Where to Find Design Standards

Principal American Organizations Issuing Codes & Standards:

AlA - American Insurance Association

ANSI - American National Standards Institute

API - American Petroleum Institute

ASME - American Society of Mechanical Engineers

ASTM - American Society for Testing and Materials

AWS - American Welding Society

AWWA - American Waterworks Association

FCI - Fluid Controls Institute

GSA - General Service Administration

ISA - Instrument Society of America

MSS - Manufacturers' Standardization Society of the Valve and Fittings Industry

NFPA - National Fire Protection Association

PFI - Pipe Fabrication Institute

USDC - United States Department of Commerce

And just typing the abbreviation in Google, you can get all informations you need, for example, for ASME site: American Society Of Mechanical Engineers - ASME.ORG

National design standards are not available on-line. They must be purchased from the national standard organisations' approved retail outlets.

While there are some good sources of information listed here for any designer. Their are no national "design standards", rather Their are standards which apply requirements (safety, materials, performance, or manufacturability) which guide a designers choices as they develop new products.

When designing for the american market the designer should consider the availability of recourses to the consumer or clients. Americans still largely use the inch system of measurement, this is particularly improtant when specifying material thicknesses for sheet metal or wood products. Inch threads (Unified National) are commonly used althrough metric threads and fasteners are also widely available.

For electronics the american electrical outlet is faily unique in that it uses two flat plugs (as opposed the the British three flat plugs, or the EU two round plugs) one usually larger than the other for polarizations. All amaerican outlets, with rare exeption use 120V, where as most of the rest of the world uses 220V.

Your client may have additional special considerations such as governmental and safety regulations which must be met before the product is allowed for sale. In medial and food processing applications certain polymer compounds (plastics), ot other 'toxic materials' are not allowed to be used in the construction of containers or fluid contanting equipement. It would be wise to obtain a complete list of design requiremnts prior to committing to any contract. AS was mentioned in other comments yo9u may need to purchace several US national standards to understand and comply with the clients request. The cost of obtaining and training for these standards should be considered in the contract.