Quality valves worldwide in weeks
The Forgotten Valves
Problem: Replacement of 2 pieces 12”-900 LBS Swing Check Valves, Renewable Seat, Hard facing on both Disc and Seat, BW ends in F316 material. High pressure (Nitrogen) gas test required with zero leakage.
Time: Spring 2009
Location: South Pacific
BSM Valves was asked if they could produce these within a timeframe of two weeks.
A team was called together for a meeting, the agenda:
- Do we have a Drawing?
- Can we find SS Forgings stocked with one of our Forge Masters?
Diameter approx 40" with a Length of 48", 2 pieces with delivery
in 2 or 3 days?
- Can we meet the quality requirements to project specifications?
- Can we machine such Valves in a week? As the raw materials
had to be solid, this meant that approx 800 Kg of material had to
be chipped.
- Do we have the tools to finish sealing areas, assemble the Valves and
test them?
Within half a day the answers came in:
- No Drawing so we had to start from scratch, but a raw sketch was drawn
up to verify the final sizes of the raw materials to Purchasing.
- Forgings were found with one of our German Forge Masters and an option
was taken on them.
- Project requirements were checked and could be met.
- Planning for machining capacity was made and decided was to do "24-7
in case of order because delivery schedules on other projects were not
to be frustrated.
- Special Tools for testing had to be produced.
Decided was that all signs were green for Sales to quote the Valves with the requested lead-time of 2 weeks. The quote was with the client within a working day of the client’s request to quote. It took the client a day to evaluate this both technically and commercially. Two days after the initial contacts on Monday the Purchase Order came in! The clock started ticking: 2 weeks to go now. Deadline was Friday at midnight for the valves to leave for
A project team was formed to guide this project to a good end.
Options on raw materials were executed before anything else.
Engineering started to work on the GA Drawing and issued it to the client within a day for approval. The client approved of the design the next day.
After approval, again within a day, all other materials were ordered by the Purchasing department.
Wednesday late afternoon the raw materials for the valve Bodies arrived at the BSM works and after inspection the machine shop started production of the Valves. Calculated was that machining of all the Valve parts would take a full week. In the days that followed all other raw materials came in and all parts were taken immediately into production. The project team met on a daily base to discuss progress and see to it that all schedules were met.
After a week of machining, right on schedule, the first Valve Body came out of the machine shop to undergo QC and NDE. Thursday morning all parts were at Assembly where the Seat was positioned and welded in, followed by NDE. By Thursday noon, 36 hrs prior to the deadline, the Seat was in the process of finishing and the rest of the Valve was sub-assembled.
Late afternoon the first Valve was ready for testing. A Hydrostatic Shell test, a Hydrostatic Seat test, a Low pressure Gas test and a High pressure Gas test. All tests were to be performed with extended test times. All tests met their requirements and at 22.00 hrs the first valve was ready for cleaning and packing, 26 hrs prior to the Deadline. At the same time the second valve was released by QC for assembly. The same routine was followed to finish the job. Friday 15.00 hrs the valve was at its last test, the High Pressure Nitrogen Shell test where leakage was found on the Body seal. The Seal had to be replaced and all tests had to be done again, 9 hrs prior to the deadline. Replacing the Gasket took more then 4 hrs, it was 19.00 hrs, 5 hrs prior to the deadline. The test sequence was started again, this time with the required result. The time was now 21.00 hrs, 3 hrs to the deadline. Disassembly of test equipment, cleaning and packing took an other 2 ½ hours. In the mean time a truck had arrived to pick up the Valves. At 23.45 hrs. the valves started their journey Down Under, 15 minutes to spare before the deadline…….!
