The components path
Valves, Fittings, Flanges and Specialty Items
Pick a valve for its duty rather than for the drawing, understand why most flange leaks are assembly rather than hardware, and know what a fail position decision is actually deciding.
Who this path is for
- Engineers and designers specifying or reviewing piping components
- Maintenance and reliability staff dealing with recurring leaks
- Operations staff who want to understand what they are operating
- Inspectors checking components against a specification
Module 1
Pipe Fittings and Branch Connections
Elbows, tees, reducers and caps, why fitting geometry is fixed regardless of schedule, and why cutting a branch removes metal that was carrying load.
Read
Then practise
Decide a branch connection from a branch table, and explain why a reinforcing pad has a tell-tale hole.
Module 2
Flanges, Gaskets and Bolting
Why Class 150 is not 150 psi, how rating falls with temperature, and why a bolted joint is a spring rather than a clamp.
Read
- Flanges and pressure classes — why Class 150 is not 150 psiMechanical
- Gaskets and bolting — why most flange leaks are assembly, not hardwareMechanical
Then practise
Diagnose a joint that passed its hydrotest and began weeping four months later.
Module 3
Valve Fundamentals
The four duties a valve is ever asked to perform, why throttling with a gate valve destroys it, and why a closed valve is not an isolation.
Read
Then practise
Select valves for three duties, then prove an isolation rather than assuming one.
Module 4
Actuation and Fail Position
Why only stored energy can act after a failure, how fail open and fail closed are chosen service by service, and what a positioner actually does.
Read
Then practise
Decide fail positions for a fired heater fuel line and a reactor cooling line, and explain why they are opposite.
Module 5
Inspection and Testing Readiness
What a weld procedure asserts, why the root pass matters most, how examination coverage is set, and why positive material identification exists.
Read
- Welding processes, WPS and NDT — what happens before an arc is struckMechanical
- From isometric to installed line — fabrication, erection and testingMechanical
Then practise
Choose an NDT method for a specific credible defect, and say why the obvious choice would miss it.
Working through this on your own
Read each module's topics in the order listed, then do the practice before moving on. The practice is the part that matters — reading a topic tells you something, applying it to a document in front of you is what makes it stick.
Every topic ends with ten questions. Treat eight out of ten as the bar for moving to the next module.