The Need for Standardisation
At the start of the 1900s, it was possible to design, erect, and commission an industrial plant using local contractors and engineering knowledge. As the size, complexity, and capacity of plants grew, the likelihood of plant failure increased, as did the repercussions of such failures. For example, an oil refinery at the start of the 1900s might have produced 8,000 barrels (1,270 m3) a day. A piping failure might lead to a spill, but not of very large proportions. A modern refinery might produce over 800,000 barrels (127,000 m3) a day, with much larger associated piping and components than would have been used 100 years ago. The effects of a piping system failure within a modern refinery are thus significant, particularly considering that environmental protection laws and public opinion are much more attuned to pollution than 100 years ago.
To increase plant reliability and reduce the likelihood of failures, it was necessary to standardise the process of designing, manufacturing, erecting, and testing, an industrial plant and all of its associated piping and piping components (flanges, valves etc.). To do this, codes, standards, and specifications, were introduced by newly formed regulatory organisations.
Regulatory Organisations
A regulatory organisation (professional organisation) can be generalised as a collection of experts from various industries that are placed into committees or groups. Each committee or group produces a code, standard, or specification, relating to their area of expertise. Once the group is satisfied with their work, they release it to the public and it is purchased by customers. For example, if a company wished to build an oil refinery, they would use a code that describes how they should design, erect, and test, the entire oil refinery piping system.
Customers purchase codes, standards, and/or specifications for several reasons, although mostly because they are of the highest quality, produced by working experts, and their accuracy has been checked, then checked again. In short, documents produced by a regulatory organisation can be relied upon and are respected on an international level.
There are several regulatory organisations that produce documentation for the piping industry, the most common are:
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
- International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
- European Standards/Normative (EN)
- American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
- American Petroleum Institute (API)
- British Standards (BS)
- Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN)
- Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR)
- Japanese Industrial Standards (JIN)
Some of these organisations are now over 100 years old. If you visit a modern refinery or chemical plant, it likely conforms to codes produced by one of these organisations.
Insurance
It comes as a surprise to many people that insurance heavily influences how an industrial plant is designed, built, and operated. All companies want to reduce their financial exposure by having some form of insurance, but the price of insurance varies considerably. The most accepted way of reducing the price of insurance is to conform to codes, standards, and specifications, which are recognised by the insurance company. As insurance can cost millions of dollars per year for a single industrial plant, the cost savings of conforming to a given code are significant.
Insurance companies are not the only customers of a regulatory organisation. Large multinational corporations, governments, construction companies, and manufacturers -to name a few-, may purchase codes, standards and/or specifications. For example:
- A multinational oil company may insist that all construction companies erect their refineries in accordance with a given code, or codes.
- A manufacturer will cite their products as being produced to a given standard or specification.
- A government may insist that a chemical plant or power station conforms to given code, or codes.
Codes, Standards and Specifications
One of the most misunderstood concepts within the piping industry is that of codes, standards, and specifications. To understand the differences between the three, we can use some examples relating to piping and piping components (flanges, valves etc.).
- Code – a general requirement for a piping system. A code will include information concerning how a piping system should be designed, manufactured, erected, and tested.
- Standard – used to define parameters (dimensions, materials etc.) of piping components.
- Specifications – further information relating to piping components are given in specifications i.e. a specification is specifically for a particular component and relates to a component’s physical dimensions and performance criteria e.g. pressure rating.
Example
If we are building a piping system for a petroleum refiner, we may select a code such as ASME B31.3. This code is produced by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and is very common. It is described as:
ASME B31.3 contains requirements for piping typically found in petroleum refineries; chemical, pharmaceutical, textile, paper, semiconductor, and cryogenic plants; and related processing plants and terminals. It covers materials and components, design, fabrication, assembly, erection, examination, inspection, and testing of piping.
To satisfy the requirements of B31.3, we may be required to use flanges that conform to a given standard. For example, we may be required to ensure that relevant flanges are built to e.g. the ASME B16.5 standard (a common standard). If these flanges are not built to this standard, then we are not satisfying the requirements of the code.
To ensure that each component is built to certain parameters (material, dimensions, etc.), we use specifications. For example, flanges conforming to ASME B16.5 may have to be manufactured to ASTM A105 (a common specification) specified dimensions and pressure ratings to conform to the given standard.
The entire structure of codes, standards, and specifications, is used to ensure that every part of a piping system has been designed, manufactured, assembled, erected, and tested, to a given code, standard, and specification. A piping system’s integrity is as strong as its weakest pipe or component, much like a chain is as strong as its weakest link. By ensuring that the entire piping system conforms to certain codes, standards, and specifications, it’s possible to increase the reliability of the piping system -and thus the plant- significantly.
Replacement of pipes, fittings, or piping components, is another benefit, as all parts of the piping system are standardised. For example, knowing the standards and specifications to which a flange is built, makes it comparatively easy to source a suitable replacement. A new flange can also be expected to be suitable for the same service conditions (temperature, pressure etc.) as the flange which it is replacing.
Tip – although an industrial plant will conform to given standards and codes, additional internal standards will usually be created as the plant matures and the operating characteristics of the plant become known. For example, which areas of the piping system are prone to corrosion, which components have a shorter than expected service life and why, etc.
Additional Resources
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/piping-codes-standards-d_6.htm
https://www.theprocesspiping.com/codes-standards-and-recommended-practices