In every process plant, refinery, or water treatment facility, there are hundreds or sometimes thousands of valves that control the flow of steam, gas, chemicals, and effluent. However, at many facilities, staff still depend on a maintenance engineer’s memory, or possibly a faded felt-tip marker on a card, to know what each valve does. When there is an emergency shutdown, this isn’t good enough – and this is exactly why facilities managers should pay much more attention to engraved valve tags and pipeline identification systems.
In the UK, BS 1710 outlines the regulations for pipeline content labels that include color coding and lettering. The standard exists because mislabeled or unlabeled pipes are a safety threat rather than a cosmetic issue. This combined with the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations and obligations of the Health and Safety at Work Act illustrate that clear and long-lasting identification of valves and pipes is not just operationally useful but also legally required. Over the life of a plant, permanently affixed engraved tags will provide operators and inspectors with more certainty, and therefore compliance with operational requirements, than printed labels or handwritten tags.
When analyzing the environment surrounding tags, it becomes clear why engraving is often favored over printing. Tags will be exposed to steam, oil, UV light, washdown chemicals, and vibration, resulting in printed labels fading, peeling, and becoming illegible. Tags made of anodized aluminum, stainless steel, or laminated Traffolyte do not have this issue because the surface of the material is engraved and will keep their markings for as long as the asset is working. It is even more important in regards to engraving tags for valves during lockout-tagout procedures where the technician is required to determine the isolation point in mere seconds.
Successful projects around tagging valves often come down to good referencing and numbering systems. A tag that is labeled “Valve 14” only has utility if an asset register or schematic exists. Ideally, it would allow technicians to access it with minimal disruption to their flow. More and more, facilities are implementing a combination of human-readable engraved references and barcodes or QR codes on the same tag which link to a digital record of the asset, maintenance history, or isolation procedures. This is a reasonable compromise as the engraved reference will remain readable whereas the code will facilitate easier record-keeping for scheduled maintenance audits.
Choice of materials should be dictated by process conditions rather than old habits. For outdoor piping, marine and wash down areas, and corrosive environments of all sorts, stainless steel is a no-brainer. Engraving laminates and Traffolyte are less expensive, lighter, and better for indoor use. Therefore, they are a good choice for control rooms, switchgear, and internal pipe runs where less mechanical wear is expected. For high temperature lines, deep engraved anodised aluminium tags, as opposed to adhesive tags, are generally better as the substrate adhesive tends to fail due to thermal expansion.
As a part of a larger asset integrity plan, the facilities manager should provide an overall strategy rather than a one-time labelling solution. Tags should always be changed to reflect modifications made to the pipework, process changes in the plant, and during periodic audits for safety. Correctly specified materials with unambiguous referencing at the beginning is very beneficial in saving time and reducing risk. A specialised engraving supplier is recommended if a company intends to purchase pipeline identification tags and engraved valve tags in bulk. This is because the engraving, references, materials, and fixings are all customised to meet the specific requirements of the site.
Of course, when defining the requirements for labelling equipment in hazardous environments, such as chemical plants, facilities that deal with oil and gas, grain storage, and paint spraying booths, regard for safety is paramount and labelling is certainly not an afterthought. In accordance with the ATEX directives and DSEAR regulations, equipment that is installed in locations where there may be explosive atmospheres must have permanent labels that detail the equipment group and category, gas and dust classifications, as well as the temperature ratings for the equipment. Equipment that is improperly labelled is easily subjected to audit failure and more critically poses an ignition source in an area that has been specifically designed to avoid ignition sources.
Much hazardous area labelling is treated no differently than any other asset tagging that is done around the facility. Once an area has been tagged out, if surface markings, stick on labels or printed tags were adequate on the day of installation, in six months they will look like a disaster. In an industrial environment that involves the presence of solvents, high humidity, UV light, cleaning, and dissolving agents, labels can be scratched off, remain unrecognizable, or not exist at all. For an ATEX-compliant environment, this presents an insurmountable challenge and since insurers and inspectors demand that the ATEX label be visible, it cannot be filed away in a folder, unless it is a site office.
This is where marking the actual surface, as opposed to printing, is advantageous. Unlike printed labels, which rely on an ink coating to show the graphics, engraved and laser marked name plates have the graphics cut into or fused with the surface of the nameplate. Therefore, there is nothing to wear off, fade, or chip. For work in hazardous areas, we usually suggest using anodised aluminium or stainless steel, both of which resist solvents, oils, and cleaning cycles, without the classification marks deteriorating. In facilities that are highly corrosive like offshore platforms or wastewater treatment, the extra cost for marine-grade stainless steel is justified because changing a plate on live equipment is hardly a quick job.
There is a notable point related to procurement that is frequently overlooked. ATEX marking consists of more than just the Ex symbol and a category code. Depending on what kind of equipment it is, a compliant plate has to contain the manufacturer’s name, model and serial number, year of manufacture, IP rating, and special use conditions (along with the other criteria for compliance). The text must be a size that is legible from an arm’s length distance. If the goal is to avoid an unreadable block of text, placing all of this information on a small plate requires thoughtful design. Ask your engraving supplier to review the layout against the relevant standard before a complete batch is produced. If the temperature class was in six-point type that’s not discernible on site, a reprint run will be an avoidable cost.
While each facility manager might have their own preferences for the style of name plate or site label used at their location, standardising site labels and name plates across multiple locations can save on maintenance and regulatory compliance time. This means uniformity in materials, engraving depth, and layout, which is beneficial for maintenance and inspections across sites. This is particularly important when time spent on site is limited, such as during HSE site inspections or operational shutdowns.
If your business installs, maintains or audits equipment within classified hazardous areas, it is advisable to be proactive in updating your nameplates rather than waiting for your next inspection to highlight any issues with a faded label. This can be as simple as an engraving supplier who deals with ATEX signage in order to identify deficiencies in your marking that may create problems during audits. This is preferable to a generic sign printer.