Resources and Standards

Pump engineering is one of the best-documented disciplines in industry — if you know where the documents live. This page collects the institutions whose standards, codes, and research underpin everything else on this site. When a question matters enough to affect a design, a purchase, or a safety case, these are the sources that settle it.

Core Standards Bodies

Hydraulic Institute (HI) — The North American trade and standards association for pump manufacturers and users. HI standards define pump terminology, test procedures and tolerances, allowable operating regions, NPSH margin guidance, and piping practice. Their ANSI/HI standard series is the reference of first resort for rotodynamic and positive displacement pumps alike, and their energy-rating program underlies modern pump efficiency regulation.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) — Publisher of the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code and the B31 piping codes that govern the systems pumps live in. ASME also publishes performance test codes, including PTC 8.2 for centrifugal pumps, used when contractual performance must be proven.

American Petroleum Institute (API) — Steward of the refinery and petrochemical pump standards, most famously API 610 for centrifugal pumps and API 675 for controlled-volume metering pumps. Even outside oil and gas, "API style" is shorthand for heavy-duty engineering: robust casings, generous margins, and tightly specified seals per API 682.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI) — The accreditation umbrella under which HI and others publish. In pump conversation, "ANSI pump" specifically means the ASME B73.1 chemical process pump — the dimensionally interchangeable workhorse of the chemical industry.

Government and Research Resources

U.S. Department of Energy — DOE's industrial efficiency programs publish free, vendor-neutral sourcebooks and software tools for pumping-system assessment. Their long-running work on motor and pump system optimization is the best free education available on the energy side of fluid handling.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) — The metrology backbone. NIST fluid property data (notably the REFPROP database) is the standard source for the densities, vapor pressures, and viscosities that every serious hydraulic calculation depends on; their cryogenic fluid data is indispensable for low-temperature pumping work.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) — Process safety management requirements (29 CFR 1910.119) shape how pumps handling highly hazardous chemicals are specified, sealed, and maintained.

International Bodies

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) — ISO 5199 and ISO 2858 define international chemical pump requirements and dimensions, roughly paralleling the ANSI B73 world; ISO 13709 is the international adoption of API 610. Global projects frequently specify ISO and API documents side by side.

Europump — The European association of pump manufacturers, co-publisher with HI of widely used guides on variable speed pumping, life-cycle cost analysis, and system optimization.

How to Read Standards Without Drowning

A practical tip for newcomers: standards are reference works, not textbooks. Start with the terminology and test-tolerance sections — they teach you the vocabulary that makes everything else legible. Then read the data-sheet appendices, which are essentially structured checklists of every decision a pump specification requires. Our own selection guide and glossary are designed as on-ramps to exactly these documents.