Are ANSI and ASME the same?

There are countless acronyms in the safety world which can cause a little confusion on which is what. One of those questions is whether or not ANSI and ASME are the same thing and if they cover the same subjects. The American National Standards Institution (ANSI) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) on the surface look very similar, however, each organization has specific qualities that prove they are quite different.

To start off, ANSI is more concerned with standard developing as a whole. ANSI oversees the standards that have been created by Standard Developing Organizations through accreditation of those SDOs. As overseers of American standards for subjects like products, training, systems, processes, and resources that end up affecting personnel and consumers, ANSI’s main goal is to provide consistency across the board.

ANSI vs ASME

In comparison, ASME is one of those SDOs that ANSI accredits standards from, they participate specifically in the industrial heating industry. ASME focuses primarily on developing codes and standards for mechanical objects and devices like boilers and pressure vessels. With over 600 standards and codes created to date, ASME delivers solutions to problems faced by engineers in their day to day lives on the job. Compare this to ANSI where they promote a wide variety of standards that are voluntary rather than codes that are very specific.

The people that are chosen for each organization is also relevant. ANSI members are more widespread in their expertise including those from various academic fields, individual volunteers, corporations, government agencies, etc. On the other hand, ASME has engineering experts and individuals involved in other organizations that also deal with mechanical engineering.

As a whole, ANSI and ASME have similar goals in keeping people safe by providing guidelines and uniform information. However, ANSI has the more general role that is essentially a blanket covering all aspects of safety in multiple different sectors while ASME has a very narrow scope of responsibilities that contribute to the huge blanket of ANSI.