The old saying in the valve service industry is “price, quality and delivery—you can pick any two.” That saying is still true 175 years after the first steam valves quit working and needed repair. Today, the most important criterion is quality, followed closely by delivery and then trailed by that nagging interloper, price.

If there is one thing those involved in developing and running the Valve Basics program have come to understand, it’s that the term “basics” means different things to different people. VMA has taken that reality into consideration in designing a new format for the Valve Basics course.

In the oil, gas and petrochemical industry, precision control of the flow of product through valves in the system is vital, and modulation of that flow depends on the valve actuator. These critical pieces of equipment must perform reliably and safely under the most extreme conditions: very high and low temperatures, drought or high-rainfall environments, remote situations in deserts or the arctic, and the corrosive effects of chemicals, high humidity or salinity for extended periods. In potentially explosive atmospheres, explosion protection is required; and in some applications, fireproof operation is critical.

Today, much of the information regarding the status of components installed in the field is housed in paper files, posing problems for technicians and engineers. For example, on weather-battered platforms in the North Sea, technicians walk around with “big pieces of paper in the rain and wind,” says Claire Day, a BP operations engineer.1 “It is not an ideal way to work.”