--- title: Reading the enquiry — values and assumptions description: What counts as stated, inferred and assumed, how ambient conditions, ranges and design values are assumed, and how fluids and units are read. sidebar: label: Reading — values and assumptions order: 3 --- 19 rules, in register order, from R16 to R130; numbers do not run in sequence. [Back to the index](/business/business-rules). ## R16 — An inferred or assumed value never satisfies a required parameter, except ambient conditions assumed for a liquid A value read from the fluid library, or copied from another field of the line, is reported as inferred, a defaulted one as assumed, and both still count as missing where the parameter is required. The exceptions are the steam pressure or temperature read from the steam table at the other (R84), which counts as known and is never asked, and the operating temperature and pressure assumed under R17: they count as known when a product is chosen, so a line does not wait on them, and every check against them says it rests on assumed conditions. An assumed atmospheric pressure is not known for a pressure instrument, whose pressure is what it measures. They stay marked assumed on the line; the quotation is to state them as assumptions, corrected in a revision. ## R17 — Ambient conditions are assumed only when the enquiry states no figure for them, and never for steam or a stated gas Atmospheric pressure, written as 1 bar g over a range of 1 to 3 bar g, and 40 °C over 28 to 52 °C, all marked assumed. A line that states a pressure below atmospheric is vacuum service and is assumed no pressure. The boiling, cavitation and gas density checks read an assumed pressure as atmospheric, 0 bar g, whatever figure the line shows. Any stated figure for that quantity, in a design value or in the customer's own wording, counts as stated. Wording with no figure, such as "As per process" or "Normal", does not: the figures are assumed and the wording kept beside them. An operating pressure or temperature written only as "ATM" or "ambient" is filled in the same way, whatever else the line states. Wording a person saved in review is left as saved. A gas line that states neither is asked for both (R81). A steam line that states one of them is given the other from the steam table, as inferred (R84); one that states neither is asked for its pressure (R84). Density on steam depends on pressure; an assumed figure is indistinguishable downstream from a measured one. ## R18 — A length is never read as a pressure or a temperature An install height of 5400 mm must not become 5400 bar. ## R19 — A size stated in the enquiry that reached no line item is flagged ## R106 — A pipe size written as an outside diameter is read as its nominal bore A size written with OD, such as "114.3 OD", "101.6 mm OD" or "O.D. 60.3", in a size field held in nominal bore (a process connection or jacketing size), is the pipe's outside diameter. It is read as the nominal bore of the standard pipe or tube that has that diameter, matched to one decimal against three series: - steel pipe, ASME B36.10, EN 10220 and IS 1239: 21.3 mm for 15 NB up to 610 mm for 600 NB, such as 60.3 for 50 NB and 114.3 for 100 NB; - hygienic tube sized in inches, ASTM A270: 25.4, 38.1, 50.8, 63.5, 76.2, 101.6 and 152.4 mm for 25, 40, 50, 65, 80, 100 and 150 NB; - plastic pipe: the diameters R94 lists. The size stays on the line as written, with its nominal bore beside it, and the conversion's formula names the series. 101.6 mm is both a 4 inch hygienic tube and a 3½ inch steel pipe. It is read as 100 NB, and the formula notes 90 NB as the steel pipe reading; no Flowtech size table has a 90 NB row, so the line is sized at 100 NB either way. 76.1, a 65 NB steel pipe, and 76.2, a 3 inch tube read as 80 NB, are read apart. A diameter in none of the series, such as 205 OD, or one written in inches, such as "4 inch OD", stays in the customer's unit and is flagged for review. A size in mm without OD, such as 114.3 mm, is not read as an outside diameter; unless it is a nominal bore number it is flagged for review, as before. A size written with a second spelling in brackets, such as "50 NB (2 INCH)" or "INCH (DN 50)", is read by its first spelling, and the second must name the same size. When the two name different sizes, such as "50 NB (3 INCH)", the value is left unconverted and the line says both. ## R20 — Line items are grouped by specification, not by tag Several tags sharing one specification become one line, because that is how the quotation is written. Each line is enriched with its own fluid properties. ## R21 — A failed reading is distinguished from an enquiry that stated nothing ## R22 — A document too long to read is never cut A document is sent whole, never trimmed mid-way: a half-read annexure row reads as a real line item. One the model cannot take whole fails the run, and the email goes to Needs Review as failed. ## R64 — A guessed fluid drives nothing until a person confirms it, except the materials every strength of it agrees on A fluid matched on shared words, on a misspelling, by the model's choice among similar library fluids, or at a strength the enquiry does not support, is shown for checking. No property, no exception for a gas and no corrosion warning is read from it. Where the library holds the fluid at two or more strengths, the wetted materials and the lining are graded on the guessed strength's grades that no other strength contradicts, named as the fluid at any strength: "HCL" with no strength rules out carbon steel and SS 316, graded D for hydrochloric acid from 5% to 37%, and takes PTFE, graded A wherever it is graded, while PP, graded B at one strength and C at another, stays unchecked. ## R65 — A lone operating pressure or temperature is given an assumed range; a stated range, an assumed operating value The range is 30% of the figure either side, in whatever unit it is written; a pressure below atmospheric is given no range. A stated minimum and maximum give their mean. One end alone gives nothing. A gas takes both on its pressure and its temperature, as a liquid does. Steam takes them on its pressure only, an operating pressure filled from the steam table (R84) included; its minimum, maximum and design temperatures are read from the steam table at the pressures beside them (R84). The minimum, the operating value and the maximum are rows of their own on every datasheet. Where a product also has a range row for the quantity, such as a transmitter's pressure range, it and the minimum and maximum hold one range: stated in either, it is copied to the other as inferred, and an assumed range is filled into both. A value a person saved in review is left as saved: no range and no operating value is added to it, and no range is assumed from it. A quotation prints the range and the operating value this gives, each marked with its origin (R87). A flow line's missing minimum or maximum flow is filled by R87's flow rule instead, into its minimum and maximum flow rows, and is never read for sizing. ## R107 — A flow written without a unit takes the one unit the enquiry's other flow lines state; otherwise its unit is not stated A line's flow, operating flow, operating flow range or flow range, but never a rotameter's scale, may be given as figures with no unit. They are still read as figures. If every other flow in the same email and category that states a unit states the same flow-rate unit, the figures take it, with the note "No unit stated; read in Hl/hr, as the other flow lines of this enquiry state". Letter case does not matter: LPH and lph are one unit, and the first spelling is the one used. A unit that is not a flow rate, such as %, lends nothing, and neither do two different flow units. Those figures convert as stated ones do, and a product check resting on them only warns (R24). Otherwise they are kept with no unit, marked unit not stated, and are not converted, and the quotation prints "(unit not stated)" beside them. Earlier emails and other categories are not consulted. Where a line is listed twice, the listing that states its unit is kept over one that borrowed it, and a borrowed unit over one not stated; two listings that borrowed different units are raised as a conflict for a person to settle. The figures stay stated. A borrowed unit is assumed; a unit not stated stays unknown, and nothing is assumed in its place. ## R126 — A figure written in words is read when none is stored, and a stated bound is read as a bound A centre-to-centre distance, an insertion length or a measuring range the enquiry gives only in words, such as "Approved 400 MM" or "400 MM C/C", is read as that figure when the line holds no figure for it. A figure the line holds always takes precedence over its wording. A figure written as approximate ("about", "approx", "vendor std"), or with a bound such as "max", is not read. A bound written with the figure, such as "< 0.1 µS/cm" or "up to 10 µS/cm", is read as a bound, never as that figure itself. Today only conductivity is judged from one: a meter whose minimum conductivity is above everything the bound allows, such as an electromagnetic flowmeter (at least 5 µS/cm) on "< 0.1 µS/cm", is ruled out. A bound that allows values on both sides of a limit, such as "< 10 µS/cm" against that minimum, rules nothing out. A bound on a flow, size, distance or any other quantity is not read, so it never sizes or ranks a line. ## R127 — A figure is saved as stated only when the passage it cites holds it A figure the reading saves must appear in the passage it cites. When it does not, such as a flow of 4 TPH cited to "NO FLOW RATE SPECIFIED", the field stays empty, the passage is kept in the line's notes, and, where the figure is needed, the customer is asked for it. ## R129 — A stated pressure, temperature or flow fills only the role its label names Each figure the enquiry gives for a pressure, temperature or flow is read into the one row its label names: normal, operating or working into operating, MIN into minimum, MAX into maximum and DESIGN into design. A figure with no role label is the operating value. A slashed label pairs its figures in order, so "Norm/Max 4/6" is an operating value of 4 and a maximum of 6, and a single figure under it is the operating value alone. Where the line's own row labels a figure, as a table heading or a `label: value` in its description does, FlowOS reads that figure from the row itself, by these same words, not from the reading model. A figure the model read differently is replaced by the row's and listed under **Check** as sources that disagree; figures held as wording, such as "Amb", stay as read. One figure is never copied into a second row; the rows the enquiry leaves empty are filled by Flowtech's rules (R65, R68) and marked as such. A full scale, instrument range or calibration range on a line that states its own flow fills none of the flow rows and is kept in the line's notes. A comma before one digit, as in 2,5, is a decimal point; a figure written with a comma before two final digits, such as 10,12, may be a decimal or two figures, so FlowOS does not read it from the row and the reading model's figure stands. W.P. is read as working, and so as operating. A figure grouped in thousands, as in 3,500, is read whole: "Normal flow: 3,500–4,500 LPH" is the normal flow given as a range. Words written after a unit, such as "pump discharge" in "12 kg/cm²(g) pump discharge", are kept as that row's note and the unit is the part before them; a gauge or absolute mark, a bound such as "max", an approximation, or reference conditions such as "at 15 °C" are not split off, since they change what the unit means. ## R130 — Stated figures out of order are listed to check and keep a line from confirming itself A line whose stated pressure, temperature or flow figures break minimum ≤ operating ≤ maximum ≤ design, such as a minimum flow above the operating flow or a design pressure below the maximum, lists that under **Check** on the row out of order, naming every break of that quantity. The line does not confirm itself. A person may keep the figures as stated or correct them; saving is never refused. Figures are compared in their converted unit, and two figures that cannot be brought to one unit, a figure with no unit, or a value held as wording, are not compared. ## R66 — A filled value is saved only when a person changes it Inferred and assumed values are filled in on the datasheet each time the line is read, so they follow the line's fluid and the fluid library. One a reviewer changes is saved as edited in review, and nothing is filled into that field afterwards. Clearing a filled value and saving is how a reviewer declines it. ## R67 — A fluid the library does not hold is recorded on the line, by name Its density or specific gravity and its viscosity, which the library fills for a fluid it holds, are asked for on that line once each, only where the enquiry gives none, and saved as edited in review. It joins the fluid library only when a person who may add substances adds it, from the line or on the Substance Master, and no other enquiry is matched to it until then. A cell that states only a phase, such as Liquid, is such a fluid only when nothing else on the line names one. ## R68 — A blank design pressure or temperature is set at 1.3 times the maximum The maximum is the stated one; with only an operating value stated, it is the maximum R65 assumes, 30% above it, so the design value is 1.3 times that. A maximum alone gives a design value too. On steam this sets the design pressure; the design temperature is the saturation temperature at it (R84). A temperature maximum at or below 0 °C gives no design value, and nor does a pressure maximum at or below atmospheric unless the line is vacuum service. A stated minimum below atmospheric, negative in a gauge unit or under one atmosphere in an absolute one, marks the design pressure as full vacuum as well, and a pressure wholly below atmospheric is designed for full vacuum alone. On the line, a design value from a stated maximum reads **Calculated**, as on the quotation; one resting on an assumed maximum, including the one assumed around a stated operating value (R65), reads **Assumed**. The assumed ambient conditions give 67.6 °C and 3.9 bar g, in the line's design rows and on the quotation, marked assumed (R87); steam and a gas are given none. A stated design value stands. The design flow is 1.3 times the maximum flow; it is Flowtech's margin and does not choose a size (R29). On the line, a blank design flow field takes it, inferred from a stated maximum and assumed from the maximum R87 assumes. ## R69 — What the enquiry states is never replaced by a filled value A quantity the enquiry states, under any of the names a category gives it, gets no inferred or assumed value. A stated density, specific gravity or viscosity stops the library's in every field for that property, a stated range stops the assumed one, and a stated design value stands. The exceptions are ambient written only in words (R17) and, on a steam line, the one of pressure and temperature it leaves blank (R84).