Flange management is the controlled process for every bolted flange joint that is opened and remade in a plant. Each joint is identified, taken apart, inspected, reassembled, tightened to the right value and checked by a second person, with a record of every step. It is also called joint integrity management.
The aim is simple: when the plant starts up again, no joint leaks. A single leaking flange on a hydrocarbon line can delay a start-up by days, and it is a safety and environmental incident as well as a cost.
When Flange Management Is Used
- Shutdowns and turnarounds, when thousands of joints are opened in a few weeks
- Pre-commissioning of new plant and pipework
- Routine maintenance on lines that carry hazardous or high-pressure fluids
Many operators require a flange management procedure from every contractor who breaks a joint on their site. The widely used reference for assembling the joints themselves is ASME PCC-1, the guideline for pressure boundary bolted flange joint assembly.
The Main Steps
Procedures differ between sites, but most follow the same path.
- Identify and tag the joint. Every joint gets a unique number, on a tag at the joint and in a joint register. The register holds what the crew needs to know: the line, the flange size and rating, the gasket type, the bolt specification and the tightening value.
- Break the joint under control. The line is isolated and the work is covered by a permit. Blinds or spades that are fitted are recorded, so that every one of them is removed again before start-up.
- Inspect and clean. The flange faces, bolts and nuts are cleaned and checked for damage and corrosion. Damaged parts are replaced.
- Reassemble. A new gasket of the specified type is fitted, the flanges are aligned, and the bolts are lubricated and run up by hand.
- Tighten in sequence. The bolts are tightened in a cross pattern, in several passes of increasing load, and finished with a pass around the flange. Depending on the joint, this is done with a torque wrench or with hydraulic tensioning.
- Verify. A second, competent person checks the joint and signs it off. The tag is updated to show the joint is complete.
- Test and close out. The joint is leak tested or checked in service at start-up, and its record is closed.
What Gets Recorded for Each Joint
- The joint number, the unit and the line
- The flange, gasket and bolt details
- The tightening method and the target value
- Who broke the joint, who assembled it, who tightened it and who verified it, each with a date and time
- The blinds fitted and removed
- The test result
Together these records are the evidence that a unit is ready to start up. Before start-up, someone has to be able to say that every joint in the unit has been verified, not just most of them.
Where Tags and Spreadsheets Break Down
- The spreadsheet is updated from handwritten sheets at the end of the shift, so it is always behind the work.
- Tag numbers are copied by hand, and a joint is recorded against the wrong row.
- A joint is marked as tightened when it has not been verified, and nobody notices until the leak test.
- Several contractors keep their own lists, and the operator merges them by hand.
- Counting the joints still open in one unit takes hours, at the moment when the answer is needed in minutes.
What Flange Management Software Adds
- One record per joint. The register, the stage and the sign-offs are in one place, not on a tag and three spreadsheets.
- A code on the joint. A QR label on each joint means the crew opens the right record by scanning it, with no numbers to copy.
- Stages recorded at the joint. The status changes when the crew records the work on a phone, with their name and the time.
- A second sign-off that can’t be skipped. A joint is not complete until the person responsible for verification has signed.
- Live status by unit. The control room sees how many joints in each unit are at each stage, and which are still open.
- Each contractor sees its own units. Access is given by plant unit.
How to Get Started
- Take the joint list from your shutdown plan and agree the fields every joint must carry.
- Write down your stages and who signs each one, as your procedure already says.
- Print and fix the labels before the shutdown starts, unit by unit.
- Run one unit first, then roll the same stages out to the rest.
How Fieldmaster Approaches It
Fieldmaster builds the flange tracking app around your own procedure. The joint list is uploaded from Excel, a QR label is printed for every flange, and crews record each stage at the joint on their phones, from blinding and opening through box-up and torquing to torque verification. A dashboard shows the status of every unit, and each contractor sees only the units assigned to it. The app works without signal inside the plant and syncs when the connection returns.
See the details on our flange management page, how permits can run in the same app on our permit to work page, or talk to us about your next shutdown.
