Technical Report

Industrial valves give life to every industrial process in our modern society. They are items of pressure equipment and the industry’s collective goal must be to ensure that they are safe, as well as providing reliable and cost-effective performance.

The BVAA is recognised worldwide as a centre of excellence for valve expertise and makes a major contribution to those key safety and reliability goals. We provide solutions to members on technical issues and exert influence to the benefit of members and the wider community such as Government, end users and customers.

This ability was fundamentally important in 2019 as we helped our members and Government with advice regarding the impact of Brexit.

We contribute our expertise to:
1. The development of European and International standards,

2. Providing advice and information to members and Government on issues concerning the Legal Responsibilities and Essential Safety Requirements of the range of products our members make,

3. World class training in all aspects of valves and actuators.

Standards Activity
The vast majority of standards activity originates from European and International Standards fora. Through my role as Chairman of BSI PSE/18, I pass on relevant information through Monthly standards activity reports to members of the Valve and Actuator WGs. The ‘key word’ column within allows members to efficiently find those activities that are of interest to them.

Hot Spots are another way we keep members updated on developments. These cover EN/ISO standards published, EN/ ISO New Work Item Proposals, EN/ISO Draft Standards issued for public comment. The Hot Spot format enables the recipient to immediately determine the relevance to their business and any action that they should take.

2019 has seen the continuation of two significant new work items, in CEN “Industrial valves – Functional safety of safetyrelated valves and actuators” and in ISO “Industrial valves — Design Validation - Type testing of valves.”

BVAA experts attend these meetings on behalf of all the members, contributing to the development of both standards and ensuring that the UK industry’s voice is represented.

In addition to my own standards work, Mike Gray (Emerson) continues to be responsible for all Safety Device activity at both PSE/18 and ISO/TC185, and similarly Peter Hirst (Rotork) takes care of the Actuator standards activities as Chairman of PSE/18/5 and UK’s principal expert to both CEN and ISO.

Peter in particular has reason to celebrate 2020 as two important new standards will shortly be published, namely BS EN ISO 22109 Industrial valves — Gearbox for valves and BS ISO 22153 Electric actuators for industrial valves — General requirements. The former began life as a BVAA Code of Practice. I am very grateful for their contributions.

I would also like to congratulate Peter Dix on his appointment as Chairman of BSI PSE/18/1, the sub-committee that is responsible for all the basic standards developed at CEN and ISO. David Martin as Chairman of PSE/18/4, the sub-committee responsible for control valve standards.

It is excellent news for us all that these two very knowledgeable experts will represent our interests on these important committees.

Directives
A lot of time in the last year was devoted to informing members and Government officials of the potential negative impact of a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

In the short term we will reach agreement with the EU that will ensure that all our existing certification and that of our suppliers will remain valid. Hopefully at the end of the next 11 months of negotiations that will be the long term position. We will monitor developments and keep members informed.

The issue of the definition of actuated valves as a machine or partly completed machine remains unresolved and we are waiting for a revision of the Directive when the text will be clarified so that the meaning is clear.

Technical Expert Group Activity
‘Technical Expert Groups’ are formed for specific tasks usually supporting the development of an EN or ISO standard. They comprise small groups of experts for the specific topic and are time-limited.

The output from the Fire Testing TEG is being incorporated into a revision of ISO 10497. Fraser Maitland of Worley is chairing ISO TC153/WG14, the responsible work group, and shortly they will issue an ISO/DIS for public comment.

This is an excellent example of how the BVAA contributes to the continuous improvement of vital European and International standards.

The new EN work item to develop a standard “Industrial valves – Functional safety of safety-related valves and actuators” is being followed by the Safety Integrity Level TEG under the leadership of Paul Reeve.

The standard will define procedures and methods with which all relevant components of automated industrial valve packages can be evaluated according to the rules of IEC 61508 Parts 1, 2 and 4 to 7 in order to integrate them into a safety instrumented system (SIS).

It provides a method to determine all relevant factors, associated with the product, to be fully taken into account and thereby meet the specific needs of users of the product.

This is a long-term project and three meetings have been held in 2019 to discuss the comments on the initial draft. It is hoped that a prEN will be available for the end of 2020. I am very grateful to Paul’s, and BVAA’s, huge commitment to this project.

Training
Our training courses are technically up-to-date, interesting and easy to listen to. They are presented by experts with an unrivalled knowledge of the specific topic. The majority of our courses are approved by the CPD Certification Service.

Courses that are presented at the user or member location are routinely tailored to meet the specific needs of that organisation.

Thoughts for 2020
This is my fifth Annual report. I enjoy enormously the work of Technical Consultant. I am extremely grateful for the support that I have received from all the members of the Valve and Actuator Working Groups. Their combined expertise is without equal and makes the job possible. I am also very grateful for the support I receive from everyone in the office in Banbury. They ensure an efficient and effective communication with our members, those that attend our training courses and those that need our expertise.

In June 2020 I will be handing over to Peter Dix as Technical Consultant. I still expect to continue to support Peter with standards activity for some time to come and also to continue to be a member of the BVAA training team.

Published: 18th February 2020