Valve Working Group

“I was very fortunate to take over from Peter Burnett (Heap & Partners) at the beginning of the year as chairman of the Valve Working Group...”

It continues to be well supported by members to the point of reaching meeting room capacity it seems on virtually every occasion. So it was that well-attended meetings were held at Alco Valves, Brighouse in March and BEL Valves, Newcastle in October.

The meetings were preceded by the now well-established social event on the evening before the session. This gives us a rare opportunity to network and discuss current affairs – not normally part of the working group’s main discussions.

This year’s hot topics for discussion were the oil price and the effects of Brexit on trade, European standards and directives. Both working group meetings finished with in-depth factory tours showcasing Alco Valves’ and BEL’s state of the art manufacturing, assembly and test facilities.

An area of growth and focus has been on the Technical Expert Groups (TEGs). This year TEGs have been active in the following areas; butterfly valves, fugitive emissions, SILs, Subsea and diaphragm valves.

These TEGs are at various stages of maturity and comprise a small number of experts interested in the TEG’s subject matter. The TEGs have proved a good focal point to look at short or long-term industry challenges, developments, new standards and related issues. Further TEGs have been proposed for API 20 series and ISO 8000 – any member interested in participating should contact BVAA.

Martin Greenhalgh – BVAA’s Technical Consultant – has throughout the meetings provided in-depth updates and commentary for industrial valve standards. Similarly, Ron Strang has done the same with regard to the PED and ATEX directives.

API activity has been very prolific of late, with the following standards being revised or published; API 6DSS 3rd Edition, API 6DSSX 1st Edition, API 6A 21st Edition and API 17D 3rd Edition.

BVAA members have been active on both API 6DSS and 6DSSX task groups with support funding being made available for travel from the BVAA.

Further activity has been based upon the API 20 series of standards, with API 20A 2nd Edition, published August 2017, and API 20E 2nd Edition, Carbon and Alloy Steel Bolting released on February 14th, 2017.

Our first meeting of the 2018 year is planned for March 7th at Rotork, Leeds.

Published: 26th March 2018