Under Pressure: Testing Valves For Safety Critical Installations
- Robert Robinson
- Sep 24
- 2 min read
Designed for the harshest oil, gas, petrochemical, hydrogen and carbon-capture applications – in onshore, offshore and subsea environments – the valves manufactured by BEL Valves play a vital role in ensuring the world stays powered-up.
Chris Williamson, Technical Consultant at the Newcastle-based manufacturer, talks to SOS Magazine about the pressures involved in ensuring these safety critical products can be installed with confidence and will operate without risk of failure.
“Valves play a vital role wherever they’re installed – controlling and isolating fluids and gases at extreme pressures and temperatures.
The most common places you’ll find our valves and actuators are in offshore topside facilities and deep-water production systems; and subsea manifolds and pipelines; Our safety critical isolation valves are used for high-integrity pressure-protection systems (HIPPS), emergency shut-down (ESDV), boarding shutdown (BSDV) and subsea isolation (SSIV).
The installation locations, product type and size – we’ve manufactured valves from ½ inch diameter right up to 56 – differ greatly, but the common ground they all share is that they need to be uncompromisingly reliable as they are there to safeguard operations, people, assets and the environment.
That translates to a lot of pressure on every valve,and so it’s clear that the standards they’re manufactured to need to be exacting to say the very least.
Our valves are engineered to comply with a variety of requirements, which can comprise BS, EN, API and ISO series’ standards (e.g., API 6A, 6D, 6DSS, 17D; ISO 15848, 10497); UK Pressure Equipment Safety Regulations (PESR); the European Pressure Equipment Directive (PED); relevant regional specifications such as NORSOK; and any client / end user-specific requirements.
To achieve this, BEL Valves’ valves undergo a tailored sequence of qualification and production tests depending on end use and function, which can comprise:
Hydrostatic testing;
Gas testing;
Fugitive-emissions testing;
Endurance / cycle testing;
Hyperbaric cycling;
Temperature testing;
Fire testing.
In addition, advanced non-destructive examination (radiography, ultrasonics, PMI, dye-penetrant and more) supports each stage of manufacture. Along with safety integrity level (SIL) capability assessments for our safety critical valves and actuators.
The world though doesn’t stand still and so the onus is on the manufacturers to keep pace with technological developments and changing industry requirements. The shift towards Hydrogen, CO₂ and other low-carbon fluids is certainly the key focus and is one that is being discussed amongst various industry working groups – the majority of which we participate fully in. The aim of them all being to identify and develop new working practices and drive standardisation – ensuring all new standards are created by those who can rightfully lay claim to being experts in the field.
At present, the creation of valves that deliver greater control of seat leakage and tight shut-off performance; fugitive emissions; fire safety; and metallic and non-metallic material qualification is high on everyone’s agendas.
What’s certain during this period of change is that new standards will be developed and ratified, new products engineered and existing ones modified – ensuring the safety critical operation of the valves used in these high value, high importance installations is never compromised.”
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