What is valve exercising?

Valve Exercising – a task you really shouldn’t put off.

Before getting into the body of this article, a reminder that a valve, in the loosest sense of the word is a control device used to affect the flow of gases and liquids in a pipe line. The sizes, pressure ratings and applications are almost infinite.

The thing about a valve is that in many applications, they rarely get used. And the operation (opening and closing) often comes about at times of critical usage. i.e. there is high importance associated with the opening or closing e.g. emergency shutdown, ventilation, pressure relief of flood risk.
In those circumstances, reliable operation of the valve is essential.

It’s not uncommon for valves to rest idle for many years, even decades between operation. The valve which has stood un-maintained in that period is very likely to have suffered corrosion. The act of operating that valve will inevitably lead to component failure.

This being the case, a program of periodic maintenance should be established to ensure such valves are in good working order.

With so many valves under the maintenance guidance of a limited number of staff, identifying those valves to be prioritised for valve exercising should be done based on risk. i.e. which valves present the greatest risk in the event of failure. This approach should help heads of operation identify valves for exercising.

And so to the physical task of valve exercising. Opening and closing the valve to check it’s working OK and performing maintenance when required. Commonly gate valves, penstocks and sluice gates will have some form of handwheel or crank handle for their operation.
Often, the bigger the valve, the more effort required to turn it, and the more time it takes to stroke the valve open to closed and back again (or vice versa). Such activity can potentially lead to:

Failure to complete the task.
Operator fatigue.
Strain injury.
Where these risks prevail, organizations can turn to mechanical aids such as valve mules mounted of pick-up trucks or various forms portable valve drive tools.

The location of the valve to be exercised can affect the choice of mechanical aid. Valves can be located below ground in a public highway, or a sluice gate in a water treatment works or river embankment. In these situations, it’s likely there will be no power available so gas/petrol motor or cordless battery valve actuators are ideal.

These devices are highly portable and quick to deploy completing the task of stroking the valve while lubrication is applied to moving parts.
In production facilities such as oil refineries, gas processing plants or paper-pulp plants (to name a few) it’s likely that mains air is available. In these environments, an ATEX Certified Portable Valve Actuator, like those offered by Total Lockout are ideal. The unit can be quickly deployed and the maintenance task significantly reduced in time and operator fatigue.