Piping Specialties and PSI Controls

Piping Specialties was founded in 1975 with the mission of providing specialty valves and mechanical products and unsurpassed customer service to industrial users throughout the Northeast. Over the years our company has experienced steady, sustainable growth in both our customer base and product offerings. With offices in Danvers, MA and Portland, ME, we are geographically well-positioned to serve all of the Northeast.

PSI delivers our products and services through our 3 operating divisions:

• Piping Specialties: valves and mechanical specialties.
• PSI Controls: automated valves and process instrumentation & controls.
• PSI Services: valve automation, valve and instrument repair, calibration, and turnkey installation and field services.

Conval Clampseal Valve Seat Blueing/Lapping Instructions

Conval Clampseal^® Valves are much easier to renew than anything else on the market. This video is sixth in a series demonstrating how to service Clampseal valves.

https://psi-team.com
800-223-1468

Conval Clampseal Valve Seat Refacing/Resurfacing Instructions

Valve Seat Refacing/Resurfacing instructions for Conval Clampseal valve.

Conval Clampseal® Valves are much easier to renew than anything else on the market. This video is fifth in a series demonstrating how to service Clampseal valves.

https://psi-team.com
800-223-1468

Increased Cycle Count Improves Operational Efficiency in Slurry Ore Mining Operations

Challenge

Long distance slurry pipelines for moving mineral concentrates over various elevations and long distances is often more economical than trucking or rail due to topography constraints and environmental concerns. To capitalize on these investments, the pipe sizes are maximized. Therefore, large-bore dependable valves are vital to the success of the slurry pipelines.

Under the same process conditions,
the competitor’s valve
underperformed and required
frequent maintenance due to erosion.

Three months after the main choke and choke loop press letdown stations were commissioned at a large copper-gold-molybdenum mining operation, ongoing repairs were required for all eight competitor valves. Valves in this position were expected to perform for at least 180 cycles without repair. These failures and leakage problems were caused by the valves’ integral seat design, which form a gap between the ball and seat allowing particles to enter the sealing area in the reverse pressure. This problem cost this customer an average of $800,000 to $1M per year in maintenance repairs.

Solution

Even with MOGAS’ 40-year history of successfully engineering large valves for the slurry transport market, MOGAS proposed to lease a test valve to be placed alongside a series of competitor valves.
In January 2013, a 36-inch, ASME 300 Class model CST-1 valve was installed in the  first loop of the control station. In this model’s proven bi-directional seat design, the seat maintains 100% contact with the ball in both normal and reverse pressures. This prevents build-up behind the downstream seat and ensures evacuation of solids around upstream seat during cycling.

Results

After one year the MOGAS
valve performed 818 successful
cycles—over four times the
cycle count required in this application.

One year later during decommission, the MOGAS valve was inspected. It had performed 818 cycles; far more than the 180 cycle count required in this application. The MOGAS valve was then removed and installed outside the loop, in the main choke station replacing the competitor valve, where it further performed 215 cycles for the next two years.

After three years of continuous operation, the MOGAS valve had successfully performed 1033 cycles. On inspection, the ball and seat were in good repair, so only the gasket and packing box were replaced and the valve was put back in to service.

Download the PDF of this case study from the PSI website here.

For more information, contact Piping Specialties, Inc. by calling 800-223-1468 or visit https://psi-team.com.

Reprinted with permission from MOGAS.

The Important Role of Valve Actuators

Actuator being positioned on large ball valve.
(Piping Specialties)

Valves are essential to modern industry. The prevalence of valves in engineering, process control, and manufacturing across the world is astounding, and each valve application requires it's own performance standard. Product safety, quality, and consistency is dependent on the proper selection of valves, whether ball, butterfly, gate or globe. Along with proper selection of the valve type, selecting the proper valve operator is critical for controlling the process, assuring quality, and protecting equipment and personnel.

Actuators are powered mechanisms that position valves between open and closed states; the actuators are controllable either by manual operators, or as part of an automated system where the actuator responds to a remote control signal. The valve actuator is as important to the valve, as the valve is to the industry in which it functions.

Thanks to actuators, multiple valves can be controlled in a process system in a coordinated fashion; imagine if, in a large industrial environment, engineers had to physically adjust every valve via a hand wheel or lever! It is completely impractical from a logistical and economic perspective. Actuators enable automation to be applied to valve operation throughout the facility.

Valve actuators serve as the interface between the control intelligence and the physical movement of the valve. The most obvious advantage of valve automation is risk mitigation, where, as long as the system is functioning correctly, critical calamities in either environmental conditions or to a facility can be pre-empted and quickly prevented.

Rack and pinion actuators.
(Flo-Tite)

Regardless of its power source, be it electricity, hydraulic fluid, air pressure, or other, all valve actuators share a singular purpose; to produce linear or rotary motion under the command of a control source. Depending on the design and settings of the actuator, valves can be closed, fully open, or somewhere in-between. Modern actuation technology allows for remote indication and control of valve position, as well as other diagnostic and operational information.

Pneumatic actuators utilize air pressure as the motive force which changes the position of a valve. Hydraulic actuators depend on non-compressible liquids under pressure to provide the motive force. Electric actuators, either motor driven or solenoid operated, rely on electric power to change valve position.

As automation continues to advance throughout every industry, manual valve operation makes less and less sense. Component integration, lower cost and universally accepted valve communications systems are becoming the norm. Simple, seldomly operated, basic valves are now outfitted with inexpensive automation packages that allow them to be monitored as part of the entire process control system.

Automated valves ready for shipment.

Thanks to their versatility, reliability, and technological advances, valve actuators provide safe and repeatable operation in critical processes all over the world.  Just as industries are the backbones of societies, valves are key building blocks to industrial processes, with actuators ensuring both safe and precise operation.

For information on valve automation, contact Piping Specialties by calling 800-223-1468 or by visting https://psi-team.com.

Conval Clampseal Valve Chamber REPACKING Instructions

Bonnet Chamber REPACKING instructions for Conval Clampseal valve.

Conval Clampseal® Valves are much easier to renew than anything else on the market. This video is fourth in a series demonstrating how to service Clampseal valves.

https://psi-team.com
800-223-1468

Conval Clampseal Valve Chamber Unpacking Instructions

Bonnet chamber unpacking instructions for Conval Clampseal valve.

Conval Clampseal® Valves are much easier to renew than anything else on the market. This video is third in a series demonstrating how to service Clampseal valves.

https://psi-team.com
800-223-1468