P&ID Symbology
P&ID Symbology
(OP)
**I apologize upfront as this is a cross post. I placed it ISA Controls forum but have not seen many responses. ***
I have been in the equipment industry (compressors mainly) for the past 11 years. I have seen more combinations of symbols used on P&ID that I really care to. However, I have been asked to write a company standard. I sort of thought that ISA-5 would contain everything that I needed to know. For instruments, this is the case. However, for Valves, process lines, hoses & such, ISA leaves this stuff out or only addresses a few types. Does anyone know of another ISA standard for these? Any other standard such as API, ASME, ANSI, etc would also work. Our customer based is in the oil patch. ANY comments will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris Foley
Midland, TX
I have been in the equipment industry (compressors mainly) for the past 11 years. I have seen more combinations of symbols used on P&ID that I really care to. However, I have been asked to write a company standard. I sort of thought that ISA-5 would contain everything that I needed to know. For instruments, this is the case. However, for Valves, process lines, hoses & such, ISA leaves this stuff out or only addresses a few types. Does anyone know of another ISA standard for these? Any other standard such as API, ASME, ANSI, etc would also work. Our customer based is in the oil patch. ANY comments will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris Foley
Midland, TX





RE: P&ID Symbology
We disagreed on basic stuff like ball valves.
The upshot is that there isn't an industry standard that I know of (power industry - maybe petroleum is more organized) All the big players use their standard symbols, which don't agree with each other entirely.
Best you can do, I think, is get a standard sheet from a few projects and pick what you need from them.
Good luck
Greg
RE: P&ID Symbology
Thanks,
Chris
RE: P&ID Symbology
Follow the advice of gmorin
"Best you can do, I think, is get a standard sheet from a few projects and pick what you need from them."
pipingdesigner
www.pipingdesigners.com
RE: P&ID Symbology
You are all on the right track. But gmorin, unfortunately, is absolutely correct in practicality and common sense. I've been doing compressor applications - which involve generation, modification, revision, & interpretation of P&IDs during the greater part of my 45 years in the business. I've done this on both sides of the Atlantic and I can vouch for the fact that there have been no real, thorough, & comprehensive standards on P&ID symbology - either from the ISA, DIN, the Europeans, or anyone else. And I've never had occasion to raise my hopes that there ever will be one. There are far too many obstacles and personal/professional/nationalistic interests (or lack of interest) involved.
The best path to follow is gmorin's suggestion. I never give up; and neither will I, in this case. But one has to confront an engineering reality and get practical in order to resolve an immediate problem. That doesn't mean we stop praying - but I'm willing to bet the expected resultant "standards" won't materialize in my lifetime. Sorry Chris. Keep fighting, though; maybe your generation will be the difference.
RE: P&ID Symbology
Mark Hutton
hutton4eng@picknowl.com.au
RE: P&ID Symbology
Also - whats needed at one plant/facility might not be enough at the next (and vice versa).
We just have to live with this
Best regards
Morten
RE: P&ID Symbology
The problem is that too many companies, in too many industries have been doing P&ID's for too long. My (100 yr old) company is part of the problem - we have some weird symbols in our standards that I haven't seen elsewhere in the power industry.
RE: P&ID Symbology
At this point, I am going to modify our current symbol sheet to ISA-5 for everything that this code addresses. For anything not addressed, I will have to use what we see most often in the industry.
Thanks to everybody for their input. To be honest, when I started this little project, I did not expect it to be this complex. So my few hours is going to quickly turn into a few days! Well, that's engineering for you.....
Chris
RE: P&ID Symbology
John
RE: P&ID Symbology
RE: P&ID Symbology
Thanks for the above link. The sample coincides with CADWork P&ID. This gives me a bit of leverage with some of our customers.
Chris
RE: P&ID Symbology
"Hello Everybody,
I would like to have help with suggestions on books or similar about how to make good PFD and P&I drawings, we already have the ISA 5.1 standard, but we would like to have additional information like books with several examples for the different kind of situations that you may find in a process plant.
I work for an engineering company and we have experience in chemical plants design but would like to have more information on the matter since now we are working on different processes than our traditional line of work.
Thank you for any recommendations and ideas."
Besides the PIP practice, I would like to know if there is a good book on this matter.
Thank you