AS 3920:2015 Pressure equipment—Conformity assessment
2.3 TYPES OF INSPECTION AND VERIFICATION BODIES
Types A and B inspection bodies for design verification or Types A and B inspection bodies for manufacturing inspection activities are specified in AS/NZS ISO/IEC 17020, which recognizes that the credibility of inspection findings depends on the independence of inspectors and other factors. It identifies three independent types, A, B and C, and the structural and operational parameters that support proper inspections:
(a) Type A is a ‘third party’ body, independent of manufacturer (first party) and purchaser (second party) with ownership and management formally separated from an interest in the items inspected. A Type A design verification body shall not be the same body as that of the designer irrespective of the designer body having a quality system that permits design work and verification work.
(b) Type B is an inspection body which is a part of an organization having an interest in the item inspected, possibly as purchaser, owner, user or manufacturer but has internal structural safeguards promoting confidence in its inspections and maintaining the independence of the inspector or verifier from the original design or manufacture process. A Type B design verification body can be part of the designer body provided that its quality system has that provision and the design verifier has had no input into the design.
(c) Type C is an inspection body providing first party inspections, second party inspections, or both, which forms an identifiable but not necessarily a separate part of an organization involved in the design, manufacture, supply, installation, use or maintenance of the items it inspects and which supplies inspection services to its parent organization or to other parties, or to both.
2.4 SUB-CONTRACTORS
Where a sub-contractor is used to support design verification or manufacture inspection the design verifying body or manufacture inspection body, as appropriate, shall ensure that the sub-contractor complies with the applicable requirements of this Standard. The information provided to the sub-contractor shall be sufficient to ensure that the sub-contractor can comply with the requirements of the contract and the applicable Standards.