PE licencse expiration date - required?

[sbw]

We periodically provide manufacturers of shoring equipment with stamped and signed tabulated data sheets. It's our understanding that anything you stamp and sign has to have the expiration, which means the manufacturers have to come back to us for re-certification every couple years (a headache for us and them). We've been noticing more and more tab data with PE stamps without the expiration date. Is there an exception for tab data that makes it legal?

This is a general question for all states, but if have information specific to a particular state that's also helpful.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JStephen]

The requirements for what is to be on a PE seal vary from state to state. Some states require the expiration date, most require the current date. Read the state regulations (usually available online) to find out.

Data generated by and signed and stamped by a PE doesn't necessarily have an expiration. If the information it is based on becomes outdated (ie, either the product is changed or there is some change in OSHA regs or whatever), then it needs to be reevaluated. Otherwise, it should be good indefinitely.

Something stamped and sealed by a PE doesn't automatically become void if the PE lets a license lapse. Putting the expiration date of PE registration on a document doesn't mean the document becomes void after that date.

 

[HgTX]

What exactly is the expiration date on a PE license? There's an annual renewal date, but in most cases it'll be renewed every year, so for most of the "expiration dates" you'd be looking at, there wouldn't have been an expiration. It would mean nothing.

I have a little card in my desk drawer that says I'm entitled to practice engineering for the period fo 3/16/2004 - 3/31/2005. Does that make 3/31/2005 my expiration date? I plan to be still licensed on 4/01/2005, because I'll send the licensing board a check sometime in January or Feburary.

Or am I missing something?

Hg

 

[JStephen]

Oregon PE seals actually have a blank where the expiration date has to be written in when the seal is applied. Some other states may do that, I'm not familiar with all of them.

The point of the PE seal is that it shows that the work was done by a PE, met customary standards, etc. The key is that it WAS DONE. It doesn't represent some warranty that the work is valid until the expiration date, then invalid afterward. It doesn't guarantee that the stamped document is maintained up-to-date through that the expiration date.

For example, you generate a table showing allowable loads on shoring equipment. If for some reason, that shoring equipment is revised in a significant way, then the tabulated data is no longer valid, even if it was sealed yesterday. If the equipment does not change in any way, there are no significant changes in OSHA rules or methods of analysis customarily used, etc., then a tabulation of loads done ten years ago is still valid.

 

[Maury]

In Illinois, we're requred to add the expiration date any time we sign and seal anything. I've been told this is to provide assurance that the engineer has a valid license and as a reminder to keep the license current.

I don't understand why sbw's clients would have to come back for recertification. Expiration of a license shouldn't affect completed projects that were legaly signed.