Kolmetz Handbook of Process Equipment Design

Since 2007 we have been developing Engineering Design Guidelines to assist design engineers, operations and maintenance personnel in designing many of the equipment types in refining, off shore production and chemical plant unit operations.  In 2014 we renamed the Engineering Design Guidelines to the Kolmetz Handbook of Process Equipment Design. 

Engineering Design Guidelines are typically a collection of multiple industry references which need to be reviewed by an operations personnel or design engineer when designing or specifying a piece of equipment such as a control valve, relief valve or heat exchanger.

The references at times can almost seem to contradicted each other. There is a vast amount of engineering hours spent each year in reviewing these industry references and very often no good recommendation is developed from the reference review.

To help simplify this process, we have reviewed the industry references and have developed guidelines for engineers to do Preliminary Designs and Process Specification Sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers and a resource for engineers with experience.

There are some very low cost guidelines and programs, sometimes even free, provided by the equipment vendors. Let the buyer beware, many times these guidelines and programs tend to pick their brand as the best choice - good for the vendor, maybe not so good for the buyer.


Chapter Contents

  1. Introduction - An introduction which has an overview of each application - 3 to 10 pages.

  2. Definitions - A list of definitions used in the industry and these guidelines - 1 to 3 pages.

  3. Theory - The engineering fundamentals and principals that are used to design the particular piece of equipment - 10 to 50 pages.

  4. Application - How the engineering fundamentals and principals are applied in the field, with an example of the design of the equipment - 10 to 50 pages.

  5. Process Specification Sheet - For the designed equipment example a typical process data sheet is derived - 1 to 2 pages.

  6. Excel Based Spreadsheet based on Written Guideline Content - The Excel Spread Sheets are based on the written guideline contents. They also include the designed equipment examples in the written content. There is one spread sheet with multiple work sheets tabs for the examples.

The introduction to each Engineering Design Guideline can be reviewed on the link below. Please contact us for ordering information and availability.


Current Sections (Currently 100+ Chapters and we are adding monthly)

For Complete list go to Our Engineeing Design Guidelines Page