Standards for engineers are established and enforced in the United States to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the public. The regulations require that certain engineering documents must be reviewed by a licensed Professional Engineer (PE). Once it is established that the engineering work represented in the documents satisfies the requirements of codes, standards and best practices, the documents need to be stamped by the PE. The regulations from various federal, state and local authorities mandate that engineering calculations, drawings, reports etc. related to certain public infrastructure, buildings and safety systems must be reviewed and stamped by a PE. The PE is required to check that the engineering work complies with the applicable laws, building codes, environmental regulations and safety standards.

The PE stamp on the documents establishes that the licensed professional has reviewed the documents and taken responsibility for the accuracy and quality of the documents. Accountability by a licensed professional help to maintain public trust in engineering work. Licensing boards can take disciplinary action if engineers work is found to be negligent or non-compliant with professional standards. The review and stamping process serves as a quality control measure, ensuring that engineering documents have been thoroughly checked for accuracy, completeness, and compliance with relevant standards. PEs must follow the code of ethics that prioritizes public welfare and safety. Ethical obligation ensures the highest level of honesty, impartiality, integrity and professionalism in the review and stamping process.

The licensed professional is held to high ethical and technical standards as the licensure procedure requires rigorous education, examination, and practical experience working under the supervision of another licensed professional engineer. PEs are also required to maintain ongoing professional development, ensuring that engineers stay current with evolving technologies, standards, and practices. Licensed engineers have the requisite knowledge and experience to foresee and address potential issues that could compromise safety.

Benefits of PE stamp include trustworthiness, cost involved in the project. The documents are PE stamped after an independent review by a licensed professional. Thus, it provides assurance to clients, government agencies, and the public. The insurance premiums and, consequently, project cost may be reduced as the insurers favor an engineering project with documents stamped by a PE as they reflect a higher standard of care and due diligence.

Keywords: Licensed Professional Engineer, PE Stamping, Documents review, Requirement by Government, Public safety

References:

1) National Society of Professional Engineers, www.nspe.org

2) Texas Board of Professional Engineers. www.pets.texas.gov

About VIAS3D:

Vias3D delivers integrated engineering solutions using simulation-based design and analysis, data analytics, and material testing for a variety of industries including High-tech, Energy, Life sciences, Utilities, Transportation, and Oil C gas. We bring to our clients dedicated, cost-effective, quick, and safer solutions with an experienced team of simulation experts and industry professionals. Vias3D also provides engineering design, root cause analysis, optimization, project management, operations support, and operations integrity assessment with a combined personnel experience of more than 100 years. Vias3D has relevant experience in thermo-mechanical analysis, finite element analysis (FEA) involving large material deformation and non-linearity (geometry, contact, plasticity). Vias3D is actively involved in various codes and standards, ASME (Section II, VII, III, XI), API, and others. Vias3D has workflow automation and GUI customization capabilities. It also provides knowledge transfer through customized training. VIAS3D provides support for evaluating drawings, calculation reports and FEA reports to fulfill client’s needs for PE stamp.

If you would like to review your engineering work by an independent licensed professional engineer (PE), please contact Arindam Chakraborty, PhD, PE Email:[email protected], LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/techarindam/)

Contributors:

Vias3D Engineering Services Team

Akshay Dandekar, PhD, PE, Senior Engineer at VIAS3D

Dr. Dandekar is a mechanical engineer with more than 5 years of academic and consulting experience in solid mechanics, fracture mechanics, material characterization and finite element analysis. He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and master’s in aerospace engineering from University of Illinois. He is a registered professional engineer in Ohio.

Murthy Lakshmiraju, PhD, Director of Engineering Consulting at VIAS3D

Murthy Lakshmiraju, Ph.D. has over 15 years of advanced use and experience in CFD to solve real life engineering problems for numerous industries, including appliances, energy, oil and gas, marine and chemical processing. He graduated with a Masters and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee Tech, USA. He has experience in different flow physics, including advanced turbulence modeling, multiphase flow, heat transfer, Dynamic Fluid Body Interaction (DFBI), Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI), Chimera mesh, Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) and reacting flows with combustion and emission modeling.

Arindam Chakraborty, PhD, PE, CTO Engineering Consulting at VIAS3D

He is a mechanical engineer with more than 12 years of strong academic and consulting experience in solid mechanics and design, non-linear FEA, fatigue and fracture mechanics, reliability analysis, composite structures in Oil C Gas, Nuclear, and Structural Design. He holds degrees in Civil (E), Aerospace (MTech), and Mechanical (PhD). He has a strong background in project management, business development, strategy development, and technology development, with a strong focus on public safety regulations (BSEE, NRC). Dr. Chakraborty has strong technical knowledge and working skills in CAE techniques and widely known solutions like Abaqus. He has experience in automating complex engineering problems using codes in FORTRAN/C/C#/VBA/Java/Python GUI scripts. Dr. Chakraborty has more than 25 conference and journal publications, including invited talks at industry conferences and academia. He is closely involved with ASME and API Codes C Standards committees and task groups.