ITIS | Valve World 2022: Düsseldorf, Germany

It was great to be back at Valve World 2022 with Luc Vernhes (Velan) to present the new ISO 23632 standard and our ITIS experience regarding valve design performance testing.

ISO, API & EN are the three dominant standard bodies for industrial valves and provide procedures for assessing performance during hydrotesting, fire testing and fugitive emission testing. However, what was missing from these standards was the ability to measure a valve’s durability—from shut to shut—or the total number of mechanical cycles the valves can perform for batch processes.

That is why ISO 23632 was developed: a new standard for assessing seat performance and torque requirements through mechanical and thermal cycles. Valve performance is typically measured during tests, either in production or in a laboratory environment.

Roughly 60% of valves do not meet the design performance test criteria. Some valves fail under the conditions (pressure, temperature, operating cycles) they will face in the field and therefore are not fit for purpose. This should be a cause for concern.