The Maintenance and Management of Valves

The importance of maintenance and management
In order to ensure the long-term continuous and normal operation of production in a factory, all equipment and devices must be regularly maintained and strictly managed. A valve is an indispensable component that connects the equipment and devices and exerts their control performance. Therefore, issues of comprehensive maintenance and management should be considered to prevent failures, manage them in advance and avoid accidents before they occur so that accidental interruption of equipment can be avoided. In a continuous operation production site, regular maintenance and inspection of its equipment and devices will cost considerable expenses and manpower.

 
Safety management of valves
Generally speaking, the safety management of valves refers to the safety management system, rectification of operating specifications (standards), and educational training. It also means that these aspects have been well established and put into practice.
 
Judging from the investigation of accidents, the cause is the issue of safety management such as improper selection of valves, installation, operation, and maintenance. Therefore, it is very important to strengthen the education and training of employees. From the perspective of accident prevention, human psychology and ergonomics are also factors of safety management. Therefore, comprehensive management issues including these must be considered.
 
Daily inspection of the valve
In a continuously operating factory, when a failure occurs and the operation is interrupted, not only can't the valve be disassembled and repaired, but also it is difficult to implement. However, if the abnormal situation of the valve can be discovered in advance and certain measures are taken to solve the small problems in time, it will not lead to a major accident. For this reason, the daily inspection of the valve is very necessary and must be paid attention to.
The daily inspection items of the valve in operation mainly include the following:
⑴ Check whether there is leakage at the packing gland.
⑵ Check whether there is leakage on the flange's sealing surface.
⑶ Check whether there is leakage on the valve's surface.
⑷ Check whether the bolts and nuts are loose.
⑸ Check whether the handwheel is damaged.
⑹ Check whether the insulation material is damaged.
⑺ Confirm the instruction of opening or closing.
⑻ Check whether or not there are other abnormal situations.
 
Abnormal conditions inside the valve are difficult to check during operation, but other harmful effects that are unfavorable to the valve are described below. They must also be checked at the same time.
⑴ Check whether or not the pipe vibrates.
⑵ Check whether or not the protective pipe swings.
⑶ Check whether the bracket of the protective pipe corrodes.
⑷ Whether there is overcooling or overheating partially.
⑸ Check the indicating values of pressure gauges, vacuum gauges, and other instruments.
⑹ Whether there is any leakage in the connection part of the pipeline.
⑺ Whether there is a water hammer and the running sound is normal.
⑻ Check the operation of main equipment such as compressors and pumps.
 
If the above items are fine, the equipment can generally operate safely. However, sudden accidents can also happen, and there must be predictions. While not neglecting the daily inspection and maintenance, it is more important to prepare for emergency response in the event of a failure.