Sophisticated Painting Endorsement

The Sophisticated Painting Endorsement (SPE) to the AISC Certification program helps owners and specifiers select structural steel fabricators and manufacturers of bridge and highway metal components that are able to provide the special project quality needs for sophisticated painting systems, such as zincs, epoxies, urethanes, and multi-coat systems.

The SPE is part of AISC’s program to certify steel fabricating shops and manufacturing facilities for bridge and highway metal components. AISC Certification and the SPE Standard support a system-based approach to quality management and communicates to project owners and specifiers exactly what the endorsement to the Certification program provides. AISC recommends that facility owners require all shops hired for the fabrication of structural steel or manufacture of bridge and highway components with sophisticated painting requirements as outlined above be certified to the AISC SPE program. This helps ensure that the owner’s contracts are awarded to capable shops that have been evaluated independently to industry supported standards.

For applicable fees, please download the current cost schedule.

For a list of Quality Certified Fabricators and Manufacturers, visit www.aisc.org/certsearch.

For more information on the AISC SPE or certification program, call 312.670.2400 or e-mail certinfo@aisc.org.

SSPC and AISC Cooperative Initiative

The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and SSPC: The Society for Protective Coatings are supporting an initiative to create a single standard for shop painting structural steel. While work on a single standard underway, AISC and SSPC have reconfirmed their agreement to recognize each other’s paint certification programs as two coordinated and equivalent quality programs to certify structural steel fabrication and paint shops that apply coatings to structural steel. AISC will continue to offer its Sophisticated Painting Endorsement (SPE), and SSPC will continue to offer its QP 3 program.

SSPC currently supports two classes of QP 3 certification. Class B, which is equivalent to AISC’s SPE, applies to the structural fabrication market (bridges and buildings). Class A, which along with Quality Assurance includes Safety, Health and Environmental Compliance, is recommended for shops more commonly involved with vessels or fleet equipment as well as shops that paint but do not provide steel fabrication services.

Support for Shop Painting Certification

“The AASHTO/NSBA Steel Bridge Collaboration heartily applauds and endorses the reciprocity between the AISC and SSPC certification programs,” said Ronnie Medlock, chairman of the AASHTO/NSBA Steel Bridge Collaboration and Vice President - Technical Services for High Steel Structures, Inc.  The Collaboration, which represents the national steel bridge community, recommends that facility owners specify that fabrication shops contracted to paint be certified to meet the AISC SPE program and that dedicated paint facilities working with structural steel be certified to SSPC QP 3, Class B. This provides the owner with confidence that contracts are awarded to capable shops that have been evaluated independently to industry supported standards.

For information on the AISC SPE program, contact:

AISC Certification
One East Wacker Drive, Suite 700
Chicago, IL, 60601-1802
Telephone: 312.670.2400
Email: certinfo@aisc.org
or visit the AISC web site at www.aisc.org.

For information on SSPC QP 3, contact:

SSPC Shop Certification Program
40 24th Street, 6th Floor
Pittsburgh, PA, 15222
Telephone: 412.281.2331
Email: damiano@sspc.org
or visit the SSPC Online at www.sspc.org.