After-sales service has many definitions starting with the broad view that it’s all the help and information a company provides to its customers after they have bought a product. A narrower definition would be offering periodic maintenance or repair of equipment during and after a warranty period. This article focuses on that narrower definition to provide an outlook for the future of maintenance and repair in the valve industry.

Because of the critical function of main steam isolation valves (MSIVs) in nuclear applications, keeping these valves running at optimum performance levels is vital. This article covers what a good service team will do to ensure that happens.

This article outlines the challenges of lifting large valve assemblies weighing several tons and illustrates the industrial rigging equipment and lifting operations typically used for these valves. The purpose of this article is not to provide comprehensive training on rigging, but instead to increase awareness of the special risks and care required to safely perform lifting operations for large valves.

Gaskets are near the bottom of the food chain of valve components; trim, body materials and packing seem to get a lot more press. But gaskets serve an important purpose: They are the static seal between non-moving valve components—usually the body and bonnet. Without gaskets, those two (and sometimes three) body or body/bonnet parts would have great difficulty sealing after assembly. It’s important for maintenance and repair personnel to understand what gaskets are and how they work because so many of those gaskets will need to be replaced or repaired.