Serious question, did you know the failure rate on some older pressure vessel relief valves is way higher than I thought?

I was reading an old industry safety bulletin from 2018 and it said valves from a specific manufacturer batch had a 15% failure rate in tests after 5 years. I always figured they were basically bulletproof until they popped. Anyone else run into this and have a good replacement brand they trust?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph_lewis9225d ago

Wait, is a 15% failure rate in testing actually that bad in the real world? I mean, those tests are super strict, way worse than normal conditions. @emeryking has a point about planned swaps, but sometimes I wonder if we're just replacing stuff because a bulletin says to, not because it's truly unsafe. I've seen valves from that "bad" batch hold pressure fine for years past their test date. Maybe the bigger issue is just making sure they get tested on time, not that the old ones are all ticking bombs.

stella_shah8925d ago

Remember reading that bulletin and it made me check all our old tags at my last plant lol. We found a bunch from that same bad batch just sitting there, which was kinda scary. Ended up swapping them out for Crosby valves across the board during the next shutdown. They cost more but the maintenance guys said they were way easier to test and reset.

emeryking25d ago

Yeah, that's the smart move right there. Finding them before they fail is the whole point of those bulletins, but so many places just file them away and forget. Switching everything over during a planned shutdown is the only way to do it without causing a huge mess. The extra cost up front is nothing compared to the downtime and risk you just avoided. Plus, if maintenance actually likes working on them, that means the job gets done right and on schedule. Makes you wonder how many other plants are still running those old tags because nobody wanted to spend the money.