High-pressure storage vessel with piping

Energy · Case Study

High-Pressure Storage Vessels

Specialized pressure vessels for the energy sector, engineered to ASME standards and optimized for safety, fabrication, and long-term maintenance access.

ASME Section VIII Pressure Vessel Design FEA Validated Fabrication-Ready Drawings

About the project

Storage that has to hold, every time.

An energy-sector client needed a set of high-pressure storage vessels that could pass code review the first time, be fabricated without redesign mid-build, and remain serviceable years after installation. There was no room for ambiguity in the documentation — a missed detail on a pressure vessel is not a minor fix, it's a re-inspection.

Mazi Inc. carried the design from vessel geometry and nozzle placement through code calculations, FEA validation, and a fabrication package built for the shop that would actually weld it.

Fabricated pressure vessel prior to hydrotest

Our approach

Philosophy & methodology

Philosophy

Pressure equipment does not tolerate optimism. Every design decision was made to be defensible under code review and under a third-party inspector's questions, not just to satisfy a calculation on paper. Where a detail was ambiguous, we designed to the more conservative reading rather than the more convenient one.

Methodology

Vessel geometry and nozzle placement were established first, then run through ASME Section VIII calculations and FEA on the governing load cases before the drawing package was finalized. Fabrication sequencing — head forming, shell rolling, weld access, hydrotest ports — was reviewed with the drawings still open, not after they were issued.

What worked

Successes

  • The design package passed code review without a resubmission cycle.
  • Nozzle and support placement was coordinated with the client's piping layout before fabrication started, avoiding field rework.
  • Weld access and hydrotest provisions were built in from the first drawing revision, not added after fabrication flagged them.

What we navigated

Challenges

  • Site constraints limited vessel footprint, which drove several iterations on head geometry to hit the required volume.
  • Material lead times pushed us to validate an alternate plate specification mid-project without reopening the full code calculation.
  • Coordinating support locations with an existing structure that wasn't fully documented required a site verification pass before finalizing the drawings.
Sparks from grinding a heavy-wall steel weld
Weld preparation and access were designed in, not worked around

Looking back

Lessons learned

Field-verifying existing structure before finalizing support locations should be step one on any retrofit project, not a fallback when something doesn't fit — it's the single change we've carried forward from this project into how we scope every pressure equipment engagement since. Designing to the conservative interpretation up front also proved faster overall, even though it felt slower at the drawing stage, because it meant zero rework once the inspector got involved.

Why Mazi Inc.

Why Mazi Inc. for pressure equipment

Code-first design

ASME Section VIII compliance is built into the design from the first sketch, not checked at the end.

Fabrication-aware

Drawings account for how the vessel is actually rolled, formed, and welded — not just how it calculates.

Conservative by default

Ambiguity gets resolved toward safety and inspectability, protecting your schedule from resubmissions.

Planning pressure equipment?

Send the operating parameters, site constraints, and applicable code. We'll help scope the design package from there.

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