WPHY Fitting Documentation Search

[Brownout]

Hello all. I'm new here, so please forgive me if I break any rules.

My question is regarding ASTM 860, MSS SP-75, and WPHYxx fittings.

When I search for a WPHY56 fitting on the interwebs, why is it that EVERY SINGLE website shows that these are manufactured in India and EVERY SINGLE website has the same horrible layout? I mean, is there no USA based supplier that has a reasonable catalog/part numbering system for these fittings? Other types of pipe fittings will be offered by suppliers with some sensible part numbering system much like hydraulic fittings. I just don't understand why these are treated so differently.

Any insight is appreciated so that I can get back to worrying about things that actually matter.

Thank you.

 

[1503-44]

Part numbers are a convention of their many different caracteristics, type, dimensions, material, strength, etc, etc, hence you would a very, very large number of part numbers to uniquely spec every possible permutation. And their part numbers, if anyone had them, wouldnt fit in my data entry box, nor mine in yours, because I would need around 1000 columns just for the part number and the location code and everything else would make the item run into the next page, unstead of a simple description that everyone understands without having to have a massive lookup data base to see what the heck you're talking about, then write the number down wrongly and get the wrong part delivered to the job site. Of course you would have to have as many uniquely numbered bins to store all those uniquely numbered parts. Nobody has space enough for that. Frankly , I have enough problems just with sorting them by diameter, never mind part number. How many materials will we allow. ASTM has lots to choose from. What could be more important than part numbers? BTW Did you use to work for Boeing?

Don't ask those kind of questions late on Friday afternoon. We're already on our fifth round here.

 

[Brownout]

Thank you for the response, ax1e. To answer your question, no I never worked for Boeing directly. I did, however, work on Apache helicopters which are now a Boeing aircraft. Odd that you would guess that.

I must say that I disagree with you on the vast number of permutations making a part numbering system impracticable. Have you been on Grainger's website? All their parts have a 5-6 digit alphanumeric ordering code. The have 1,231,564,891,325,149,689,132 different SKU's last I counted.

My curiosity was more concerned with the fact that every single search result is an India-based supplier. It's as if all WPHY fittings are produced there and my brain can't fathom that such a monopoly exists on something as widely used as high pressure steel pipe.

Thanks for the spirited discussion, nonetheless.

Edit: 1,231,564,891,325,149,689,133. They just added one.

 

[1503-44]

Tube Turns Inc, Lewisville, KY, was the pre-eminent supplier of high strength fittings in the US, until they closed the tube products division in 1988, basically forced out of business by low price foreign competition from Brazil, Taiwan, Japan, etc. dumping into the US market.The base steel plate fabricators supplying the rolled pipe and fitting makers have been in pretty much the same state since that time too. There are not even a handfull of all of them left in the US. Back in the early 80's the only way I could justify buying US pipe was by requiring fast delivery. Japan and Germany need more time for shipping and the lost sales from the higher oil price while waiting for delivery would shift the project economics to US fabricators. The low oil prices of the later 80s shifted the economics back to the foriegn shops, because waiting for delivery again became more affordable.

Lawyers, holding companies, Google, Facebook and 99.9% of all dot-coms make little of anything, except for a few, and they seem to make only money. There are one or two pipe mills still left in Canada. No, Keystone pipe was not made in America. Good thing the US has increased oil and gas production, as little of anything else is produced here these days. Just in time for low prices too. We can now dump the stuff on Europe, unless they manage to finish Nord Stream II. Then we'll have to try to undercut the Russians. But all of that will dry up when EU goes renewable.

I will secretely confess that at one time I thought about tagging all pipeline components with RFID stickers. According to my boss at the time, Its time had not come. Since then I have also come around to hate lookup data bases with a passion. When the tablet runs out of juice, or when the sun is too bright in the field to see the lookup table, you would never be sure about what you are looking at.

Not really so strange that I guessed a connection to the aviation industry. Who is more obsessed with part numbers.