Is it ok to say male and female parts?

[Ahhthatlldo]

I might be being pedantic here but is it acceptable to refer too in reports Male and female parts? I.E. the Female part being a bearing and the male part being the lay-shaft that goes through it. Thanks for your help!

 

[KENAT]

Well, I'm hesitant to say it's wrong but some pedant or super PC folk may pick up on it.

So I'd use terms like 'external' and 'internal' or 'pin' & 'socket' etc. if possible.

Might get better replies in: forum1010

Unless your question is literally just about reports to a specific ASME standard.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[Ahhthatlldo]

Sorry I'm new here Didn't realise there was a thread for that, but thanks for the advice, and the person who I'll be submitting it too isn't particularly PC so i'm sure it will be fine thanks!

 

[nickelkid]

I read this post earlier and di not respond. Since that time I noticed some descriptions I recently did avoiding male/female using internal/external...

 

[pennpiper]

Is it okay to say male and female parts?

Yes!

Sometimes its possible to do all the right things and still get bad results

 

[nickelkid]

I tend to agree it is okay, but I did change some valve specs from "female" to "internal" a few months ago after looking at API602 that did not use male/female at all for End Connection descriptions.

 

[jte]

Sheesh. PC indeed. I never heard of an issue coming up in the field when MPT and FPT are used to describe end connections... But never mind that, what about the humble "coupling". We could read PC issues into that fitting as well. And the sometimes short lengths of small diameter piping which are fitted together with couplings.

I recall a few years back after a Code Week in Las Vegas, sitting in an airplane with another member of this forum. The plane was ground stopped due to unfavorable conditions at the destination. To kill some time we got to talking about this type of issue and entertained ourselves for a few minutes by thinking of all the "normal to a vessel or piping engineer" terms and phrases that would have others thinking that we were being, well, "less than professional." Particularly when one has an interest in coke drums with "modified cylindrical support structures." Wait a minute! Is it ok to say "coke drum"? Somebody might think I'm a drug dealer!

Then again, I had another colleague a while back who made it a point every day to say something which if HR heard would get him fired.

 

[chicopee]

If you can rephrase, try female and male connections but since you are trying to describe mating (no pun intended) parts , what is the reason for the description of male and female parts as it should stand for reason that the shaft is to be inserted into the bearing.

 

[TGS4]

jte - ha ha I remember that conversation. I think that both you and I can legitimately say that we both have published articles focusing on crotch stresses inside the hot box of a short skirt. That is refreshingly non-PC, yet entirely accurate.

I had a discussion about tanks today. At the next turn around, this facility figures that they will have to clean out 2m of coke in the bottom of their tank. And not the fizzy-corrosive kind. But their problem isn't coke, it's crack (of the fatigue sort).

 

[metalonis]

I’ll agree with Kenat on this one. It’s not really wrong, just outdated colloquial terminology. Similar to using the term 18-8 for 300 series stainless steels.