OSHA-required industrial pipe color-coding services.
Color-identification coatings for OSHA compliance, safety and efficiency
As a commercial and industrial painting contractor, Painters USA often works with a limited palette over very large surface areas, like warehouse walls and ceilings. But now and then, we dabble in color, stencils, and other special painting effects, like color coding for OSHA requirements and other purposes.
Painting and coatings for industrial piping systems
Industrial piping systems not only look like veins and arteries; they are a circulatory system and essential lifeline in many industrial processes, transporting liquids, gases and other materials from one place to another.
The use of color-coding helps plant personnel make sense of the network by enabling them to identify a pipe’s contents and purpose at a glance. And special coatings can help maintain and protect the integrity of these systems.
Painters USA will help you make sense of color options, as OSHA has assigned standard colors for specific materials and safety hazards. Piping and piping components like racking, valves, joints, and pumps can be made from a variety of materials—aluminum, steel alloys, titanium, plastic. Since each of these materials has unique characteristics, we team up with our industrial coating suppliers to recommend optimal coating solutions.
Benefits of protective coating barriers
- Thermal insulative: Keeps the required temperature, hot or cold, inside the pipe to save energy and reduce energy costs.
- Heat reflective: Keeps the contents of your piping cool by keeping the heat out.
- Corrosion and rust control: Protects exterior piping from rust and corrosion caused by moisture and exposure to the elements.
Yellow
Flammable fluids and gases
Red
Fire-quenching fluids (sprinkler lines)
Orange
Toxic or corrosive fluids and gases
Brown
Combustible fluids and gases
OSHA has specified other colors that can be uniquely defined based on your needs and the materials used in your plants and processes. In addition, OSHA provides color-on-color standards for adding text and other symbols, in order to achieve high contrast for greater visibility. For example, yellow and orange require black text and symbols, while green and blue require white.
Regarding yellow for flammable and brown for combustible, OSHA distinguishes flammable liquids from combustible liquids based on their flash point, which is the lowest temperature at which a hazardous material will generate vapors and ignite if exposed to a source of ignition.
Other elements of effective pipe marking
Along with piping color, we recommend and incorporate other elements to mark pipes for safety and efficiency. Those elements include:
- Directional arrows: We can stencil these on to indicate the direction that materials are flowing in a given pipe. This is extremely useful when pipes are leading to and from tank farms, and keeps your employees safer by identifying where they should be hooking up.
- Text: Text can be added for further labeling or to indicate traits like temperature or pressure.
- Label and text size and placement: We’ll ensure that workers can easily see and understand the labels and markings from a reasonable distance.
Remember Painters USA for industrial pipe marking and coating
We’ve had the pleasure and honor of working with many different types of businesses, small to large, including national accounts. And as a certified woman-owned business (WBENC), we help our clients meet their supplier goals.
With over 40 years of experience and four office locations in the central United States, Painters USA is a painting contractor to add to your short list for industrial pipe marking and coatings. Our familiarity with OSHA and other standards and our relationship with coating manufacturers will ensure we steer you in the right direction for all your piping identification and maintenance needs.
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