Primer on Engineering Standards
Description
Standards supplement the design process by guiding the designer toward consistency, safety, and reliability. As daily life involves increasingly complex and sophisticated instruments, standards become indispensable engineering tools to ensure user safety and product quality. Primer on Engineering Standards: Expanded Textbook Edition delves into standards creation and compliance to provide students and engineers with a comprehensive reference.
The different types of standards are dissected and discussed in terms of development, value, impact, interpretation, and compliance, and options are provided for situations where conformance is not possible. The process of standards creation is emphasized in terms of essential characteristics and common pitfalls to avoid, with detailed guidance on how, where, and with whom one may get involved in official development.
Organized for both quick reference and textbook study, this new Expanded Textbook Edition provides a quick, clear understanding of critical concepts, ramifications, and implications as it:
* Introduces the concepts, history, and classification of standards, rules, and regulations
* Discusses the federal, state, and local government's role in standards development and enforcement
* Distinguishes voluntary consensus standards, limited consensus standards, and jurisdictional versus non-jurisdictional government standards
* Covers the need for and process of exemptions to existing standards
* Examines the characteristics of a good standard, and discusses opportunities for involvement in development
* Includes case studies to demonstrate standards applications, and extensive appendices to direct further inquiry
The successful design, fabrication, and operation of any product relies on foundational understanding of pertinent standards; indeed, standards and guidelines form a central pillar of the engineering profession. This helpful resource goes beyond a list of rules to help students and practitioners gain a better understanding of the creation, import, and use of standards.
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Persons
Owen R. Greulich, M.E., P.E., is an active member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Process Piping Code Committee and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Committee on Aerospace Pressure Vessels. He currently serves as Pressure and Energetic Systems Safety Manager in the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters. Previously, Mr. Greulich worked in the private sector metals fabrication and machining industry.
Maan H. Jawad, Ph.D., P.E., is president of Global Engineering and Technology, an engineering consulting firm for the pressure vessel, power, petrochemical, and nuclear industries. He has been active on ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code committees as a member and chairperson since 1972, a member of the Missouri Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Rules, and is a Fellow of the ASME. Prior to retiring, he was with the Nooter Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri.
Content
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Procedures and Rules 5
1.3 Standards 6
1.3.1 History and Purpose of Standards 6
1.3.2 A Few Examples of Standards throughout the Ages 6
1.3.3 Classification 8
1.3.4 Limited Consensus Standards 9
1.3.5 Voluntary Consensus Standards (VCS) 9
1.3.6 Governmental Standards 10
1.4 Applicability of Standards 11
1.4.1 Permissible Materials of Construction, Performance Criteria, and Material Data 13
1.4.2 Safe Design Rules 13
1.4.3 Construction Details 14
1.4.4 Available Methodologies for Inspection and Testing 14
1.4.5 Safe Operating Parameters 14
1.4.6 Conformity Assessment 14
1.5 Summary 15
2 Role of Governments in Standards 17
2.1 Overview 17
2.2 History 19
2.3 Aspects of Governmental Involvement with Standards 19
2.4 General Policies 20
2.5 National versus State, Provincial, or Local Standards Involvement 20
2.6 The US Government and Standards 21
2.7 US Government OMB Circular A 119 21
2.8 National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act 23
2.9 National Science and Technology Council 24
2.10 Other US Government Actions 24
2.11 How the Government Uses Standards 24
2.12 US Government as a Participant in VCS Activities 25
2.13 State and Local Standards Use 26
2.14 Other Countries 26
2.15 Summary 27
2.16 Case Studies 27
3 Voluntary Consensus Standards and Codes 29
3.1 Purpose of Standards 30
3.1.1 Standards for Safety and Reliability 30
3.1.2 Standards to Reduce Cost 32
3.1.3 Standards for Increased Flexibility 33
3.1.4 Standards for Promotion of Business 34
3.1.5 Standards to Help Society to Function 35
3.1.6 Consistency 36
3.2 Voluntary Consensus Standards 36
3.3 American National Standard Institute (ANSI) 36
3.4 Codes 38
3.4.1 National Codes 38
3.4.2 International Codes 38
3.5 Some ANSI Accredited Organizations 38
3.5.1 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 39
3.5.2 American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) 42
3.5.3 American Petroleum Institute (API) 43
3.5.4 UL (Formerly Underwriters Laboratory) 43
3.5.5 National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors (nbbi) 43
3.5.6 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 44
3.5.7 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 44
4 Limited Consensus Standards 45
4.1 Types of Standards 45
4.2 Proprietary versus Nonproprietary Standards 47
4.2.1 Proprietary Standards 47
4.2.2 Nonproprietary Standards 48
4.3 Governmental and Jurisdictional Limited Consensus Standards 48
4.3.1 Nasa 48
4.3.2 Army Corp of Engineers 49
4.3.3 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 49
4.3.4 National Science Foundation (NSF) 49
4.3.5 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) - Forest Service 49
4.3.6 United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 50
4.3.7 Municipalities 50
4.4 Case Studies 50
5 Jurisdictional Standards 51
5.1 Regulations and Jurisdictional Requirements 51
5.2 Jurisdictional Standards Implementation 56
5.3 Incorporation by Reference 56
5.3.1 Access to Reference Standards 57
5.3.2 Updating of Reference Standards 57
5.4 Sample Jurisdictional Standard: The OSHA Regulations 58
5.4.1 OSHA General Duty Clause 60
5.5 Summary 61
6 Standards Development Process 63
6.1 Introduction 64
6.2 Voluntary Consensus Standards (VCS) 64
6.3 Government Nonjurisdictional Standards: DOD, NASA, etc. 65
6.4 Governmental Jurisdictional Standards: DOT, FAA, FCC, OSHA, etc. 66
6.5 Corporate Standards 66
6.5.1 Corporate Public Standards 66
6.5.2 Corporate Proprietary Standards 67
6.6 Limited Consensus Standards 67
6.7 Standards Maintenance 68
6.8 Summary 68
6.9 Case Study 68
7 Types of Standards 69
7.1 Introduction 69
7.2 Performance versus Prescriptive 69
7.2.1 Performance Standards 69
7.2.2 Prescriptive Standards 70
7.2.3 Component Standards 71
7.2.4 Hybrid Standards 71
7.3 Geographical, Political, or Economic Extent 72
7.4 Mandatory or Voluntary 72
7.5 Consensus versus Nonconsensus 73
7.6 Purpose 73
7.7 Subject 73
7.8 Surprise Consequences of a Successful Standard 74
7.9 Summary 76
7.10 Case Study 76
8 Conformity Assessment 77
8.1 Introduction 77
8.2 Users of Conformity Assessment 78
8.2.1 Producers and Manufacturers 79
8.2.2 Users and their Designated Agents 79
8.2.3 Inspection/Insurance Agencies and Inspection Jurisdictions 79
8.2.4 Governmental Agencies 80
8.3 Applicability of Conformity Assessment 80
8.3.1 Employees 80
8.3.2 Processes 81
8.3.3 Products 81
8.3.4 Services 81
8.3.5 Systems 82
8.4 Verification and Validation Process 82
8.5 Conformity Assessment Organizations 84
8.6 Summary 85
8.7 Case Studies 85
9 Standards Interpretation and Relief 87
9.1 General Discussion 87
9.2 Standards Adoption 88
9.3 Effect of Noncompliance with Standards 89
9.3.1 New Products 90
9.3.2 Post-Manufacturing Noncompliance 92
9.4 Standards Interpretation 95
9.4.1 Informal Processes 95
9.4.2 Formal Interpretations 95
9.5 Tailoring 97
9.5.1 Nonmandatory Standards Tailoring 98
9.5.2 Legislative Tailoring 98
9.5.3 Governmental Agency Supplemental Standards 98
9.6 Waivers and Variances 99
9.6.1 Waivers of Corporate Standards 99
9.6.2 Code Cases 100
9.6.3 Variances from Jurisdictional Standards 101
9.7 Summary 103
9.8 Case Study 103
10 Characteristics of a Good Standard 105
10.1 Introduction 105
10.2 Clarity and Understanding 105
10.3 Scope 106
10.4 Terminology 107
10.5 Structure and Organization 107
10.6 Consistency 109
10.7 References to Other Standards 109
10.8 Attention to Details 109
10.9 Supplementing a Standard 110
10.10 Timeliness 110
10.11 Sample Standard Structure 110
10.12 Summary 112
10.13 Case Studies 112
11 Getting Involved in Standards Development 113
11.1 Introduction 113
11.2 Reasons to Get Involved 113
11.2.1 Influence the Process and the Product 113
11.2.2 Opportunity to Learn 114
11.2.3 Credibility 114
11.2.4 Personal Satisfaction 115
11.2.5 Networking and Career Benefits 115
11.3 Opportunities for Involvement in Standards 116
11.3.1 Company Standards 116
11.3.2 Interest Group Standards 116
11.3.3 Voluntary Consensus Standards (VCS) 116
11.3.4 Jurisdictional Standards 117
11.4 Selecting a Committee 117
11.4.1 Finding a Committee 117
11.4.2 Making the Choice 118
11.5 What Does It Require? 118
11.6 Summary 119
Acronyms 121
Appendix A Deciding Not to Use a Standard 125
A.1 Introduction 125
A.2 Reasons Not to Use a Standard 126
A.2.1 Lack of a Standard 126
A.2.2 Overly Constraining 126
A.2.3 Unique Product or Application 126
A.2.4 Basic Services 127
A.2.5 Patented Products 127
A.3 Consequences of Not Using a Standard 127
A.4 Mitigations for Not Using a Standard 128
A.5 Summary 129
Appendix B Some SDOs developing Voluntary Consensus Standards 131
Appendix C Some Industrial Organizations That Publish Limited Consensus Standards 135
Appendix D Some US Government Jurisdictional Agencies 137
Bibliography 139
Biography 141
Index 143
Chapter 1
Introduction
(Courtesy of XKCD, www.xkcd.com)
1.1 Background
Standards, including procedures, rules, codes, regulations, and jurisdictional requirements, play an important role in the engineering world. They furnish a means of ensuring consistent designs, quality, and operating characteristics, with adequate reliability, safe operation of components, and well-defined configurations. This book details their development, applications, limitations, and benefits to give the user, specifier, and standard writer a proper perspective of their importance, usefulness, and limitations, to promote their effective use and to improve the quality of future standards. While focusing on standards themselves, it also provides a brief introduction to the field of conformity assessment, by which compliance with standards is assured and verified.
This book does not attempt to address legal, commercial, or other nonengineering aspects of standards.
Rules, procedures, and standards can be developed by a single individual within or with authority over an organization or operation, by a subgroup of an organization, by the organization as a whole, or by other groups with a common interest.
The reader will find that common usage of terminology related to standards is inconsistent in the literature. Accordingly, the following definitions are provided and will be used in this book:
- Rule: A single specific requirement that must be met. Many types of such requirements exist, such as requirements to perform actions, for how to perform actions, for results that must be achieved, for specific properties or characteristics that must be attained, and for dimensions that must be met.
- Procedure: A set of rules regarding how a task or function is performed. Procedures are used to ensure consistency of results and to promote efficiency.
- Standard: A set of rules and/or procedures recognized as authoritative in a particular area of interest.
One definition of standards given by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is as follows:
A set of technical definitions, instructions, rules, guidelines, or characteristics set forth to provide consistent and comparable results, including:
- Items manufactured uniformly, providing for interchangeability.
- Tests and analyses conducted reliably, minimizing the uncertainty of the results.
- Facilities designed and constructed for safe operation.
It is of interest to note that by custom, some standards are called codes.
The effectiveness of standards in conducting business is best explained by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) in a 1991 report:
Standards are the vehicle of communication for producers and users. They serve as a common language, defining quality and establishing safety criteria. Costs are lower if procedures are standardized; training is also simplified.
While the importance of standards is well recognized and while there is what might be called the "legal" definition, as provided in the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) (see below), even the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a part of the US Department of Commerce and that part of the US Government most directly charged with standards development, coordination, and quality, approaches the definition of standards by offering multiple explanations from different sources.
The following text provides the definition from the NTTAA of a standard (clearly covering more than just the engineering standards that are the subject of this book):
DEFINITION OF TECHNICAL STANDARDS - As used in this subsection, the term 'technical standards' means performance-based or design-specific technical specifications and related management systems practices.
The Office of Management and Budget OMB Circular A-119 further amplifies upon this:
- The term "standard," or "technical standard," (hereinafter "standard") as cited in the NTTAA, includes all of the following:
- common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, and related management systems practices;
- the definition of terms; classification of components; delineation of procedures; specification of dimensions, materials, performance, designs, or operations; measurement of quality and quantity in describing materials, processes, products, systems, services, or practices; test methods and sampling procedures; formats for information and communication exchange; or descriptions of fit and measurements of size or strength; and
- terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labeling requirements as they apply to a product, process, or production method.
- The term "standard" does not include the following:
- professional standards of personal conduct; or
- institutional codes of ethics.
- "Government-unique standard" is a standard developed by and for use by the Federal government in its regulations, procurements, or other program areas specifically for government use (i.e., it is not generally used by the private sector unless required by regulation, procurement, or program participation). The standard was not developed as a voluntary consensus standard as described in Sections d and e.
- "Voluntary consensus standard" is a type of standard developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies, through the use of a voluntary consensus standards development process as described in Chapter 3. These bodies often have intellectual property rights (IPR) policies that include provisions requiring that owners of relevant patented technology incorporated into a standard make that intellectual property available to implementers of the standard on nondiscriminatory and royalty-free or reasonable royalty terms (and to bind subsequent owners of standards essential patents to the same terms). In order to qualify as a "voluntary consensus standard" for the purposes of this Circular, a standard that includes patented technology needs to be governed by such policies, which should be easily accessible, set out clear rules governing the disclosure and licensing of the relevant intellectual property, and take into account the interests of all stakeholders, including the IPR holders and those seeking to implement the standard.
- "Voluntary consensus standards body" is a type of association, organization, or technical society that plans, develops, establishes, or coordinates voluntary consensus standards using a voluntary consensus standards development process that includes the following attributes or elements:
- Openness: The procedures or processes used are open to interested parties. Such parties are provided meaningful opportunities to participate in standards development on a non-discriminatory basis. The procedures or processes for participating in standards development and for developing the standard are transparent.
- Balance: The standards development process should be balanced. Specifically, there should be meaningful involvement from a broad range of parties, with no single interest dominating the decision-making.
- Due process: Due process shall include documented and publically available policies and procedures, adequate notice of meetings and standards development, sufficient time to review drafts and prepare views and objections, access to views and objections of other participants, and a fair and impartial process for resolving conflicting views.
- Appeals process: An appeals process shall be available for the impartial handling of procedural appeals.
- Consensus: Consensus is defined as general agreement, but not necessarily unanimity. During the development of consensus, comments and objections are considered using fair, impartial, open, and transparent processes.
Some definitions of standards include only those standards with which compliance is voluntary, referring to mandatory standards as technical regulations or by other names. Because many voluntary consensus standards have been incorporated into laws and regulations, confusing the meaning of voluntary, this book does not make this distinction.
Other definitions require consensus, or establishment or approval by a recognized body. These distinctions are often significant, but would exclude such important documents as the standards of the American Boiler Manufacturers Association and the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association (TEMA) as well as certain standards developed by private corporations but well recognized as authoritative (An example of the latter is a series of material and other standards developed by the AO Smith Company and used by them and other companies in the construction of many thousands of pressure vessels beginning in the 1940s and continuing into the 1960s.).
Conformity Assessment: Processes used to verify the compliance of a product, service, person, process or system to either a standard or a regulation (e.g., testing, certification, inspection).
1.2 Procedures and Rules
Procedures and rules are usually developed within an organization to establish operating methods that will lead to consistent desired results. They include such items as drawing and calculation formats, dimensional standards, checking sequences, and hierarchical progression of a task within the organization....
