of this catastrophe, which claimed the lives of 58 people, boiler explosions were not uncommon, but somewhat accepted as the price one had to pay for technological process. It was the extent of this horrendous accident which showed the obvious need for a technical standard, with which the safety of boilers could be assured.

In Massachusetts this led to the introduction of a mandatory set of standards for the construction of boilers in 1907. After other states in the USA had published their own standards it soon became clear that uniform rules for the design, construction and inspection were required. The number of differing standards had made it impossible for both the manufacturers and operators to use the same type of boiler in different states.

In 1911 the "American Society of Mechanical Engineers" (ASME) was asked to look into the matter and to develop an appropriate set of standards to find a way out of this dilemma. However it took till 1915, before the first edition of the ASME Code, at that time entitled "ASME Rules for the Construction of Stationary Boilers and for Allowable Working Pressures", was published. Since then the ASME Code has been accepted as a technical Code in nearly all the states of the USA, in Canada as well as in more than 113 other countries worldwide.

What started of as a pure Power Boiler Code, has since been expanded to include various other fields of application and been adapted accordingly. Nowadays a new edition is published every 3 years, which is updated with an annual addenda. At present (2008) the valid edition is the "ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Edition 2007, no addenda".

ONE/TÜV/BV´s History

The Company which today is known as ONE/TÜV/BV was originally founded in 1984 as FM/TÜV. RWTÜV, one of the major German inspection bodies, and the Factory Mutual Insurance Company agreed to setup this joint venture to provide inspection services according to the ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code outside the USA and Canada.

The export oriented boiler and pressure vessel manufacturers very soon found out that our services are a valueable tool when it comes to opening up new markets.The successful ASME Certification of many companies in this sector not only helped them to find new customers but also made the ASME Code much better known.

While our activities initially mainly focused on assisting companies in obtaining the ASME U-Stamp, we later on complemented our scope of services with ASME Code Seminars, Canadian Registration and Design Calculations according to various International Codes and Standards.

1997 saw a further milestone in the company´s history when Bureau Veritas became a third strong partner in the joint venture. This important step which helped us facilitate a more international inspection service network was reflected in the new name FM/TÜV/BV.

As Factory Mutual stopped offering ASME Code services in the USA in 2003, One Beacon, well known in the plant engineering industry under the previous name Commercial Union, took over as our new American partner. Once again our name was changed accordingly to ONE/TÜV/BV.

ONE/TÜV/BV, together with other subsidiaries of its parent companies now offers ASME Code Inspection Services in 44 countries outside the USA and Canada.

We invite you to explore new markets with us.

Your ONE/TÜV/BV Team