ASME International

Process Piping: The Complete Guide to  B31.3 - Third Edition
 N PROCESS PIPING GUIDE

Annotation

ASME B31.3 is the generally accepted standard for process piping, worldwide. It is the de facto standard for piping for the oil, petro-chemical and chemical industries, worldwide. To facilitate its international use, ISO/ WD 15649, Petroleum and natural gas industries—piping, has been approved. This ISO standard makes a normative reference to ASME B31.3. It is an evergreen reference, as it is not tied to a specifi c edition. The ISO Standard also provides additional technical requirements, such as provisions for buried piping.

To facilitate use of ASME B31.3, as referenced by ISO 15649, in Europe, a guide was prepared by EEMUA. This guide, entitled "Guide to the Use of ISO 15649 and ANSI /ASME B31.3 for Piping in Europe in Compliance With the Pressure Equipment Directive," provides specifi c guidance on how to comply with the European Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) while using ISO 15649. Following this guide does not provide a presumption of conformity with the PED, therefore, the conformity assessment requirements of the PED must be followed in full.

Within the United States, ASME B31.3 is the recognized and generally accepted good engineering practice for process piping. It is specifi cally referenced by legislation in the following states (Alaska, California, Maryland and Oklahoma) and provinces of Canada (British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan). However, it is also referenced by other Codes, Standards and regulations, such as NFPA and CFR. As such, it is often required by law, although not directly specifi ed in state regulations.

The ASME B31.3 Code was written with process piping in mind. It is very broad in scope, refl ecting the scope of process piping services. Although ASME B31 allows owners to select the piping code most appropriate to their piping installation, the following are typical examples of the types of facilities that ASME B31.3 is intended to cover: