Pressure Equipment Hazard Levels

January 14, 2016

The evolution of pressure equipment hazard levels, the quantification of special classifications that clarify industry-approved safety margins involves a gathering of dozens of industrial disciples. These classifications endow key factors with relevant context and cut through oceans of facts and factors to create a governing framework. In turn, the framework brings together engineering mathematics, mechanical fabrication and installation disciplines, and national guidelines to distill overwhelming accumulations of hazard-related design analysis data, organizing the complex information into a concise series of codes and standards. This classification process serves the industry by providing an absolute determination guide for hazard ranking, a guide that instructs designers in adhering to the AS/NZ 1200 guidelines regarding pressure vessel fabrication.

Lending Context to Hazard Assessment Practices

National and international guidelines affect the fabrication of pressure vessels, sending designers into a consulting huddle. Amendments are made to industrial standards, and, on top of this ever-changing flow of engineering data, new technology opens up newer methods of conducting established tasks. It's the job of parliamentary councils and judiciary boards to institute laws, but, further down the legislation scale, engineering boards amend engineering codes and work hard to add consistent and germane pressure equipment hazard levels that actually ease the burden on the designer. For example, the A, B, C, and D standard grading system identifies the hazard levels of pressure equipment alongside established Australian Standardization edicts, such as the AS1210 and AS3920.1 guidelines.

A Crucial Aid for Supporting Designers

Codes and guidelines are the final line of lawful protection, a beyond important part of the design process, especially when that design can affect life, property and environment. But these same codes serve a secondary purpose. They condense laws and engineering disciplines into an easy to follow frame of reference, one that can be passed on to the next level of workers. For example, installation engineers and maintenance technicians take note of hazard level classifications and use these important labels when assembling/dismantling and maintaining equipment. In short, every material strength calculation, every weld choice and engineering practice can be safely expressed in pressure equipment safety levels. The figure or figures are calculated with the single objective of avoiding catastrophic failure, which serves as a basis for registering the equipment within its specified application area.

Pressure equipment, the vessels, pipes and associated parts that form potentially harmful structures, contain immense amounts of gas and liquids under unimaginable stress. The fluid is chemically neutral or highly toxic, but the science of hazard level classification places a standardisation framework solidly in control of these constructs, ensuring safe design, installation and inspection rules above all else.

Contact Details

Fusion - Weld Engineering Pty Ltd
ABN 98 068 987619

1865 Frankston Flinders Road,
Hastings, VIC 3915

Ph: (03) 5909 8218

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