Indu-Tech Isolation Valve Overview
For over 35 years, the Indu-Tech Level Transmitter Isolation Valve has been built to the get job done under the toughest conditions.
History of the Indu-Tech Isolation Valve
The development of the Indu-Tech Pressure Level Transmitter Isolation Valve began in 1980. As in most product developments, it was initiated by the needs of one of our major pulp and paper mill clients. The mill was operating twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. A single scheduled maintenance day per month was the only operating down day, excluding their annual shut down.
Compounding their challenges was the actual mill design – they had an in line process with no auxiliary tanks to go off-line during production if a problem occurred. System reliability was paramount to maintain production performance.
Several issues arose with the existing types of general-use valves being used at the mill. Normally, they were ratchet operated, knife gate valves. These invariably led to corroded handles, leaking seats, large envelope requirements for mounting, and no ability to clear clogged passages during operation.
Indu-Tech was given the task of assessing the mill operations and developing a proposal for the design parameters of an isolation valve for the mill. A primary objective from the start was to design a true “Isolation Valve” that encompassed the solutions to all the challenges associated with pressure level transmitter isolation. The main criteria for the valve design was focused around a simplified on/off control, a thin cross-section to maintain close process-to-transmitter distance, purge capability and compact size.
Several design configurations and models were prototyped and manufactured for on-site testing. An early decision in the process was to go to a ball type valve for several reasons including the compactness of the design. The stem was configured to eliminate all outside mechanisms. This eliminated the possibility of future contamination. The internal stem design was also made blow-out proof to ensure that we would have a compact valve design that would fit in confined spaces and be easy to handle for installation.
Valve design continued to evolve over the testing period and transmitter calibration during normal hours of operation was also addressed. An in-situ Swirl-Purge™ feature was engineered to provide the capability of cleaning the process line between the tank and the transmitter. This feature was a key design parameter as it allows the instrument technicians to immediately flush the process medium and clean a tank during regular scheduled maintenance days versus taking the process off line, which is not always a feasible option. Another major benefit was that a test pump could be applied to the instrument side Swirl-Purge port and the transmitter can be re-calibrated with the valve in the closed position.
The in-situ Swirl-Purge™ feature is unique to the Indu-Tech valve and a big advantage in industrial facilities that run a calibration program within ISO Certification programs on a regular basis.
Indu-Tech believes in a strong customer relationship when solving technical and component problems and continues to work closely with our customers to ensure innovative designs that help solve their problems.