What goes into a pressure vessel MDB
A pressure vessel Manufacturing Data Book documents that the vessel was designed, manufactured, welded, inspected and tested in accordance with the contract and the applicable code (PED 2014/68/EU, ASME Section VIII, EN 13445 or a sector equivalent). Typical chapters include the design package and calculations, material certificates (often EN 10204 3.1 or 3.2), welding documentation (WPS, PQR, welder qualifications, weld map), non-destructive testing reports (RT, UT, MT, PT, VT) per the inspection plan, dimensional inspection records, the hydrostatic or pneumatic pressure test report, heat-treatment records, surface treatment and painting reports, drawings (engineering and as-built), and the Declaration of Conformity or Manufacturer's Data Report. The exact list typically depends on the contract, the chosen code and the involvement of a notified body or authorised inspector.
Normative context: PED, ASME, EN and inspection
Pressure-vessel fabricators in Europe typically work under the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED 2014/68/EU). Higher-category vessels require involvement of a notified body, which means the documentation that goes into the MDB is also reviewed by a third party. Vessels for the North-American market are typically built to ASME BPVC, often Section VIII, with U-stamp and a Manufacturer's Data Report. EN 13445 is the harmonised European design standard frequently chosen under PED. Welding qualification follows EN ISO 15614 or ASME Section IX, and welder qualifications follow EN ISO 9606 or ASME IX. The documentation produced under each of these regimes can vary materially in format and language; an MDB platform should not invent its own — it should give the fabricator structure to assemble what the contract and the chosen code already require.
Why a generic document workflow falls short
Most pressure-vessel fabricators today build the MDB in Excel for tracking, in Adobe Acrobat for assembly and in WeTransfer for delivery. That works, but slowly. Tracking typically 200 to 800 documents per vessel — depending on vessel category and project complexity — across welders, NDT subcontractors, painters and notified-body comments by hand is the kind of work that produces missing pages, conflicting revisions and last-week-of-the-project panic. The end result is often a final PDF that is technically correct but assembled under stress, with hours of repeated manual rework after each minor revision.
How MDB Builder helps
MDB Builder gives a pressure-vessel fabricator a sector-specific MDB structure on day one of the project, with the chapters and sub-chapters that PED and ASME work typically require. Material suppliers and inspection subcontractors can be invited to upload directly into the chapters they own, without creating an account. The platform records every upload with the revision status (IFR / IFA / Approved), and assembles the final bookmarked PDF with cover page, table of contents and consistent pagination automatically. The notified body or client receives a secure online review link, and approval is a single click that closes the project.
What MDB Builder does not do
MDB Builder does not perform engineering calculations, does not certify materials and does not replace the inspection responsibilities of a notified body, an authorised inspector or a TPI. It is a documentation workflow platform: it gives the fabricator the structure, supplier collaboration and PDF assembly that a modern MDB process needs, and lets the engineering, welding, NDT and inspection content come from the parties who are qualified to produce it.