DEP INFORMATIVE

HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING – LABELLING OF

FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT AND PIPING
Copyright Shell Group of Companies. No reproduction or networking permitted without license from Shell. Not for resale

DEP 30.00.60.21-Gen.

February 2012
ECCN EAR99

DESIGN AND ENGINEERING PRACTICE

© 2012 Shell Group of companies

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, published or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior
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PREFACE

DEP (Design and Engineering Practice) publications reflect the views, at the time of publication, of Shell Global Solutions
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATIVE .............................................................................................. 4
INFORMATION PERTAINING TO COMPANION DEP 30.00.60.21-Gen. ..................................... 5
1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 5
1.1 SCOPE........................................................................................................................ 5
1.6 DUAL UNITS ............................................................................................................... 5
2. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS .................................................................................... 5
2.2 CONTENT AND DESIGN ........................................................................................... 5
2.3 MATERIALS AND LOCATION.................................................................................... 6
3. EQUIPMENT AND COMPONENT IDENTIFICATION LABELS ................................ 7
6. PIPE MARKERS ......................................................................................................... 8
6.1 GENERAL COLOUR-CODING REQUIREMENTS..................................................... 8
6.2 METHOD OF IDENTIFICATION ................................................................................. 8
7. HAZARD IDENTIFICATION SIGNS ........................................................................... 9
7.1 HAZARD LEVEL SELECTION CRITERIA .................................................................. 9
7.2 FORMAT ................................................................................................................... 10
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 11

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INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATIVE
This new DEP Informative is the companion to DEP 30.00.60.21-Gen., and provides the
rationale for certain requirements and recommendations in that document.
For clarity, the section and paragraph numbering of DEP 30.00.60.21-Gen. is used in this
document. Where there are no comments regarding a particular paragraph or section,
these have been omitted.
The information in this document is maintained by the custodian responsible for the DEP,
primarily for the following purposes:
• Documentation of the reason or background for certain requirements, particularly
where those requirements have raised questions in the past;
• Inclusion of a PS Table, if applicable, to explain the reasons and give the risk
ratings for requirements if they have been designated as process safety related.
This information can be used as guidance when considering deviation requests.

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INFORMATION PERTAINING TO COMPANION DEP 30.00.60.21-Gen.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 SCOPE
Plant or facility labelling installed properly is intended to support facility operation by
providing critical information to plant personnel in a standardized and consistent manner.
The benefits accruing from proper labelling are as follows:
• Hazard reduction and prevention of human errors: A comprehensive and
effective labelling program contributes to the effective functioning of process
operations, and reduces the potential for downtime or injuries due to operations
and maintenance errors.
• Enhanced training of plant personnel: A comprehensive and effective labelling
program facilitates the training of new plant personnel.
• Enhance effectiveness and creation of in-plant procedures: Creation of new
safety, operational and asset management procedures are enhanced because the
assets are identified and their location within the plant is verified through accurate
drawings and physical identification. Accurate and thorough labelling of critical
plant components helps ensure that plant personnel properly execute standard
operating and safety procedures by visual confirmation.
• Uniformity of labelling nomenclature: A standardized labelling program
contributes to the flow of information and feedback among all affected departments
including operations, maintenance, HSSE, administration, purchasing and
management.
There is a distinct advantage when the labelling Contractor performing the asset verification
and tag installation is also the tag Manufacturer. All identification materials should be
installed by the Manufacturer.
DEP 31.10.03.10-Gen., DEP 32.10.03.10-Gen. and industry standards such as
API RP 14C and ISO 10418 provide detailed methods for deriving the equipment Tag
Numbers as appropriate.

1.6 DUAL UNITS

The conversion of values from the SI system to the corresponding USC values has been
made using an adaptive process (i.e., not an exact mathematical conversion). In some
cases, size substitutions have been made in order to align with available products or
methods customarily used in the US.

2. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

2.2 CONTENT AND DESIGN

2.2.10 Justification/alignment
Left alignment aids readability (compared with centred text) by creating a vertical line that
the eye naturally locates when searching for the next line of text. Justified text should be
avoided because the added space between words makes it more difficult to read. See
figure below.

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Left-aligned text (left) is preferable to centred or justified (middle and right)

for functional descriptions
2.2.12 Line spacing, word and line separation
The correct spacing between letters, between words and between lines of text (‘leading’)
helps to make a word message easier to read. See figure below.

Examples of correct and incorrect type spacing

2.3 MATERIALS AND LOCATION

2.3.4 Locating labels – Height range
The regionalised data for Northern Europe, North America and Southeast Asia that was
used for developing Table 2 (Maximum, minimum and preferred heights) in the companion
DEP are provided in Table 2 below. This information can be used as guidance when
considering deviation requests for projects with a specific regional content. Other regions
should seek the assistance of the regional HFE TA for support to establish region specific
dimensional requirements.

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Table 2 Maximum, minimum and preferred heights

Sample Dimensions
Parameter – to be determined for project:
Northern Europe Southeast Asian
North America2
(UK1) (Singapore3)

Maximum height
(Standing eye height of 5th percentile 1780 mm 1795 mm 1730 mm
A female wearing shoes, upward viewing (70.1 in) (70.7 in) (68 in)
angle of 25° above horizontal and
830 mm (33 in) viewing distance)
Preferred maximum height *
(Standing eye height of 5th percentile 1640 mm 1660 mm 1590 mm
B* female wearing shoes, upward viewing (65 in) (65 in) (63 in)
angle of 25° above horizontal and
500 mm (20 in) viewing distance)
Preferred minimum height *
(Standing eye height of 95th percentile 1360 mm 1390 mm 1290 mm
C* male wearing shoes, downward (54 in) (55 in) (51 in)
viewing angle of 55° below horizontal
and 500 mm (20 in) viewing distance)
Minimum height
(Standing eye height of 95th percentile 1090 mm 1120 mm 1020 mm
D male wearing shoes, downward (43 in) (44 in) (40 in)
viewing angle of 55° below horizontal
and 830 mm (33 in) viewing distance)
* Preferred dimensions are for those displays that require precise, frequent or emergency reading.
[All standing dimensions to include 25 mm allowance for footwear.]
Sample dimension sources:
1. HSE/Pheasant, S.: UK
2. ANSI/HFES 100-2007 and PeopleSize 2008
3. Chuan, T. K., et al., Anthropometry of the Singaporean and Indonesian populations, International
Journal of Industrial Ergonomics (2010), doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2010.05.001

3. EQUIPMENT AND COMPONENT IDENTIFICATION LABELS

Equipment Label Sizes
Dimensions for equipment labels should be based on the space available and the relative
size of the equipment being identified. Standard label dimensions are included below:
Small Equipment 100 mm x 200 mm (4 in x 8 in) e.g., pumps, filters and motors
Medium Equipment 300 mm x 300 mm (12 in x 12 in) e.g., coolers, exchangers
Large Equipment 300 mm x 500 mm (12 in x 20 in) e.g., vessels, tanks, separators
All signs sizes should be based on best fit and available space. Actual sign sizes for each
piece of equipment may vary based on application.

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6. PIPE MARKERS

6.1 GENERAL COLOUR-CODING REQUIREMENTS

In the absence of any local national or regulatory standards, colour-coding should follow the
ASME A13.1 (1996) standard. A more recent edition (2007) of this standard is available but
it uses 10 background colours as opposed to the 4 provided in the 1996 edition. From a
human factors perspective, it is better to limit the number of colours and thus the
recommendation is to follow the 1996 edition where applicable.

6.2 METHOD OF IDENTIFICATION

Specific size recommendations are provided in the table below.
Pipe marker design requirements by pipe diameter

Nominal Pipe Size or

Length of Colour Field Size of Letters
Covering Diameter
inch mm inch mm inch mm
<¾ < 19 Use permanently legible tags.
¾ to 1¼ 19 to 32 8 200 ½ 13
1½ to 2 38 to 51 8 200 ¾ 19
2½ to 6 64 to 150 12 300 1¼ 32
8 to 10 200 to 250 24 (*) 600 2½ (*) 64
over 10 over 250 32 (*) 800 3½ (*) 89
(*) NOTE: For offshore applications, it is preferable to use wrap-around markers or strap-on type on piping
systems depending on diameter. Deviation from ASME A13.1 specified 24 in. and 32 in. colour field
length to 12 in. and deviation from 2½ in. and 3½ in. text size to 1¼ in. requirements is acceptable for
piping 8 in. O.D. and larger.

Illustrated below are examples of wrap-around pipe markers from an offshore facility that
also incorporate Flow Arrows and To/From label information.

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Illustrated below are examples of strap-on type pipe markers that incorporate Flow Arrows,
Line Number and From/To information.

7. HAZARD IDENTIFICATION SIGNS

7.1 HAZARD LEVEL SELECTION CRITERIA

It was purposefully decided to follow ASTM F1166 and use only two levels of hazard labels
(i.e., DANGER and CAUTION in the specification). Research has indicated that people in
general have difficulty discerning the difference in hazard level when presented with
DANGER, WARNING and CAUTION. Using just two levels, simplifies categorising potential
hazards to people, equipment and the environment to major (DANGER) and minor
(CAUTION), and avoids the confusion created when also introducing WARNING as an
additional or third level.

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7.2 FORMAT
Research has indicated that for hazard identification signs to be most effective they have to
include as a minimum the following:
• What is the hazard,
• What do you want people to do to avoid the hazard,
• What will happen if they do not as told to avoid the hazard i.e., the consequence.
Since ANSI Z535.2 is in line with the research findings, it is included as the requirement but
can be substituted with similar local national or regulatory standards if they exist.
For dual language labels, the signal word and message of the translation (secondary
language) is best presented below the primary label as depicted in the example provided
below.

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REFERENCES
In this DEP Informative, reference is made to the following publications:
NOTES: 1. Unless specifically designated by date, the latest edition of each publication shall be used,
together with any amendments/supplements/revisions thereto.
2. The DEPs and most referenced external standards are available to Shell staff on the SWW (Shell
Wide Web) at http://sww.shell.com/standards/.

SHELL STANDARDS
Symbols and identification systems - Mechanical DEP 31.10.03.10-Gen.
Instrumentation symbols and identification on process engineering DEP 32.10.03.10-Gen.
flow schemes

AMERICAN STANDARDS
American national standard for environmental and facility safety ANSI Z535.2
signs
Human Factors Engineering of Computer Workstations ANSI/HFES 100-2007
Recommended practice for analysis, design, installation, and API RP 14C
testing of basic surface safety systems for offshore production
platforms
Scheme for the identification of piping systems ASME A13.1 (1996)
Standard practice for human engineering design for marine ASTM F1166
systems, equipment, and facilities

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
Petroleum and natural gas industries — Offshore production ISO 10418
installations — Basic surface process safety systems

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