Having worked on many projects in the past, it seemed that many piping engineers tend to stereotype the term “severe service” on their valve requirements.
In a given process or system, only few can be considered as such, but they are the ones that pose the greatest design challenge. Each type of valve (and there are many of them) has several parameters to consider.
Continue reading
Ever since 1922, ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) has been defining pipeline safety upon demand from both industry and government. One of their standards has to do with face-to-face as well as end-to-end dimensions of straightway valves, centre-to-face and centre-to-end dimensions of angle valves. In this informative post, our primary focus will be on ASME B16.10 industrial valves.
Continue reading
When creating the design specification for our Taurus Series we came along the point ‘face to face’ dimensions. Immediately some colleague said “ASME B16.10 and EN 558 – but same length as a single ball valves for the Taurus DBB with 2 balls and a bleed in between?”
Well, we discussed that there might be a possibility to achieve this goal and we listed some values and benefits we could offer to our customers with such a short face to face dimension:
The major benefit would be that the new Double Block & Bleed (DBB) Pipeline Ball Valve (Taurus-Series) has the same face-to-face dimension as a single block ball valve. The length of a single block ball valve is specified in ASME B16.10 and APl 6D. As a consequence the valve can easily be installed into an existing pipeline without the need for any re-work on the pipeline.
Continue reading
When people ask me, how tight our valve seats are, I usually get an increased heart rate and I most would like to say “Oh yes, they are very tight”.
But fun aside ….
Please note that I’m not talking about external tightness (stem sealing and body sealing), as there are already several accepted standards like ISO 15848-1, API 622, API 624, etc. which describe the evaluating of the valve design with respect to fugitive emissions. Those standards where driven by the legal environmental requirements and do not consider the internal tightness of the valve.
When talking about valves seat tightness, we have to differ between just a maximum leak rate of a production test and a seat performance test.
Continue reading
Very often our sales people are being asked why to use a DBB Dual Ball Design and not just a Single Ball Design. A Single Ball Design would be much cheaper.
Well, the answer is very simple: Safety and Process Reliability.
Here is a simple infographic to explain the benefit of the Dual Ball Design.
Continue reading
During the last years I recognized, that people sometimes talk about “Fire Safe by Design“. When I was coming across this the first time, I wondered about the meaning of this in detail – Just using metal to metal sealing, graphite sealing or graphite packing?
“Fire safe by Design” is widely used, but to my knowledge there is no common or firm description or rules limiting or qualifying the use of this concept.
Continue reading
I’m facing very often the situation where customers don’t understand the concept/purpose of the DBB functionality. Here is a simple infographic to explain one of the basic applications to protect the workers and the environment.
Continue reading
The European Union and United States and other countries are focusing on tracking fugitive emissions for certain industries. Today, fugitive emissions have become a major challenge to the environment as they are capable of harming the environment and even contribute to global warming.
Continue reading
Much confusion exists over the terminology and the differences between Double Block & Bleed Valves and Double Isolation & Bleed Valves. One point of confusion comes because many people using the term Double Block & Bleed really want a valve with Double Isolation & Bleed capabilities.
Continue reading