Oil & Gas: a brief guide on industrial marking

Industrial marking is a fundamental process for the Oil & Gas industry, a segment in which different tools and materials are used, all of which must be marked for different reasons. In its 80 years of experience in the field of industrial marking, Automator has realized the importance of providing high-quality systems for marking, coding and reading various components such as pipes, valves, flanges, measuring instruments, pressure vessels, compressors and test instrumentation.

All equipment manufacturers must mark their products and components for various reasons:

• To follow international and/or local regulations
• To be able to ensure quality, safety and traceability of each component, including within the production cycle (Industry 4.0) with QR codes, Datamatrix and other 2D codes,
• To provide detailed information on the entire lifecycle of the component in order to create statistics on failures, losses, or other useful indicators (SIL, PFD, MTBF)
• To provide detailed technical information about the product
• For marketing purposes such as corporate branding (e.g., logo, company name, etc.)
• To provide a clear warranty by marking a manufacturing date on the product
• To protect the component from counterfeiting and possible fraudulent uses
• To safeguard the manufacturer's own civil and criminal liability

Compliance with API and MSS standards

All oil & gas components must be marked in accordance with standards and requirements issued by the American Petroleum Institute (hereafter, "API"). For example, pipe and valve marking must comply with API 6D standards, while pipeline marking must follow API 5L standard.

In addition, the Manufacturing Standardization Society of the Valve and Fittings Industry (hereafter, "MSS") requires standardized marking for all their standards. For example, in practical terms, MSS-SP-25 is the standard marking system for valves, fittings and flanges.

Other international and regional standards

All components used by the Oil & Gas industry must comply with other standards such as those imposed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and Deutsches Institut für Normung ( DIN) in addition to OHSAS 18001, API6D, API6A, API 6DSS, PED 2014/68/EU, API 6FA/API 607/ISO10497, ATEX 2014/34/EU -TUV.