Conducting valve maintenance within a set budget and timeframe as per schedule is not easy. Factors such as skill of the workforce and your approach to valve maintenance shape the maintenance schedules and impact plant downtime. Considering these three big ‘A’ s can help you address both human as well as mechanical challenges in valve maintenance.
Considering three big ‘A’ s for valve maintenance.
Awareness
Build awareness among your employees about best practices in valve maintenance. When employees operate industrial equipment with little to no training, it can lead to increase in workplace injuries and inadequate repairs, which further drive up costs. Train your employees in using the latest maintenance and repair systems. Ensure that they have the necessary tools needed to repair and maintain valves onsite.
Ease of operations and maintenance for humans is the prime consideration of valve design and manufacturing at IPC. To know how human factors play a role in valve operations, explore our blog on Human Factor Engineering in valves.
Approach
Valve maintenance generally uses three common approaches
Reactive approach:
Here, valve maintenance comes as a response after a problem has occurred in the network. Serious leaks or failure of the valve to stroke often calls for quick reactive approach.
Preventive approach:
This approach involves routine checkups and maintenance of the network as per a schedule. Preventive maintenance ensures a drastic reduction of your maintenance costs over time and avoids a number of breakdown and accidents in the operation.
Predictive approach:
In predictive maintenance, the performance of the valve is monitored using various diagnostic equipment. The data gathered about the valves is then used to identify when the valve needs maintenance. Data gathered about the performance of the valve is critical in predictive maintenance. To know more about how data is becoming the key to cost-effective valve maintenance, explore our blog on Data Driven Maintenance.
Adherence
A number of topics related to valve maintenance are covered in the manufacturer’s maintenance manual. Adherence to this manual will help reduce maintenance cost and prolong the life of valves. Many companies take the valve manufacturer on board during events such as annual shutdowns. It helps resolve key issues regarding availability of valve components, especially for older valves.
Conclusion
A combination of various factors from humans to machines should be considered for maintenance and repair of valves. Based on the nature of your application, and specific requirements of your organization, you could draft a maintenance philosophy and process to keep your valves performing at optimum level for many years. At IPC, we work to resolve issues related to availability of key valve components and valves for replacement. We provide durable, reliable and standardized valves to businesses around India in a short lead time. To know more about our transparent manufacturing practices and product quality, get in touch with us at evalve@ipcvalves.com.