Essential Pipe Marking Requirements: ASME A13.1

Webinar Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to our September edition of our VWS monthly webinars. Today we will have Jim U'ren presenting to us on essential pipe marking requirements and best practices. At this time, we are going to ask that you put any and all questions into the question bar and/or chat, and we will answer them at the end of the webinar. All right, Jim, handing it off to you.

Hello everybody. As Will said, I'm Jim U'ren. I'm the GPM for our pipe and valve product line, and let's get started with the essential pipe marking requirements and best practices presentation. In this webinar, we're going to talk a little bit about why pipe marking matters, what are the standards for pipe marking—ASME A13.1 is pretty much the guiding principle for pipe marking in North America—and some pipe marking options. What are the options? What are the different types of pipe markers that you can use?

Fundamentals of Pipe Marking

To start off basic, what is pipe marking? Basically pipes carry some substance and labeling helps to identify those substances in the pipe. Pipe marking is the system used for labeling the pipes and the related components. These can include labels, paint, tags, and signs. There's different methods to do this with pipe marking. Typically, labels are the most common, and I'll go over a lot of the different styles and different methods of marking pipes later in this presentation.

So, why is it needed? What you really need to do for employees in a facility is clearly identify substances in that pipe. As the example photo there says, there's non-potable water in that pipe. So, why do you need to know? It simplifies maintenance, making sure that if something needs to change with that pipe or something needs to be turned on or off, or if there's a leak and something needs to be fixed, maintenance can be done relatively easily on that pipe by knowing what the substance is. It accelerates upgrades. If you have to change the pipe for a process change in a facility, this allows you to know exactly what's in that pipe again to change it out safely. And the really key thing is preventing accidents or injuries. Any type of leak of a corrosive content, accidental mixing of chemicals when you're doing a process, changing a valve or turning a valve where you're putting two chemicals into the same pipe that may explode or cause some other issue or gas that would be dangerous to the personnel in the facility, that's why pipe marking is really needed.

And there's two different ways of doing pipe marking. So you can have labeling in new construction. In new builds, pipe marking is usually done as part of the commissioning process. It's crucial to label these before installation hides them from view. You know what the pipes are up front with the blueprints for the new facility. Easy access to those pipes before the equipment and manufacturing equipment might go into the facility makes it a lot easier. Typically, in this instance, in a new build, mechanical contractors may do installation of the pipe markers in this type of build. Then there's labeling in renovation projects. During renovations, maybe it's an existing facility that has some process that's being changed and you're going to be changing it to some new process. You want to make sure that the pipe markers are updated to reflect any new routing and remove any outdated markings so there's no confusion with anybody working in that facility. Now, the people that might do this marking might be some contractors that are updating the processes in that facility, it may be local staff or EHS managers that may be just changing those markers on their own, or it can be used with external sources that might do the installation as a service.

The ASME ANSI A13.1 Standard Overview

So now the foundation of industrial safety and maintenance, that's what we're talking about here. Four key tenants: safety, making sure that people go home safe from the facility by preventing any accidents because hazardous materials will be clearly identified; efficiency, making sure maintenance and troubleshooting and even emergency response is really fast. You can really get to that point where if there's an emergency, the first responders know what's going wrong in that facility. Compliance—this is one of the more important things for meeting regulatory requirements so you don't get fines and legal issues if somebody does get hurt, which again is the most important thing, making sure people in the facility are safe. Then training—they can even be used as training for people in the facility to see what a process is. You can see what contents are in a pipe, where things go, and that's used visually as training to help people understand how processes work in your building. Now the key for this on the bottom here is the ASME ANSI A13.1 standard, the scheme for identification of piping systems, and it's the industry consensus for pipe marking, and that's what we're going to talk about in the next few slides.

What is ANSI ASME A13.1? So it's the guiding principle. It's the standard for identifying any pipe fitting and insulation jackets on a system in a facility. It's common marking, so no matter what building you go to, no matter what facility you go to, no matter what state you go to, you're going to have the same marking that ensures safety and prevents any misidentification of what's going through there. Now, what's going to be in there is going to be the legend—what text is actually on that pipe marker, what's printed on the pipe marker; the color coding—what is the background color, and what does that mean? Do your employees understand that? Do the employees know what that color means? First responders and other people that are coming into your facility should understand what those color codes are. The size—so the dimensions of the pipe marker and the lettering is basically the larger the pipe, the larger the pipe marker and lettering should be.

Then one thing you'll note is the flow direction. Which way are the contents flowing? You need to have arrows. Typically on self-adhesive type markers, arrows aren't put on there because we don't know which way the pipe marker is going to go on the pipe, so we don't know which way the arrow is going to go. So, a lot of times people will order custom parts that have a separate arrow that can be peeled off and placed on the pipe in the direction of flow for the pipe.

OSHA Requirements & Core Pipe Marker Components

So, what are the OSHA requirements for pipe marking? We talked about ASME and we're going to keep talking about that, but does OSHA have anything required for pipe marking? They don't have a standalone rule particularly for pipe marking, but the requirements are enforced through hazardous communication standards and process safety management regulations. This is particular for hazardous chemical systems. Now what does that mean? Under the general duty rule, whenever there's hazardous contents, when the pipe serves a safety purpose like fire quenching, if the flow must be shut off or redirected during maintenance, or if contents would affect some sort of an emergency response, then OSHA requires as a mandate to make sure that those pipes are marked. And a lot of things in safety, whether it's OSHA or ASME, you'll see a kind of gray area where they say, "Is this mandatory? Is it not mandatory?" If I don't have it marked, will there be a problem? Typically the way I look at it is if the pipe's not marked and there's no incident, it's probably not going to be a problem. But if the pipe is not marked and there's hazardous chemicals in that pipe and something happens and someone gets hurt, that can lead to a fine just because it was not marked.

So, what exactly goes on the pipe marker? Going back into the name of the substance, usually the name of the substance should be something clear and to the point—nothing too long, nothing too extended. When you start getting into a pipe marker that has a larger size or even a smaller size, the amount of letters that you can actually put on the pipe marker are limited and make it harder to read because the font will be smaller from a distance. You can have pressure and temperature, a system phase, a process that can be on the pipe marker. A lot of people might end up having a special customized marker that says process ABC and process BCD, and they're going to know that process within their facility. So that can be the substance name as well for a process. And as I talked about previously, the direction of the flow arrow—the flow indicates the direction of flow. It is critical for maintenance and emergency response. They need to know which way the flow is going. And if you look at the arrows on the right side of the screen, you can see there can be different configurations for the arrows. There could be a flow direction one way. There can be a flow direction that goes both ways. And then there could be, like on the beginning and the end of a pipe marker, an arrow on either end for multiple flows. So these are all within proper parameters of ASME A13.1. Then the color of the marker needs to be continuous. There are some reasons you might not have a continuous color on the marker. There might be something that has different purposes for ammonia systems, for instance, for refrigeration. One thing that's really important to note for this is that it's not a perfect science when it comes to existing utilities. Some things may change or be different, but there's things that you can work with and work with your supplier to make sure that you're doing everything right when you're marking systems.

Color Coding Systems & Dimension Guidelines

So when we go to color coding, what are the colors that we use? So, there's a lot of different colors here, right? This chart usually is within the safety manager folder and within the safety plan within a facility. We start at the top with firefighting fluids and fire quenching, which is red with white text. And all these colors here are specific for the pipe contents, right? So you have orange for toxic or corrosive, yellow for flammable or combustible, gray for steam, steam condensate, boiler feed water, or other hot water. If you see my note in the bottom, you'll notice that this gray color is the latest addition that ASME added to their standards. With their latest update, they made it a gray background with black print for steam to differentiate from different materials. In the past, steam, steam condensate, and hotter water had been using orange or yellow or green. So now they're trying to make sure they pull that out and make it a different color so it's not confused with those chemicals that might be in those pipe markers. A thing to note too here, you see white and black and have that abandoned pipe marker there. So, any line that's gone, that's out of service, any line that's empty and not being used should be marked with an abandoned pipe marker, which would be a white background with black text. Now, you see the bottom four here: purple, white, brown, and black. Those are user-defined colors. That means you can define them to be used for whatever you want—define it for a certain substance. And this is an ASME color spec, so as long as the colors are used consistently in your facility, that's okay for ASME. For instance, I talked about the different steam colors that were used in the past; as long as you use the same colors—like if you had green for steam in the past and your facility is adding a new steam line, you can still keep using green as long as it's consistent within your facility. You don't have to upgrade all your markers to the new color. That's not necessarily what ASME wants to do. They want to make sure things are consistent and people are safe and knowing what's going through those pipes. And as long as it's in your safety plan, the company's safety plan, what colors there are, you can use pink or almost any color palette that you would like to in your facility as long as it's consistent, as long as it's in your safety plan, as long as your employees understand what those colors mean. But typically most companies are going to use the theme colors listed here.

So, the other thing is for font size. Depending on the size of the pipe, the outside diameter of the pipe, it's going to depend on what size pipe marker you're going to use. Are you going to use something really small, a small pipe marker for something that's over 10 inches? No, because it's not going to fit the spec. That pipe marker on the bottom needs to be 32 inches wide. That's the length of the color field with a font height that's going to be 3.5 inches tall. And this one won't cut it, so you're going to have to use something that's relatively large for that pipe that has the larger font size that can meet the spec. This one happens to be a 24-inch pipe marker, so this fits 6 to 8-inch to 10-inch pipes. The larger the pipe, the larger the pipe marker, and the larger the font. Now, these are minimum sizes, the length of the color field. Some companies offer pipe markers that are 10 inches or 14 inches or 26 inches or 38 inches. You can have larger pipe markers as long as you have the minimum spec for that outside diameter of the pipe.

So, proper placement and visibility—what does A13.1 tell you about where to place pipe markers? They have to be easily visible. So, if I'm in a facility looking up and I see the bottom of a pipe marker and I can't see the print on it, it's not placed where it's easily visible. It needs to be turned so the legend can be viewed by people working underneath and not hidden behind some piece of equipment where you can't necessarily see what's on it either. It has to have a direction of flow—the arrow pointing in the correct direction—and the right size. We talked about spacing should be every 25 to 50 feet on straight runs. Typically if it's a more congested area, that's going to be closer to the 25 feet or maybe even less depending on how much pipe and how many people are under that workspace. If you're in a long hallway, that long hallway might be 50 feet, right, where there's not necessarily anybody working under it and not necessarily going to be any danger to anybody underneath. Then it needs to be placed where all valves are, all flanges, any change in direction, any bend in the pipe, any junction, and if it goes in and out of a wall somewhere, it also has to be on either side on the inside of the wall and the outside of the wall where the pipe's going through. So that's the ASME basically requirements for where to place pipe markers when it's not just a straight pipe.

Reviewing Pipe Marker Materials and Application Types

So now that we went through a lot of the different things for ASME A13.1, I'm going to go through some of the things for pipe markers and materials. What you learned about is dictating color, font size, length, the legend—what gets printed on the marker—all defined by A13.1, but they don't tell you anything about what the marker has to be. How do you have to mark something in your facility to be compliant? This is pretty wide open. You can have a lot of different methods to mark a pipe and still be compliant with ASME. A lot of the things that are in here: self-adhesive markers, wraparound markers, strap-around markers, carrier-based markers, and there's a variety of materials that these are made out of, which I will go through. So, first we have self-adhesive markers. Self-adhesive pipe markers are made of vinyl or polyester. They're usually relatively inexpensive and easy to install. You just peel off the liner on the back and stick it onto the pipe; no training really needed to install it at all. Some of the challenges of a self-adhesive pipe marker that people don't realize when they're buying these—because the marker is relatively inexpensive—is you also have to make sure the pipe is clean and dry before you apply the pipe marker, otherwise it might not stick. And one of the stories I have about this is we went to a customer site, and the customer had a smoke detection system where they use lasers to detect smoke up high in their facility. They had recently replaced their pipe markers and the alarm kept going off not too long after the pipe markers were in there where it's really drafty at the height of the building. Whoever installed the pipe markers didn't install them with a clean pipe—they just put them on there. So when that drafty wind was coming around, the wind would come up and blow that pipe marker up, and it happened to break the laser that was above it. They had to go through and do a reinstallation, which cost them $14,000 to reinstall the pipe markers because they weren't installed correctly. So that's one of the challenges that can lead to an additional cost besides the labor cost of cleaning the pipe. You also have to use a separate arrow tape to indicate flow. Most pipe markers, like I showed earlier, don't come with an arrow on them if you're buying a stock pipe marker, not a custom one, because they don't know which way they're going on. So then that's when you have to buy also rolls of matching color to the background of the pipe marker arrow tape. And then you see in the bottom picture on the right where the sulfuric acid image is, that you wrap that pipe marker arrow tape around the edges of the pipe marker and point that direction there. So that's a little bit more difficult, more challenging, because you have to do more work to actually install that pipe marker than it really looks like once you just peel and stick the pipe marker on the pipe.

Other types of pipe markers are wraparound pipe markers. These types of pipe markers are typically used in an environment where there might be more chemicals, where there might be more places where the pipe marker can have some abrasion to it or can have some chemical exposure. It's typically made from polyester and has a polyester laminate on it. And with these types of pipe markers, there's no surface preparation needed because you peel off an adhesive strap, wrap it around the pipe, and stick it to itself. So, it's basically like it makes a tube. So, you don't have to clean the pipe; you don't have to do anything special on that pipe. And then, since it's printed like this, the arrows are printed on here. The print is printed both ways—you can see it's upside down and right side up. So, the arrows are able to be printed on here because you can put it on the pipe either way and it will still be readable from wherever you're putting it onto the pipe, and you can see it from 360 degrees around the pipe. These are a little bit higher cost than a self-adhesive marker just because it's got an adhesive strip and a laminate on top of it, but it doesn't have a hidden labor cost to install—you just peel it, wrap it, and you're done. And they're a little less flexible than vinyl markers just because of the laminate that's on top of it that protects it from UV radiation, from weather, and from chemical exposure.

Snap-around pipe markers—these are one of the most common, most used pipe markers in the industry. The snap-around pipe markers don't need surface preparation; it's very easy to install. They snap around because they're a coiled pipe marker—they start out flat and they're heated at the factory to make them roll and curve like this. They unroll, and then you just snap it around the pipe and it's installed. There's many different sizes of these, just like all the pipe markers that are out there, and similar to the last wraparound pipe marker as well, you can see it from 360 because it's printed both ways on the pipe marker. And it has the arrows on here as well, allowing you to not have to buy separate tape or anything for those types of markers. It's removable and reusable since it snaps on. You can actually, if you had to move it to a different direction, slide it down the pipe or you can take it off if you're changing the substances of that pipe, so you can reuse it later or add another pipe marker for the new substance. Now, for larger style pipes, there's probably not a solution for this type of marker because the larger it gets, the harder it is to get that large curl, so there's other options which I'll show you on the next slide. They're going to be a little bit more costly than a self-adhesive marker, and they're very bulky. Where the previous markers I talked about—the wraparounds—ship flat, so you don't have to have a lot of space, these ones are already rounded and the larger they are, the more space they take. So it might take more boxes to ship the snap-around markers versus the wraparound markers.

Strap-on markers—so a strap-on marker basically does just what it says. It uses a nylon tie or nylon strap or a steel banding to take a marker that's rigid material—just like the previous snap-around marker—and it goes around larger pipes, and it's got holes in here to allow you to take the banding to wrap it around the larger pipe. And again, it's going to be printed on both sides, so no matter which way you put it on there, as long as the arrows are facing the right direction, it's going to be pointing the right way. It's a versatile installation that doesn't need a clean surface because you've got those tie wraps—larger pipes obviously—and there's no adhesive on here so it's good for hot or insulated pipes, with secure attachment via steel banding which can be slid around a little bit if it's not super tight, so they're reusable. It can be a longer installation time because now if it's a larger pipe, you have to take that steel banding and go all the way around the pipe and put it in here and fasten it, right? So there might be tools and fasteners that are needed that you might not normally use with a different type of pipe marker, and it can be sometimes a higher cost if you have to use a carrier with this type of marker, which this is.

A carrier-based pipe marker basically affixes to any size pipe. Typically, it's one size for a pipe marker, but there's also now smaller sizes that are offered, going down from the smallest pipe marker to the largest pipe marker to be able to put them on there, so it can affix to any size pipe. And what they do with this is basically affix the label to the carrier—so you put an arrow and a label on the carrier and then you put it on the pipe. Now why do they do that? The rigid carrier provides impact resistance to the pipe marker, so it's not going to get damaged. There's no surface preparation needed. It's good for insulated pipes because it sits off that insulation. The same way we installed the previous pipe markers—the strap-ons—they have a standoff on these that go on with the steel banding around the pipe with it on there. It does have a higher initial cost because you have this bulkier profile marker carrier that goes with the marker, and it does require fasteners and nylon ties. It doesn't conform to the pipe—it's going to sit next to the pipe where it's going to be like a 90-degree surface right there. Some people use these for aesthetics; they do look nicer in a facility when you have them on a pipe and are able to line them all up—they look pretty good. They're also good where there's high washdowns where you don't want to necessarily have a pipe marker flush on the pipe where some water can get behind it and cause corrosion. This will sit on the pipe at two points of contact, allowing water to just flow behind it, so that's one of the reasons that people would use carrier-based pipe markers.

Now, there's other methods too: stencils, paint, roll-form tape. Stencils and paint are around, and we've seen a lot of people use stencils because if you're labeling the same pipe many times, the stencil may last 100 to 200 times before it wears out from painting it. It's permanent and highly durable for harsh environments, depending on the paint you're using, and it's good for large-diameter pipes. It is labor-intensive—I mean, you have to spray paint each single one, you've got to make sure that the marker is nice and straight, and you have to use the right color paint to be up with ASME standards. It can be difficult to change—you might have to paint over it with some solid color if you're going to change the contents of the pipe, then you're going to have some messy cleanup potentially because you're dealing with paint versus just putting on a pipe marker. There's roll-form tapes, which is sort of like the first marker I showed you, the self-adhesive pipe markers—very versatile for different pipe diameters. It's on a roll, so it's easy to install, and it usually comes with die-cut arrows on there, so the arrows are included as well. Sometimes these are less durable than other options because it's a roll-form material, and it may not meet regulations depending on the sizes—I've seen sizes that range from smaller than the regulation suggests to much bigger. The pipe surface still needs to be clean and dry just like a self-adhesive marker, so you have to still clean that pipe to make sure it adheres correctly.

Duct Marking Systems & Valve Tags

Then we didn't talk really about this because it's not part of that standard, but there are self-adhesive duct markers. Duct markers are very similar to a pipe marker, but they're usually used for ducts, hotter surfaces, and plenum spaces to make sure that the ducts are identified correctly. There's vinyl duct markers, which are most common for pipe and duct markers due to versatility. Everybody offers a vinyl pipe marker or duct marker that might have exhaust or return air on it. It's cost-effective, easy to apply, and moisture and chemical resistant. There are temperature limitations though, because vinyl usually has a temperature limitation of about 180 degrees Fahrenheit, so if you're using it on a hotter system, it might not be good for that system. It's also vulnerable to damage and UV degradation. One of the other things in the market, which is a very nice material for ducts in particular or hot pipes, is soft aluminum foil duct markers. This material is more robust—it's a specialized option designed for demanding environments. It's literally a foil with an adhesive on it, so it's got very good durability, it can mold to rough surfaces, and it can get on just about anything. The temperature limit is usually around 300 to 350 degrees depending on the manufacturer, so for hotter pipes and hotter areas, it's very good. You might see these that are ASTM E84 certified where they won't spread a fire or add to any smoke in the event of a fire, so they're safe for building materials within a plenum space. They may be higher cost than vinyl though because they are a little bit different material—they're stiffer. These are usually a shiny material, so the color on these might not look the same as printed on vinyl—it might have a different color look. But again, when you're doing it for exhaust, the color code is not necessarily ASME regulated—usually you'll see silver and black for the ducts.

One other way to mark pipes is valve tags. According to ASME A13.1, they recommend using a permanent legible tag. Now, this can be a tag of almost any material, but for pipes less than 3/4-inch diameter, they should have a tag on there indicating what the contents are and maybe specifications like pipe number one, two, three, or four. In this instance, you might need to see "water heater," and that's got a number there, so you might have different numbers on there to identify specific components within valves that have smaller pipes attached to them. You might have these tags engraved, stamped, or they could be blank. A lot of times we have customers that might be an EHS manager or a contractor that goes through with blank tags and a Sharpie and they mark out the tags as they go, without having to have a specialized already-created tag that's engraved or stamped for them, and they can permanently replace it later if they need to. There's several materials: brass, aluminum, stainless steel, and plastic are the most common materials that we see for tags. Brass is the most common in the industry; it doesn't bend or break, and it's just very aesthetically pleasing—it's a nice material for tags. Stainless steel we see for food and beverage applications; it is the only material here that is magnetic, so if it does fall into a food source or food supply, it can be picked up and taken out of that food supply with their scanners. Then you have aluminum which is lightweight and good for cooler temperatures, and also anodized aluminum which has different colors. And then you have plastic which is a very economical choice—it's lower cost than all the others, with a wide variety of colors, but might not be as durable in environments that are more corrosive because plastic will break down or melt if it's a hot environment, where the metal options don't necessarily do that.

Quickly identifying specific valves and locations is one of the key things about having a valve tag. Using unique IDs or even with engraved tags, you can have QR codes, so complex piping networks and processes can really be maintained and tracked through those tags. You've got to communicate critical information just like pipe markers to people in the area—the contents, the function of a valve, and the operating instruction could potentially be on there in a QR code and tech specs. These are used for safety and accident prevention so those valves aren't misidentified. So if someone is operationally changing one content to another or mixing something with a valve, they want to make sure they know what's in each one of those pipes so they don't cause an issue. This also supports lockout tagout, so when they're doing worker safety and they have to lock something out—you're locking out a pipe, you're turning off a valve—you can use that tag with the number of the tag in the process to use your lockout tag and say, "Hey, don't turn this on, I'm working on this pipe." This can aid in emergency response, so if there's a need for rapid system isolation, you can turn something off for a hazardous chemical and make sure people stay safe and don't get injured. You can also do audits and compliance—if you're doing an audit of all the different inspections for different valves in the facility, this helps you do that—and even asset management. You can streamline maintenance, troubleshooting, and inventory tracking to keep track of all the different valves in your facility and what's running through those. And just like pipe markers, you can facilitate maintenance and reduce downtime with these by helping during maintenance or in an emergency, making sure that nothing's going on during downtime so you can get something changed out as quickly as possible.

Alternative Industry Standards & Professional Support Services

So there are other standards—not really covering these in depth—but for ammonia pipes, there's the IIAR Bulletin 114. This is from the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration, and it basically dictates what has to be on that kind of pipe marker: what color should it be, what is the wording on here, what are the abbreviations for the ammonia systems, what are the color bands, and what do the color bands mean—is it liquid, is it a high or low-pressure system? And that all gets dictated by that bulletin to tell you what these pipe markers are and what they should be, and it's application-specific depending on the component of the refrigeration you're using. So there's a lot of different things here that will change different wordings with similar pipe markers for the ammonia system.

NFPA 99—so this was basically the fire protection association for safety in healthcare facilities. So for compressed gas, what do you have to do within a healthcare facility to maintain and manage gases like oxygen, different types of gases that are used in a hospital or doctor's office, and it dictates to them what they need to use, what colors they need to be, and how they have to mark them. There's also another section where we don't see it as often, but internationally we see it more, and ASME actually has a section of this with GHS pictograms where you can add one of the nine GHS hazard pictograms to a pipe marker. That's actually within the regulation within the standard for ASME if you needed to put this on for your facility, it is absolutely okay to do.

And then there's pipe marking services. A lot of things you'll see out there is like, "How can I help get pipe markers installed?" One of the things that we'll see is like we were at a food and beverage manufacturing plant, and they had someone who was retiring who knew everything that was in the pipes, and their pipes weren't fully marked. Instead of just writing them down or marking the pipes, they wanted to come to us and say, "Hey, can you help us mark the pipes?" So, they came to us, we went through, and we decided that there were 9,500 pipe markers that needed to be installed on carriers like I showed you earlier. The carriers are a little bit more complex to put up, but they needed that. So, for those 9,500 pipe markers, we figured it would take about three months to install, and they didn't have the resources or the people to actually install those pipe markers. So, what we did is we have an installation service, and we allow them to basically have our installation service team go there and install the pipe markers for them in less time without having to redirect their own resources, and they were able to get the installation done and keep their maintenance people doing what they were doing previously.

We have takeoff services. Takeoff services in the industry basically allow you to take in blueprints of a new facility typically, and all the pipes that are on that blueprint can be marked up individually by an engineer who'll say, "This pipe needs this marker at this place," and it'll go through all the junctions like I mentioned earlier, all the turns, where all the pipes go through walls, and place the pipe markers on the drawing where they need to be. Then also we'll give basically a packing list of all the pipe markers—these are all the quantities, everything that you need within your facility here—go order those, and now you'll be all set to go to install these pipe markers in your facility. And then project packaging—this basically delivers products to the correct room, floor, or building where it's installed, allowing it to be a lot easier for someone to do the installations versus getting everything they have in one building. This gives you QR codes to allow you to say this is the floor and the room where this pipe marker needs to be installed.

Webinar Summary & General Takeaways

So, thank you for being here for this amount of time. This is going to go through some of the key takeaways in the summary of this session. So, know your facility's piping system: what is it, where is it, is it properly marked, are there old markers on there, are there markers that are outdated, are there markers that you can't read? If you're going to do new marking or remark your facility, choose that pipe marking approach and stick with it. Always comply with ASME A13.1. Make sure the correct color coding is used. Make sure arrows are used to indicate content direction, and make sure that content direction is correct. This doesn't take much for someone to put on a marker and put the arrow on the wrong side, which could lead to a problem once that material going in the wrong direction is misidentified and potentially causes some issue down the road. Include the legend or the text on every marker that clearly identifies what's in that pipe or process. Choose a style suited to your environment—we threw a bunch of styles here—the styles that exist today that will help you out and make sure that you're marking your facility correctly, and prioritize clear placement and visibility. Make sure everybody's able to see those pipes and what's in them by looking at that pipe marker. It doesn't make a lot of sense to go through all the expense of marking your facility up on your pipes and not being able to read those pipe markers from the ground because maybe you're using too small pipe markers or they're hidden or turned the wrong way where someone can't see them. And thanks for your time. Right now, I think if there's any questions, we'll take any questions.

Q&A: Label Spacing Concerns

Yeah, there is one question from Jeff here: "For long straight pipe segments, is there a recommended minimum distance between labels?"

Okay, for long straight pipe segments, basically the spec says 25 to 50 feet. So typically 25 is the minimum, but 50 can be the standard if it's a very long run and there are no workers underneath and it's not a hazardous pipe. I would say my goal for this would be if it's a hazardous material in the pipe, I'd probably mark it more often, right? Because if you have a leak and you can't see 25 feet down either way and there's some sort of something leaking and it's a hazardous pipe, you might want to mark those more. But if it's water, if it's some non-corrosive substance, you might go more towards that 50-foot recommendation. Anything within that 25 to 50 feet would be okay in the eyes of regulation.

Q&A: Surface Cleanup & Specialized Applications

All right. Next one that we have is: "What are the most common mistakes people are making when applying pipe markings?"

Well, the most common mistake would be not cleaning the pipe. So, you think that you can just go ahead and install a regular pipe marker, which is a self-adhesive type pipe marker, and stick it on there and not realize that there might be dust, grease, dirt, or grime on that pipe. So, the most common mistake ends up being that they stick the pipe marker on there and think it's going to stay there, only to come back not too long later and see it's on the floor. So cleaning the pipe is the critical step if you're using that type of pipe marker, or if you don't want to clean the pipe, the mistake ends up being you should have gotten a different type of pipe marker like a wraparound or snap-around so you didn't have to clean that pipe.

All right, thank you. Stephen is wondering: "Is there a best practice for outdoor markers, specifically in the gulf area?"

Well, for outdoor markers, the best thing you're going to use for outdoor markers is going to be a laminate-based pipe marker, which is a polyester pipe marker, which I showed you earlier—the wraparound pipe markers. We have ones at our company called B-689s or B-600s. These pipe markers are polyester and they have a polyester overcoat, which helps make it weatherable for outdoor conditions, makes it so the UV rays don't fade the marker quickly, and makes it good for a raining or wet environment. So yes, I would say that's the best practice—you're going to use the polyester type of pipe marker with a polyester laminate overcoat on it. And just one note about the polyester ones as well: we had a customer at a plant that was installing a new facility and they wanted a pipe marker that was without PVC. So, if you're looking at a requirement where you can't have PVC in your facility, that type of pipe marker—the polyester with a polyester laminate—is ideal because it has no PVC.

Q&A: Severe Weather Environments & Regulatory Actions

All right. And then actually building on that, "What is the best marker for the outside of a building in an extreme weather area?" This is coming from Brent.

Outside of a building in an extreme weather area, I would say it depends on how extreme. The same pipe marker would probably be ideal for that because when I look at vinyl-type pipe markers, I don't necessarily see those being as useful in an environment where it's extreme weather, because they can fade easier than laminated pipe markers—they can be more susceptible to the environment. One of the things I see customers do is they'll take a carrier-based pipe marker with a carrier and a polyester-based pipe marker like this, and the polyester pipe marker has a laminate on it which protects it from weather. And then the carrier is pretty much out there in the weather strapped on, so it's not going to get torn off and it's going to be able to be visible from a distance outside in extreme weather. So I would say that that's probably my choice for extreme weather. Now, without doing that, the wraparound style marker that's polyester with a polyester laminate would probably be just as good.

"Will OSHA cite a company that does not have its pipes labeled to any standard at all?" And that's coming from Michael, sorry.

Well, OSHA will not really bother you probably for a citation or a fine if your pipes are just unmarked, right, because as long as you know what they are, if there's a safety plan—if they're not in the safety plan, maybe that could be a different story. But the safety plan should have an idea of what's going through the pipe in the facility. So, if your facility has some sort of corrosive material that they're using, some sort of gas that's a hazardous gas, and it's not marked but it's in your safety plan and everybody knows about it, that's probably a gray area. But the time that OSHA will cite somebody where there's unmarked pipes is if the pipes have an issue, right? So, if something's leaking, if an employee is underneath one of these pipes, even if he knows what's in the pipes, and it leaks on that person or damages him, hurts his hand, or has some sort of reportable event, then that can get a little bit closer to where they might cite. That's why it's usually best to spend some money—at least I don't even know if that's even possible to only spend money on the corrosive or the dangerous contents in pipes, but it's probably a really good idea to have them marked.

Q&A: State Mandated Exceptions & Safety Strategies

Building off of that, "Are there any exceptions to the standard color codes, and if so, when would they apply?"

Yes, there are exceptions. The main exception is if you wanted to have a color code that was something different. I have a customer we were at a couple weeks ago, and they had their standard utilities within their facility—water and gas and different things—then they have processes. So their processes differ from the standard for their utilities, and this was a New York State company, and New York State required certain things within manufacturing for food and beverage to have certain colors. They didn't want to have their color for yellow for their propane or for their natural gas to be the same as the yellow that's for their raw milk, whatever it is, right? So they wanted to have a different color. So, we ended up taking a different color for them, and they noted it in their safety plan—that their utility colors are this, their process colors are this, and they varied. So, they weren't the same as ASME. As long as that's done where you document it within your safety plan—why you're using these colors, what the colors are, even if it's for your utilities—then that's within the realm of being acceptable to ASME. The time that you end up using a red pipe marker for something that's corrosive when it's a fire quenching gas and you don't mark it, that's a problem. But if you train everybody at the facility and have it marked down in your safety plan, you're good to go.

Okay, we had another question: "Since you cannot install a pipe marker on a sprinkler line, how would you mark it?"

With a sprinkler line, your probably best bet is to—I've seen for sprinkler lines tags, a light tag that can be on with a chain on that pipe. I've seen where they've had longer chains that have had a sign on it like the chain goes around the pipe and underneath it is almost like a sign where the sign would have holes on the top and the chain would be hanging off that pipe. I've seen that from a regulation standpoint. I don't know if that would be what's covered underneath the fire code from like a weight standpoint to put something on there, but I would say a tag is probably the best bet.

Q&A: Turnaround Expectations & Lifespan Realities

All right. And then we have a couple more: "Are you able to speak more to the takeoff services? What is the typical turnaround time for a takeoff quote and manufacturing lead time?"

So that depends. For a takeoff service, you're going to look at, depending on job size, somewhere between two days and two weeks, right, so the takeoff is actually done. It depends on backlog, how many people are actually doing it. Once that's done and once the list is completed, it depends on how large the order is. So, if this is hundreds of pipe markers, the lead time is probably within a couple days. If it's thousands of pipe markers delivered to separate places, potentially it might be a week or two weeks for a lead time—usually it's not too long. And if it's all customized pipe markers—like someone comes in and does a takeoff and there's specialized lines which may take more time to create the pipe marker artwork and get it printed—that might be a little longer, but typically we don't see it too long. And our reps usually talk with our customers to figure out: "When do you need this? How do we work it into your timeline to make sure if you need this in two weeks, you're getting it in two weeks?" That's one of the really good things about our construction team here at least, is we're able to work with customers to make sure we meet their deadlines to get things done. But yeah, it's not usually too long.

A couple more questions here. "How do you mark piping that contains or may contain asbestos?"

The asbestos—so there are specialized pipe markers that have asbestos right written on them. These ones are a little bit different from the ASME type of recommendation, but typically it's going to be a white pipe marker with black print and potentially an OSHA danger header. So, I've seen pipe markers—that snap-around type pipe marker that wraps around the pipe—and it'll say, "Danger, contains asbestos fibers. Avoid creating dust. Cancer and lung disease hazard." So, it'll actually mark that pipe with an asbestos warning. So, I would search for asbestos insulation pipe markers—that would probably be the best way to find those.

All right. And then the last question that I'm seeing is: "How often should pipe markings be inspected or replaced?"

Well, typically there's not really a good timeline for that, so you're not going to replace them on a regular basis—you're going to buy a pipe marker and it's going to be there once. A lot of times it's going to depend on the environment. So, if you're in a food and beverage environment with active—a lot of times you go in there and there's a lot of dust and grime and stuff going around the facility, and they have to wash down on a regular basis. You might see that some of those pipe markers need to be cleaned or can't be cleaned because of that, so depending on how many washdowns happen and how much is going on in that facility, you might have to replace those markers maybe every month or every two months. But in a typical facility where it's not really that demanding of an environment, you might only have to change those markers when you can't read them, when they're no longer serviceable, if they're falling off, or if there's some problem. Most markers in general terms will last somewhere between five and seven years before they fade or before something else happens. A lot of times they're serviceable long beyond that, but you shouldn't have to typically change markers on a regular basis unless the environment is very dirty or there's something going on in the environment where you can't read the pipe marker anymore.

All right. Thank you. There were a couple questions that were asked that we'll reach out directly to you to respond, but that is all the questions that we have at this time. Next slide here, Jim, I know we cover the next three webinars that will be coming up. So if you are interested in winter and cold weather facility prep, we'll be having a webinar for that on October 29th. And then enhancing workplace safety, the power of lockout tagout software, that'll be November 19th. And then apologies, that should say December—on December 19th we'll be having optimizing your workplace with strategic area markings. So things to look forward to here. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, everyone for attending. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day.