Industrial Automation Magazine India

Valve Management System

Published on : Tuesday 30-11--0001

By preventing incorrect valve line-up with the installation of a Valve Management System, valve operation specialist Sofis has ensured that a well-known tank storage provider is not exposed to potential costs of €160,000 a year or more. “Everyone in the oil and gas industry is aware of the risk of incorrect valve line-ups,” commented the customer’s assistant technical manager. “I really appreciate the help of the whole Sofis team in finding us a good solution to accommodate our needs and getting this project ready on time.” History shows that, during tank storage operations, incidents of miscommunication or accidental operation of the wrong valve(s) can lead to the wrong blend of oil product being loaded into an oil tanker, resulting in product contamination. The clean-up operation following such an incident – labour, waste creation and disposal, cleaning and transport – allied to the indirect costs of environmental impact, tank terminal downtime and damage to the corporate reputation would have led to the company paying a minimum of €160,000 for each incident. Having identified the potential risk and cost associated with incorrect valve line-ups, the tank storage provider was looking for a tailor-made solution. By combining valve interlocks and a key management system from Sofis with its existing distributed control system (DCS), the customer has eliminated the risk of incorrect valve line-ups. Personnel can no longer accidentally operate the wrong valves, nor overlook any necessary valves. The DCS manages manual valve operations, and the status information of these manual valves is continuously monitored from the control room. In addition, personnel can now perform multiple valve line-up procedures simultaneously, while valve changeovers are carried out more efficiently. Netherlocks Safety Systems and Smith Flow Control have merged. Two global leaders in the field of valve operations have joined forces and move on as Sofis, which is a subsidiary of Halma, the leading safety, health and environmental technology group. Nitul Sanghvi, Area Sales Manager – India and South East Asia. Mobile: +91 98795 59345. Email: [email protected]