Oliver Valvetek Invest in Continuing Improvement of Testing Facilities

Posted by Oliver Valves Ltd on Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Location
Knutsford, Cheshire

Full Details

Following on from their recent development of an automated PR2 testing system, Oliver Valvetek have further increased their capacity for the pre delivery hydraulic FAT testing of their subsea gate valve range as they strive to achieve a program of continuous improvement.

“Our testing facilities are really important to us,” said Mark Willett, Sales Manager. “We have doubled our sales revenue over the course of the last year and, as orders continue to increase, we realised that our delivery targets were potentially jeopardised by our existing in-house gate valve test rig capacity which was really limited to around 60 valves per month.”

Four state-of-the-art hydraulic FAT test rigs have now been installed, each rig being able to test four gate valves simultaneously. The valves are connected to a manifold via high pressure, quick release hoses. This means that setting up the test is a much more efficient operation than it was under Valvetek’s previous system.

“The four valves are monitored by a single pressure gauge,” explained Mr Willett. “The source of any drop in pressure can be identified by isolating the test subjects one at a time.

“These new test rigs greatly reduce the potential for a bottleneck situation in our production facilities and will increase our output to 240 gate valves per month.”

Oliver Valvetek have identified a further opportunity to house at least four more of the new design test rigs if required which would raise output to beyond 480 tested gate valves every month.

For more information regarding Oliver Valvetek visit their website at www.valves.co.uk or contact them on +44 (0)1565 632636.

Category
Company News Release