Piping Materials Guide

3 Materials

4 Piping Components

5 Joints for Process Piping Systems

6 Bolts and Gaskets

7 Valves

8 Glossaries and Abbreviations

The Piping Material Selection Guide for Process Systems, as the title states, is a guide for the piping engineer who is faced with the challenge of choosing the correct piping materials of construction. The list of codes and standards in ASME B31.3 that apply to process plant design is huge, and it is impossible to cover them all in one book. Instead I use ASME B31.3 as the basic construction code, and I briefly touch on the most significant codes and standards applicable to the design of the plant. The EPC contractor is responsible for having all the necessary codes and standards available at all times during the design, construction, and commissioning of the plant. These standards must be the final reference point, and the objective of this book is to guide the piping engineer to that point. Although the function of a piping material engineer is driven by code and specifications, there is no substitute for all-around experience. This can be gained from several areas: the design office, a manufacturer’s facility, the fabrication yard, as well as the job site. Exposure to as many of these facets of the process industry as possible is beneficial to the growth of an engineer’s professional development. Each sector has its own characteristics, and knowledge of one aids the comprehension the others. The design office is where the project evolves and is engineered and developed on paper. A manufacturer’s facility is were the numerous individual components essential for construction of the project are built. For piping this includes pipe, fittings, flanges, valves, bolts, gaskets, and the like. In the fabrication yard, the welded piping components are ‘‘spooled’’ up for transportation to the job site. At the job site, paper and hardware come together and final fabrication and erection take place. The various piping systems are commissioned, and the project is brought to its conclusion and finally handed over to the client’s operators.