Chapter 1

Introduction
Many codes and standards are of interest to welding engineers. The choice of
which code or standard to use depends on what type of the project is at hand.
This is an introduction to some of the codes and specifications that are in
common use in general engineering and the oil and gas and petrochemical
industries. These codes and specifications also find their applications in
various other industries.
Historically, incidents of pressure vessel and bridge failures, notably of
steam boilers and industrial accidents, led to the development of regulatory
codes. These codes relate to the safety of men and material through design and
inspection with awareness of the environment and the damage these failures
and accidents cause to the environment. The emphasis on safety has
comprehensively integrated concerns with damage to the environment.
At the end, a list of some very commonly used specifications and their
sources are listed. Interested personnel may approach the sources to obtain
them.
It may, however, be noted that the bodies that issue industrial specifications
and the national codes have very exhaustive lists of fields that they address as a
result the number of topics they address and the specifications they issue are
exhaustive too. It is not possible for a book to cover even a small fraction of
them. In this book, the attempt is made to introduce some of them so that an
introduction is made and a way is available to readers to explore through the
specification issuing body’s web addresses and refer to any specific publication
that may be of interest.

Applied Welding Engineering. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804176-5.00031-1

Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 381