Take control of your process by staying one step-ahead

Whether you carry out your own control valve maintenance or use a third party, the design of a control valve will influence your strategy and budget. To stay one step-ahead of unexpected maintenance challenges, I’ve put together my top key takeaways when it comes to control valves:

Lead times for replacements

Do your control valves look a bit worse for wear? Perhaps even under performing? If you’re looking at replacing your control valves, but you want to ensure that you can get your system back into service as quickly as possible so that you can get on with your day, then you need quick delivery. Fortunately, I can help you with that as Spirax can deliver within 48 hours on a large selection of control valves. Even better for you, the valves leave the factory already pre-commissioned for applications letting you do a quick installation.

Materials

In my role as Controls Specialist, I’ve been to many sites and you would be surprised (or maybe not?) at how many control valves there are out there in plants where the control valves aren’t actually the best fit for the process conditions. Make your life easier and help yourself by asking whether the materials have been chosen with the process conditions in mind. Is the right grade of stainless steel being used for the control valve internals? Will this stand up to the potential for corrosion and erosion?

Can it be maintained?

On the surface of it a control valve may be advertised as maintainable, in my experience however this is not always the case. For instance, control valves with screwed in seats are notoriously difficult to maintain with the seat sometimes being impossible to remove which can be extremely frustrating as it leaves you with the options to either live with an under performing control valve which is of no benefit to anybody or take the unenviable route of buying a new one.

Ease of maintenance

Maintenance shouldn’t be a massive headache as the design of the control valve should be such that maintenance is straightforward and doesn’t significantly impact on process downtime, which as we both know can cause more than just a headache! If you want total peace of mind when it comes to the maintenance of your control systems, then click here for more information.

Darren Silverthorn, National Controls & Metering Specialist