INDUSTRY INSIGHTS NEWSLETTER
Welcome to Equity's Industry Insights Newsletter
Codes and standards are the technical and legal foundation of safe process facility design and maintenance, yet gaps in knowledge, documentation, and organizational commitment continue to expose facilities to compliance risk, equipment failures, and costly reactive work. This month, Industry Insights explores codes and standards from multiple angles, with articles covering explosion venting, process design knowledge management, pressure equipment integrity standards, and a foundational introduction for early-career engineers.Â
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Featured Articles
When Pressure Builds: The Science and Engineering of Explosion Venting
Combustible dust explosions are well-documented, well-studied, and entirely preventable, and yet they continue to claim lives, as tragically demonstrated by the July 2025 explosion at a Nebraska biofuels facility. This article introduces the engineering fundamentals of explosion venting, walking through the key parameters, calculations, and judgment calls required to design a compliant and effective deflagration vent per NFPA 68.
Process Design Practices: Closing the Knowledge Gap
Fragmented in-house knowledge and overreliance on third-party expertise are quietly eroding process design capability across the industry. Equity’s Process Design Practices (PDPs) provide a structured, customizable framework for capturing and transferring process design knowledge, supporting everything from equipment sizing and fluid handling to safety systems and basic engineering reviews.
Engineering 101: Codes and Standards: A Working Introduction
Codes and standards are referenced constantly in process facilities, but early-career engineers often lack a clear framework for understanding what they are, how they relate to each other, and why they carry real legal and safety consequences. This article in our Engineering 101 series provides a practical introduction to the codes and standards landscape, covering construction codes, in-service codes, FFS standards, and RAGAGEP, with field examples and common pitfalls to help new engineers build a working foundation, whatever their role.
Attend the ASME FFSJC/PCC Code Week — June 1–5 in Houston, TX
Whether you are attending the June meeting or looking for technical guidance on fitness-for-service (FFS) assessments, bolted flange integrity, pressure equipment repair, or risk-based inspection (RBI) planning, Equity Engineering’s subject matter experts are ready to help.
Recently Published in the Industry Insights Newsletter
The TRCA and the Damage Mechanism Advantage
When a heat exchanger tube ruptures, the consequences can extend far beyond overpressure, as uncontrolled mixing of incompatible fluids can create serious safety, environmental, and operational risks that demand rigorous engineering assessment. This article examines the tube rupture credibility assessment (TRCA) and the critical role that damage mechanism review plays in determining whether a full-bore tube rupture is credible, and what that conclusion means for relief system design and inspection planning.
The CUI Program Infrastructure Problem
Corrosion under insulation is one of the most persistent sources of unplanned downtime and process leaks in operating facilities, yet most CUI programs are structurally set up to miss it. This article makes the case that CUI leaks are not a technology problem but a funding and governance problem, and explores what a properly structured CUI inspection program actually looks like.
Engineering 101: Metallurgy, How Equipment Gets DamagedÂ
Metals don’t simply wear out; rather, they fail through specific, recognizable damage mechanisms, and understanding the difference is one of the most practical foundations an early-career engineer can build. This installment of our Engineering 101 series introduces the metallurgy fundamentals every new engineer should know, from core material properties to corrosion, fatigue, creep, and embrittlement, with a real-world case study showing how damage mechanism reviews (DMRs) translate directly into safer, more reliable operations.
