The founder and author of Pipefitters Plus is a Pipefitter who has worked in the petrochemical refining , construction and maintenance industry for over 20 years. During this time he has often experienced frustration over the lack of information and related resources available to assist current or potential craft workers, in this and related fields.
   As a result he has resolved to develop a web site which will address this and similar circumstances for the purpose of providing Pipefitters (and eventually other related craft workers) with a centralized and readily available source for information and resources useful to them in, both, their professional, and personal lives.
   It is also our hope to develop an online community of craft workers through which craft workers can share their experiences.
 

   Pipefitters are often confused with Plumbers. This is understandable because both are loosely defined as people who install and or repair piping. However the circumstances encountered by Pipefitters working in the petrochemical refining industry are considerably different from those encountered by Plumbers working in a residential or office building environment.
   There are far more residential and office buildings being constructed and maintained than there are refineries being constructed and maintained. As a result the available information and related resources are far more abundant in that area.
   These facts are central to the issues being addressed by and the mission being undertaken by pipefittersplus.com.
   We intend to eventually extend our scope to include plumbing applications but at present will focus on applications relative to petrochemical refinery applications.
 

   Another issue which often comes into play here is the question of what is applicable to Pipefitters as opposed to what is applicable to Engineers.
   Again the issue seems to be one of specialization and focus. Pipefitters are expected to have knowledge of many of the aspects of engineering that apply to the task and circumstances which they or the piping they install or maintain will encounter. However Pipefitters are not Engineers. Information designed for use by Engineers is often presented in a manor that is not readily understood by or otherwise useful to Pipefitters.
   The task of Engineers is more a matter of planning and design whereas the task of a Pipefitter is more a matter if implementation. Yet there are occasions when a Pipefitter must design the piping to be installed without the benefit of an Engineer.
   It is also by no means rare for a Pipefitter to encounter circumstances which were either not anticipated by or somehow misconceived by the Engineering the staff. In these and other related circumstances Pipefitters must be prepared to work with Engineers. The greater the level of knowledge possessed by these Pipefitters the easier it will be for them to work with the Engineering staff in a mutually beneficial manor and the more valuable they will be as employees.
   Our present objective in this area is to present a limited amount of engineering level information, and to present it in a manor relative to and readily understandable by craft workers.
 

   Our mission as we see it is to serve the needs of the craft worker community by providing them with information and other resources that are of value to them. We also assert that to truly fulfill the vision of our founder we must keep access to the resources as freely accessible as possible.
   In order to accomplish this we will require the support of both the craft worker and business communities. We cannot emphasize this strongly enough, we both want and need the input and support of the craft worker and business communities. We urge you to contact us with your suggestions or other inquiries. Financial support is needed to help us acquire the necessary resources to achieve and maintain a site that accomplishes our goals.
 

   We wish to assure the craft worker community that their interest is and shall remain our #1 priority.
 

   It is our goal to develop a craft worker community in which craft workers from a variety of crafts and locations come together to serve the common good. We hope this will become a place where craft workers both reap from and contribute to the available resources. Restated we seek to become both a source and a repository for information and resources of interest to craft workers.
   We shall seek to continually improve and expand the available resources in order to progressively serve an ever expanding scope of craft workers needs.