The Maintenance of Plug Valves
Plug valve maintenance is essential to any damage prevention program as it assures the proper functioning of a pipeline. After all, if your plug valves do not turn independently and close properly, you have a bit or no control of your crude oil or natural gas pipeline. The undermentioned few points of grease gun recommendations, will ensure safety and make the factory workers’ jobs simple and more efficient, therefore decreasing overall operating expenses.
1 – Make a valve system map.
Make a system map that presents the location of all your valves. Give numbers to the valves on the map, and then make a guidebook that shows the Plug valve type, size, location description, and related notes. Some companies already demand this, in that case, verify the information and add unlisted valves. In the event of an emergency, this system map may save lives and time.
2 – Keep the correct grease gun fittings.
Various valve styles often require separate grease or lubrication fittings. For example, a plug valve may need a lube stick injection fitting or a “tall” giant button head fitting. These are sometimes known as “lube screws” and have either an NPSM thread down or a coarse bolt thread down.
A perfect maintenance exercise is to have available spare fittings of each type in your toolkit.
3 – Lubricate the plug of the Plug Valve.
The main seal in older lubricate plug valves is metal-to-metal between the plug and valve body. When pressure is the employee to the valve through the lubrication fitting, it makes up in the lube sealant reservoir under the plug, eventually “lifting” the plug and forcing it away from the metal-to-metal seal. At this moment, the lube sealant slides up and around the plug, lubricating it and forming an inner seal between the plug and the valve body.
4 – Use the best lube sealant for the application.
Valve lubricants must play the role of valve sealants, and sealants must also perform as lubricants to do their job correctly. Due to their dual purposes, we generally refer to them as lube sealants.
To determine the best lube sealant for your application, you should keep the following points:
- Determine the temperature range of the lube sealant
- The lube sealant will be faced the pressure
- Find out if there is any CO2 or H2S present. If so, in what concentrations?
- Find out if there is any water present. If so, how much?
- Check whether there are any other contaminants that cause concern.
- Are there injected chemicals that monitor paraffin or other unwanted particles present?
Aira Euro Automation is your best industrial quality valve supplier in India. We have a wide range of industrial valves like Ball valves, Plug valves, Butterfly valves, Control valves, high pressure valves, Safety Valves, and more. Aira supplies its products all over pan India and also exports to more than 20 countries around the world. They have served major companies and government units like BHEL, IFFCO, GAIL, ONGC, Indian Oil, and GSFC.