A pipe rack is the structural spine of a process plant: the multi-tier steel frame that carries piping, cable trays and small equipment between units. Specifying one is different from ordering a standard building, because every bay follows your piping and equipment layout rather than a catalogue drawing. This guide sets out what to specify and, just as important, how to verify that a fabricator can actually deliver it.
What a pipe rack is, and why it is not a standard building
A pipe rack is a load-bearing steel frame that carries process piping, cable trays and small equipment across a plant. It is fabricated bay by bay to your piping and equipment layout, so no two projects share the same drawings.
This is the work that pre-engineered building suppliers are usually not set up to do. Their shops are tuned for repeating portal frames, so racks often get split to a second vendor or welded on site. A fabricator built for non-standard work handles the racks, the equipment platforms and the access stairs as one package, and builds them to your engineer's drawings. Our own pipe-rack certificate records the design boundary in plain words:
"Design: Not include."
We are a make-to-print fabricator, so the engineering responsibility stays with your consultant or EPC contractor while we take on the fabrication. The full scope is on our pipe rack page, and our guide to pipe rack types and fabrication covers how one is built.
Execution class: specify EN 1090 EXC3 first, then check it
Specify the EN 1090-2 execution class before anything else, because it sets the inspection, traceability and welding requirements for the whole rack. There are four classes, EXC1 to EXC4, and high-consequence structures need EXC3.
Ask the fabricator for the certificate number and the issuing body, then verify it. Our EN 1090-2:2018 certificate 1128-CPR-10.09.0686 is issued by EUROCERT S.A. in Greece, covers execution class EXC3, and is valid until 13 March 2028. According to the EUROCERT attestation, its validity is subject to annual surveillance, so the shop is re-audited every year. EXC3 covers bridges and other high-consequence structures, and it includes EXC1 and EXC2 below it. A certificate you can check with the issuing body directly is worth more than a logo on a brochure. Ours is listed on the certifications page.
Welding qualification: ISO 3834-2 and who signs off the welds
Ask which tier of ISO 3834 the shop holds and who its welding coordinator is, because a pipe rack is a welded structure and the welds are where it holds or fails. ISO 3834-2 is the comprehensive tier of the welding quality standard.
We hold ISO 3834-2:2021, certificate 10.09.0687, and our welding coordinator holds the International Welding Engineer (IWE) qualification under ISO 14731:2019. Our welding procedure qualification records cover processes 135 (MAG), 136 (FCAW) and 135+121, at material group 1.2 and plate thicknesses up to 30 mm. Those records exist because the EXC3 execution class requires them, so a buyer's inspector can review the WPQRs at enquiry stage rather than take them on trust. The numbers and validity dates are on the certifications page.
Export record: ask for a project list, not a headline number
Ask for a project list with countries and tonnages, because an export record you can check tells you the shop has cleared customs, packing and site interfaces before. A vague claim of thirty or more countries usually cannot be backed by a real list.
We have shipped steelwork to 14 countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Egypt and Türkiye, across 32 export projects. Individual jobs have run from 5 to 2,000 tonnes, which is the honest range to plan around rather than a single average figure. Much of that work is manufacturing plant and power plant structures for contractors building overseas, which is the same environment a pipe rack lives in. The record is set out on the projects page.
One shop for the racks and the buildings
Check whether the fabricator can make both the non-standard racks and the standard buildings in the same works, because splitting them across vendors is where site fit-up problems start. Racks, platforms, stairs and the surrounding portal-frame buildings share the same tolerances when they share the same shop.
Our works runs six H-section production lines and two heavy-structure lines, with 160 units of plant machinery including welding robots. That capacity lets us fabricate the racks and the buildings under one certificate and one welding coordinator, then shot blast and coat the steel in-house before it is packed for sea freight. You can see the plant on the capabilities page.
A short checklist before you award the work
Before you award a pipe rack, get four things in writing. Ask for the EN 1090 execution class with a verifiable certificate number, the ISO 3834 welding tier and coordinator qualification, an export project list with countries and tonnages, and confirmation that blasting and coating are done in-house.
According to Yu Hang, our welding coordinator, most of the questions that decide a pipe rack enquiry are settled before any steel is cut: the class, the welding records and the coating scope. Send us the shop drawings or the design drawings with a scope description and a target date, and we will confirm the class, the lead time and the price in writing. You can reach the works through the contact page.