I'll have to reply tommorrow with the author, but the title is "The Pressure Vessel Handbook."
It may be "Pressure Vessel Handbook", by Eugene F. Megyesy, published by Pressure Vessel Publishing of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I have the 12th edition and am slightly embarrassed to admit that I don't use it that often. As we are primarily a Repair Shop (with little new construction responsibility), I just don't have many occasions to pick this book up.
Charles
That's it! That's the one. Our facility will mainly deal with "repairs" also, but time to time will deal with "new" vessels. I'm sure more vessels than two or three a year, enough to warrant us getting the "U" stamp. So then, when dealing with "new" vessels, on a scale of 1 to 4, is this book helpful? Does this book contain info that would be beneficial just to have in the back of the mind?
My opinion is that you first must become very comfortable with ASME Section VIII.
The handbook does have useful information, but as I look through it, I can see where unless you have a good understanding of Section VIII, this book may cause you some problems.
If you use it simply as a reference, not relying on it for identification of all final calculations, it would probably be a decent source of information.
Charles
I've got an old edition of the book (the 4th) and I find it useful for the people involved in pressure vessel design and fabrication, which I'm not any more.
The book is an efficient complement to ASME VIII Div. 1. It clears up some paragraphs of the Code that may lead to different interpretations; explains some items omitted by the Code (example: when to support a vertical vessel by means of legs or by means of skirt); shows some calculations not included in the Code (example: how to calculate the distance between the cradles of an horizontal vessel) etc.
Now, as Charles Hall said, the handbook requires a previous knowledge of the Code and is to be used AS A COMPLEMENT to the Code and NOT IN LIEU of it.
On the other hand, 120 bucks isn't a cheap price. I don't understand why book prices have raised so much. Example: exactly 25 years ago the 5th edition of Perry's Chemical Engineer's Handbook, published by McGraw Hill, was sold in the USA for 40 dollars. Nowadays, the 7th edition costs 450 dollars. Has the inflation from 1980 to 2005 been 1200 per cent in the USA? Nevertheless, that's the price increase of Perry's handbook.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil