How frequent a leak from a valve gland should be considered as acceptable?
Same valve having gland leaks in 5 to 6 years... should that be considered as a bad actor?
Valve gland leaks
Re: Valve gland leaks
I would recommend to treat this subject based upon the criticality.
The valves in critical services should be studied with the recommendations provided in the manual, OEM supplied documentation. There are instances where the mention of gland servicing is clearly available and is required to be followed as-is; which most of the maintenance groups do not plan. Most of the maintenance performed is on corrective side or to have emissions /specialized surveys /data analysis (maintenance record based) to plan during the available outages to perform preventive maintenance or fix which was temporarily addressed during operation.
The valves in critical services should be studied with the recommendations provided in the manual, OEM supplied documentation. There are instances where the mention of gland servicing is clearly available and is required to be followed as-is; which most of the maintenance groups do not plan. Most of the maintenance performed is on corrective side or to have emissions /specialized surveys /data analysis (maintenance record based) to plan during the available outages to perform preventive maintenance or fix which was temporarily addressed during operation.
Re: Valve gland leaks
Even OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM) standard (29 CFR 1910.119) indirectly drive the need for PMI by emphasizing hazard reduction and safe operating practices. This includes ensuring proper material verification. One of the key component to ensure mechanical integrity.
Our materials & inspection team takes a lot of credit here through instituting their procedure that none of the critically alloyed material at plant has not been accepted & installed without getting documented positive material identification.
Auditors are keen to check the application of this procedure at site during the audits linked to process safety & mechanical integrity.
Our materials & inspection team takes a lot of credit here through instituting their procedure that none of the critically alloyed material at plant has not been accepted & installed without getting documented positive material identification.
Auditors are keen to check the application of this procedure at site during the audits linked to process safety & mechanical integrity.