In the United Kingdom the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 has brought to the attention of both users and manufacturers of shell-and-tube heat exchangers, and indeed of all pressure plant, the vital need for efficient lines of communication.

The act firmly defines the duty of any person who designs, manufactures, imports, or supplies any item of plant and invests in that person the need to design and construct in such a way that plant is safe and without risk to health when it is properly used.

The act states that where published standards exist, designers and users of plant should pay heed to them and warns that, although standards may have no legal status in the United Kingdom, industry should realize that it may have to explain its reasons for diverging from them should an incident jeopardizing health and safety occur. Some other countries also have quite specific legislation and requirements with respect to imported plant, and it is essential that such information be obtained and considered. The foregoing principles either are or are likely to be introduced in many countries and form a sound basic principle for future designs.

In Section 4.3, established codes of practice are discussed that provide in the majority of cases tegulations governing the design of acceptable vessels. Many branches of industry are users of shell-and-tube heat exchangers for heating, cooling, evaporating, and chemical reaction duties, and the purpose of the standards is to specify the essential requirements and to give constructional guidance. Some standards do not deal with any thermal design considerations and rely on fullest operating information being passed between purchaser and manufacturer.

If steam is used on one side of a heat exchanger in the United Kingdom, suitable fittings to comply with the Factories Acts must be provided. Items in this category together with their fittings are by statute required to be inspected periodically at prescribed intervals by a competent person, and a report must be issued. Other inservice regulations exist in most other countries with respect to these "unfired steam" vessels, and it is prudent for these to be considered, preferably at the design stage.