IIAR Releases Updates to IIAR-1 and IIAR-3 Standards
IIAR 1-2022
ANSI/IIAR 1 provides a unified set of definitions for use in the IIAR standards. “There are nine other standards in the suite of IIAR standards and each of those subcommittees pretty much at their discretion get to introduce terms and definitions as they apply to their particular standard. Sometimes they’ll pick a term, and they want to make sure it is clear exactly what that term means,” said Rich Merrill, IIAR 1 Subcommittee chair.
Merrill said IIAR has introduced several new standards in the last five years, which have added definitions. “Those definitions get published and get reviewed by the public when they introduce new standards. Then, we pull those definitions into our five-year update and publish them there,” he said. “What we first have to do is to make sure that word that they define is used with the exact same meaning in all the other nine standards so that IIAR 1 speaks to definitions in all of the other nine standards.”
Definitions are introduced and approved as well as removed from the IIAR-1 standard during regular reviews. Tony Lundell, director of standards and safety for IIAR, said standards must be clear. “A set of common definitions is provided to give clarity to engineers, contractors, end users, and authorities having jurisdiction,” he said. The committee was presented with 99 new definitions from the previous group in the previous five years. Seven definitions were modifications of existing definitions and 29 were duplicates.
In the new edition process, everything gets reviewed for compatibility with the other IIAR Standards. Any and all changes are communicated with the originating subcommittee chairs. “So, what we ended up with was about 50 new definitions and revisions of 10 existing definitions in the 2022 edition, ” Merrill said.
Before the new edition could be considered complete, it had to go through one pre-public and two public reviews, where comments received had to be addressed to the satisfaction of the commenters.
Lundell praised Rich Merrill for his diligence and teamwork to bring this revision in.
During the IIAR Board Meetings in New Orleans in late October, the IIAR Standards Committee and IIAR Board of Directors voted to approve IIAR 1-2022, and ANSI’s Board of Standard’s Review (BSR) approved IIAR 1-2022 on October 31. ANSI/IIAR 1-2022 was posted in the ANSI Standards Action Schedule on November 11.
IIAR-3-2022
Updates to IIAR-3 American National Standard for Ammonia Refrigeration Valves were a “win-win for the valve manufacturers and valve users,” Lundell said. IIAR 3’s purpose is to provide the minimum performance criteria that valves and strainers are required to meet if used in an ammonia refrigeration system.
The IIAR 3 standard was originally released in 2001. Prior, periodic revisions of the standard saw sporadic participation by valve manufacturers and end-users. For this revision, three valve manufacturers and a number of system designers and end users joined the subcommittee and participated fully through its entire development. The revision was ultimately 30 pages long and entirely addressed IIAR 3’s purpose – to provide the minimum performance criteria that valves and strainers are required to meet if used in an ammonia refrigeration system.
Major changes included more clarity on seal caps (in Section 5.11), adding a definition of a pressure-containing seal cap. The new edition also included several updates in Chapter 7, pressure envelope requirements. In Chapter 8, sections 8.1 and 8.2 were consolidated into one section, and IIAR added more specific requirements to better align with industry-standard norms and practices. Chapter 9, section 9.4.3 now includes varying levels of seat leakage classes and a lower, more reasonable amount of maximum leakage allowed.
Lundell said consensus for the 2022 revision took more work and effort than originally thought, and praised IIAR 3 Subcommittee Chair Mike Trumbower, senior engineer at Parker Hannifin Corp., for his efforts.
“I can tell you that the review and revision discussions with getting the manufacturer’s full input, which was absolutely what we needed and wanted, took longer to finalize some sections versus others,” Lundell said. “Mike helped work through the discussions to reach a consensus that was practical, doable, and realistic.”
ANSI/IIAR 3-2022 was ANSI Approved on July 11 and published on September 16.
Merrill praised Lundell for his work throughout the revision process. “He does all the difficult negotiations with commenters and all the bureaucratic work with the people at ANSI for all our standards,” he said.
