Recommended Practice for Assessing Piping Designer Baseline Skills and Competencies

You may download this draft of SPED's RP001: requirements for Piping Designers.

By William G. Beazley, PhD, Former Executive Director, SPED

I am often asked about the difference between Piping Design and Piping Engineering. There is much confusion between the two, particularly since the major piping codes and standards partially address them and certain actions performed by them fall under government licensing for Professional Engineers.

The distinction is important, as most Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) companies employ piping designers on engineering projects who are not qualified under codes or licensing to perform piping engineering without supervision.

The 92^nd Annual Meeting of National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) was held in San Antonio, Texas August 21^st to August 24^th, 2013. NCEES is the American National Professional Engineers (PE)  Board coordinating fifty national P.E. Boards, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands. Engineering organizations from Canada, Mexico, Japan and other countries work with NCEES.

I sat down recently with a pipe spool fabricator to ask, “how can pipers do a better job of creating fabrication Isometrics (ISOs) to make their work easier?” I got a list of suggestions, e.g., put in all the required dimensions, label correctly and completely, dimension to centerlines and flanges, etc. All were good to pass on to piping engineers and designers worldwide.

William G Beazley has announced his retirement as SPED Executive Director and Treasurer, effective no later than October 30, 2013. Dr. Beazley, who has served 11 years in those positions and as Director for another 19, is retiring to focus more on Mechanical Engineering practice and training. He is the longest serving Executive Director and Treasurer in SPED's history.

What’s in an EPC piper credentialing program? Most owner/operators employing engineering/procurement/construction (EPC) firms for design ask for documentation on key personnel put forth for their jobs. The standard practice is to supply résumés of key personnel to comply. Better EPCs have credentialing programs that track the type of experience, knowledge and competence of their staff.