Around the nation, companies and businesses have found ways to help with the unique challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacturers have supplied needed equipment to meet health care needs, reached out in various ways to support front-line workers and found ways to provide what people in their areas of the country need. For example, distillers are repurposing their production lines to make hand sanitizer. Apparel makers are sewing cloth masks and protective gowns. Automobile plants are making ventilators.

Principles built around the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have guided the automation industry’s rapid adoption and mainstreaming of many production systems. These systems are aligned with the concepts for digital transformation—including intelligent, networked production systems and components that leverage smarter information and communications technology.

When it comes to valves, “beauty is only skin-deep” is often a true statement. Since Superman and his X-ray eyes don’t really exist, there is no way to verify the quality of a valve or valve component by just looking at it. To discover defects we can’t see with the naked eye, we have to use principles of physics and chemistry to delve deeper into component quality. To do that, we often call upon the techniques of nondestructive examination (NDE).

Engineering actuated on/off valve assemblies (AVs) has always carried challenges. One of the most acute of those challenges is the discipline gap between the valve and the actuation parts of the assembly when the valve is part of the piping package while instrumentation provides the automation. The issue is that assemblies are not currently treated as “engineered” items; they are often produced by slapping the actuator on the old (or new) valve specified by the piping requirements without much understanding of the specifics of the interactions between valve and actuator connections through the drive train (coupling). A similar challenge in control valve engineering was addressed several decades ago through the evolution of responsibilities, practices and vendor participation. It will be some time before the world knows if something similar will happen with assemblies.