DOT Air Tank Testing

DOT: This marking is for tanks manufactured in the United States. DOT stands for Department of Transportation which is the agency that regulates SCUBA tanks in America.

CTC (or TC): Tanks made in Canada will have this SCUBA tank marking. CTC stands for Canadian Transportation Commission.

CE: CE represent SCUBA tanks made in the European Union.

Many dive shops believe that properly cared for aluminum tanks have a lifespan of 20 years or more. The aluminum tanks that are engineered can withstand up to 100000 refillings and 20,000 hydrostatic tests.
Close, but with one key error on all three - they do not mean "made in" but "certified by the governing body of" the country/region. The tanks can be (and are) made anywhere and still be certified by the respective agency. There are many factories that make and sell multiple versions of these at the same time. Given that the standards are all so similar in base capability, what do you think the odds are that these companies make physically different tanks for these cert labels - or is it one tank made to pass all standards with three different labels on it?

Manufacturers make everything as common as possible and only change what they need to change, even when sending samples to each agency for testing. There is no technical reason for the physical tanks to be any different from any company that sells multiple types - a common design can meet all of them.

This is true for other categories of products - such as electrical equipment. The reason that commercial entities (like dive shops) can't use products that are only certified by other non-native entities is because of local regulations, not because anything that is not native certified is "guaranteed to be crap" - it might be, but it also might the same or even better. But if the companies can't use it per regulations, then the products are worthless to them.

Most manufacturing companies won't put multiple labels on many products as the can make more money by selling them separately or with just one label, so you won't see tanks with multiple labels on them, even though it could be done. The labels themselves cost money too.

I know that some will say this does not matter for the simple reason that "everything made in China is crap that will fail," but this is simply not true. I would agree that it probably was true in the past, but it is not the case now. There is a reason that China steals IP left and right - they want to make things as well (or better) than other countries for less. Sadly, it works - of course we know that is true because it happens here in the US too (not as much as there, but it does happen here).
 
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This is because "CE" has nothing to do with a pressure rating standard rather a manufacturing consistency.
Not true. CE is what the EU uses, and it means "Conformite Europeenne", and the words are from the French language. It means that the product with the affixed certification meets the EU's standards for health, safety, and environmental requirements. There are specific standards for pressure vessels there, just as in the US.

Maybe someday there will be global standards - that sure would be nice . . .