BigInch,
thank you!
It is also interesting what you and JLSeagull say; in particular about the different requirements coming from the same Company. If that may be justified for an End User by the different service conditions in the different locations of the plants, that is less justifiable from different projects WorkGroups of the same Engineering Company dealing with the same application (
i.e. cryogenic and/or low temperature service, hazardous fluids, etc.).
On the other hand, some big Groups try to centralize the specification and qualification work in a single Business Unit: this is the case of
Shell and
Shell Global Solutions International (
for example.
But unfortunately, as far as I can see from a valve Manufacturer standpoint, this one is not an example to imitate!! In fact, it seems that the information exchange between
SGSI and the
Shell plants all over the world is very poor;
SGSI Representatives seem to be Inspectors interested in the witnessing fee, more than Engineers with specific technical expertise about valves; they seem keen on the figures written on paper (standards and spec's) only and far from the down-to-earth plant reality; hence it is not strange to see how every new or old
Shell project worldwide adopts its own rules with little or no regard to
SGSI authority.
So a valve Manufacturer may be forced to carry out a long and expensive campaign of type tests having little or no technical meaning with reference to the actual service conditions and to generously pay
SGSI for witnessing them, without any guarantee about the return on such investment!! ;-)
In my opinion, the approach sometimes adopted by other big Companies (
BASF,
Siemens,
Bayer, etc.) is more correct: they just ask to provide one or more valves for a certain service and then they perform all the test they want, in the Laboratory and/or on the plant.
So they should avoid to run after exaggerated (sometimes infeasible) performances just because they're required by a piece of paper; they may simply choose the best valve in the market for that service!
Sorry if I went a little off-topic; I hope the discussion remains interesting anyway...
Thanks and Regards,
'NGL