Scheduled and emergency valve maintenance

How high quality aftercare is all part of the service at Koso Kent Introl

It’s highly likely that at some stage in its life, a control, choke or rotary valve will need to be either repaired or replaced. Although this might be during a scheduled shutdown, there might be an occasion when a valve fails in service, and until it can be fixed, this might mean a costly period of down-time.

Martin Broadbent, Spares and Service Manager at Koso Kent Introl (KKI) knows all about the challenges and frustrations that such emergency situations can create. “The failure of a single valve can result in a whole operation grinding to a halt. Our clients need to be sure that they can be up and running again as soon as possible, with no risk of the failure happening again any time soon.”

Service
Martin heads up the aftercare team at KKI, and supports the resolution of such incidents, week in, week out. His team is ready to travel the world at a moment’s notice, to tackle the problem valve on-site and get the process running again with minimum delay. Members of the team have travelled from their UK base in Brighouse, West Yorkshire to client sites as far afield as Australia and Alaska - and every point in-between.

In one notable incident, following the failure of a valve on an offshore oil rig, the client had initially estimated a 9 days’ unproductive downtime; Martin recalls that the team worked round the clock to ensure the job was completed within one week. He is adamant that no other service provider could have turned the job around so quickly and to such a high standard.
But life within the service team isn’t all about crisis management. Supporting scheduled shutdown programmes is a core activity, too. In fact, this month the team is busy supporting the maintenance, repair and upgrade of over 100 valves from one of its key clients during a three-week shutdown programme. In a project run with military precision in conjunction with the client, the service team is focused on delivering the valves back in ‘as new’ condition, on time and within budget.

Spares
Of course, spares are available for all the valves in the KKI range as well as associated actuators and instruments. OEM guarantees and certificates of conformance are supplied as a matter of course to give clients absolute certainty about the quality of spares they are receiving. Items are delivered anywhere in the world via a fast-track service and in eco-friendly packaging.

Total quality
Martin is justifiably proud of the fact that the KKI philosophy of total quality is as embedded into aftercare as it is in the design and production of new valves. He explains: “The two teams, service and manufacturing, often work together on aftercare client challenges. This combination of expertise ensures quality, reduces risk, controls cost and can provide a much faster turnaround than could be expected elsewhere.”

KKI’s longevity certainly helps in the delivery of an exemplary service. Records exist for every valve ever produced and serviced in the factory’s 40-year history. This unique record of the life of a valve, along with the service conditions in which it is operating, means that the team knows exactly what they are dealing with before they begin to service it. There can be no more reassuring fact to a client looking for a safe pair of hands.

If you would like advice on any aspect of servicing or upgrading your valves, the KKI aftercare team is only a phone call away. Their world-class expertise is available on jobs of any size, in any location. Don’t wait for a crisis to happen before getting in touch!

Koso Kent Introl, Tel: 01484 710311
Website: www.kentintrol.com

Published: 31st March 2010