Exposed pipes in a facility have the potential to create extremely hazardous situations. Because of this, many employees are nervous working around or walking under unmarked pipes in a facility. Further, in an emergency situation, it can be extremely important for emergency personnel to quickly and accurately tell what is in the exposed pipes in a facility.

For these reasons, it is important to establish a system for marking the pipes in your facility. And when establishing your system, there are really only two options. You can either create a custom system for your facility or you can utilize a current, industry accepted, system. If you decide to use the industry standard, which is usually recommended, you will want to check out ANSI/ASME A13.1. This is the most commonly accepted system, and is used almost universally.

The benefit of this system is that first responders will understand the color coding system without needing to reference your coding system. By using a system that is used as widely as the ANSI/ASME A13.1, most first responders will be trained on that system. Additionally, the actual pipe markings will be large enough for the first responders to see, since the system created by ANSI/ASME has very rigorous standards for the size, shape, and colors of each sign.

If you have any further questions about establishing a pipe marking system or about using ANSI/ASME A13.1, please contact us. If you have anything else to add about marking pipes, please leave a comment.