I'm a licensed PE - Civil with all of my job experience being in structural design. I recently started working for a large mechanical equipment manufacturing firm. We do have some need for structural engineering services and typically hire local SE firms to provide the design and then of course the stamp and insurance. For the most part I funnel information between our mechanical design and SE firm. But, every now and again I'm asked for my structural design opinion. I'm comfortable explaining that yes we do design per ASCE 7-10, no stainless steel doesn't have the same yield limits as cold formed steel and can't be considered an equivalent, etc. - Hopefully I'm correct in that I can give this advice without needing insurance.

Here's my big question. Since I have no Engineering Design Liability Insurance and the company doesn't carry that type of insurance - although they of course do have manufacturing liability insurance - can I perform structural design work for our designs. And then, when requested, can I provide a letter with my stamp that reads something to the affect of "our current construction is sufficient for pipe loads as defined by the pipe design engineer calc package........" - you get the point?

I was told that even with a valid license you can't stamp without carrying liability insurance specific to Engineering Design work.

On one hand I think it's great that this company at least cares enough to hire a structural engineer. The past 15 years of my experience has been as SEOR and I can tell you I've seen so many attempts from manufacturers to have something designed once 20 years ago and they just keep photo copying the calcs and expect that everything is all good. On the other hand - I'm not willing to lose my license for any company.