How to Read a Hanger Schedule, Column by Column

The hanger schedule is where stress analysis becomes hardware: one row per support tag, produced from the stress isometrics, listing everything needed to buy, build and install each support. Buyers inherit these tables from engineering and have to act on them — this note decodes the columns, walks one example row end to end, and flags the traps that cause wrong deliveries.

The columns and what they mean

A worked example row

Reading it: a variable spring hanger on a 6-inch steam line, carrying 12 kN in operation. The pipe rises 30 mm going hot, so the spring is set at 14.4 kN cold (12 + 80 × 30 ÷ 1000 — the math is in our selection guide). Arrangement B means it hangs from lugs directly under steel with reduced headroom. Hot-dip galvanized, shipped with travel stops fitted for hydrotest. That one row fully defines the assembly we would build and tag as H-1204.

The traps that cause wrong deliveries

• Units. Schedules arrive in kN, kgf or lbf — sometimes mixed within one project. 1200 kgf ≈ 11.8 kN ≈ 2645 lbf; misread the unit and the spring is a size (or three) off. Confirm the unit line in the header before anything else.
• Hot vs cold load confusion. Some schedules print only one load — find out which. Springs are selected around the hot load; setting a spring to the hot value at installation is a classic site error.
• Travel sign conventions. Stress software exports differ: "+" may mean up in one report and down in another. The sign flips the cold load by twice rate × travel — verify against the legend, not by assumption.
• Hydrotest load ignored. A steam line is water-filled during hydro — springs need travel stops for that condition, and some tags carry a separate hydro load column that governs the rigid parts.
• Blank spring columns. Blank ≠ optional — it means the supplier must size the spring from load and travel. Send those rows as-is; we return the completed selection on the data sheet.
• Remarks skipped at RFQ. "PTFE slide plate", "insulation shield", "SS clamp" hide in the remarks column and change both scope and price. Quote requests that omit remarks get revised quotes later — nobody enjoys that.

Minimum data to get a quotation

You do not need a perfect schedule to start. In order of usefulness:

• Best: the hanger schedule as engineering issued it (PDF or Excel), plus the legend sheet.
• Good: stress isometrics with support marks — we extract the schedule ourselves.
• Workable: tag list with pipe size, hot load, travel and arrangement — enough to size springs and quote assemblies.

Related reading: Spring hanger selection guide · MSS SP-58 hanger types · Pipe support spacing table